Carly Rae Jepsen and Lena Dunham Team Up for ’10 Things I Hate About You’ Broadway Musical

When romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You was released in 1999 — a seminal time for the Shakespeare adaptation-as-teen-movie — it was a watershed pop cultural moment. The winning take on The Taming of the Shrew cemented the star power of actors Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and boasted a spunky soundtrack of late-’90s acts like Letters to Cleo, Semisonic and The Cardigans (plus, of course, The Four Seasons; who could forget Ledger’s iconic rendition of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”?).

Nearly thirty years later, Broadway audiences will see if that magic can be recaptured onstage. Billboard exclusively reveals that 10 Things is being adapted as a musical — with two major creatives keenly attuned to the nuances of young romance onboard. Billboard Hot 100-topping singer-songwriter Carly Jepsen will co-write the score with singer, writer and producer Ethan Gruska (with whom she’s collaborated on songs from her latest album, The Loveliest Time, and who’s also worked with artists like Bon Iver and Phoebe Bridgers), and Lena Dunham will co-write the book with award-winning playwright Jessica Huang.

For Jepsen’s fans — who may have noticed her frequent presence in New York, and at the theater, on social media in recent months — this news answers long-circulating rumors that she was involved in some percolating Broadway project. This isn’t her first big turn in the musical theater realm — she took over the title role in the Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella in 2014 and played Frenchy in Fox’s Emmy-winning Grease: Live — but 10 Things does mark her debut behind-the-scenes, giving her a chance to show off her deeply emotional pop writing and talent for storytelling through song. Multihyphenate Dunham, whose much-anticipated romcom series Too Much comes to Netflix this year, is also making her debut on a Broadway creative team.

Their collaborators, Gruska and Huang, round out a creative team stacked with acclaimed Broadway veterans. 10 Things will be directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, the former New York City Ballet resident choreographer who rose to the top of the dance world and has since become a formidable theater force, directing and choreographing An American in Paris and MJ: The Musical on Broadway (both Tony-winners). Music supervisor, arranger and orchestrator Tom Kitt is a two-time Tony, two-time Emmy, two-time Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner known best for writing the hit musical Next to Normal. And producer Mike Bosner has a track record with boundary-pushing, Tony-winning Broadway hits, most recently producing Shucked and making his name as lead producer of Beautiful — The Carole King Musical. (Bosner is producing the musical through a special arrangement with Buena Vista Theatrical.)

An opening date and theater for 10 Things have not yet been announced.