Lena Dunham and Carly Rae Jepsen Unite to Turn 10 Things I Hate About You into a Broadway Musical

Nearly three decades after the teen classic 10 Things I Hate About You hit movie theatres, the 1999 rom-com is heading for the Great White Way in a high-profile stage adaptation helmed by an eclectic creative team: writer-director Lena Dunham and pop hit-maker Carly Rae Jepsen.

A star-studded creative lineup

• Book & Co-Lyrics: Girls creator Lena Dunham teams with playwright Jessica Huang to craft the stage script.

• Music & Lyrics: Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen joins composer-producer Ethan Gruska (The Loveliest Time) to pen an original pop-infused score.

• Director/Choreographer: Tony winner Christopher Wheeldon (An American in Paris) will direct and stage the production’s dance sequences.

• Producer: Mike Bosner, whose résumé includes Beautiful—The Carole King Musical and the Tony-nominated Shucked, will shepherd the show to Broadway.

From Shakespeare to Seattle to Broadway

The original film, inspired by Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, reimagined Elizabethan courtship as ’90s high-school hijinks in suburban Seattle. It became a sleeper hit, launched the careers of Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles, and built a fervent cult following over the years. With its sharp banter, “teen-movie golden age” energy, and Ledger’s unforgettable serenade of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” the movie routinely lands on lists of the era’s best rom-coms.

While ABC Family attempted a brief sitcom reboot in 2009, this will be the first time 10 Things receives a full musical treatment. The adaptation marks Jepsen’s first venture as a Broadway composer, though she previously starred as Cinderella in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 2014 Main Stem revival and appeared as Frenchy in Fox’s Grease: Live. Dunham—currently juggling the upcoming Netflix series Too Much, a Sam Bankman-Fried biopic for Apple/A24, and the Natalie Portman rom-com Good Sex—returns to the themes of messy young adulthood that made Girls a cultural touchstone.

Pop hooks, modern sensibilities

In a joint statement, Dunham and Jepsen said their goal is to “celebrate the film’s fierce wit and big-hearted spirit while giving today’s audiences new anthems they’ll sing on the way home.” Insiders describe early workshop demos as “1999 nostalgia filtered through 2025 pop,” with Gruska’s lush arrangements complementing Jepsen’s hook-laden melodies.

Christopher Wheeldon, fresh off choreographing Almost Famous: The Musical, promises a kinetic physical vocabulary that blends pep-rally exuberance with Shakespearean flourish. “It’s Shakespeare in Doc Martens and low-rise jeans,” the director quipped.

What’s next

A Broadway theater, casting, and opening timeline have yet to be named, though producer Mike Bosner hinted at a 2026 bow, pending a developmental out-of-town tryout. Industry buzz suggests the show could land in one of the Shubert Organization’s midsize houses once a slot becomes available.

Until then, fans of both the original film and Jepsen’s buoyant pop oeuvre can start counting down the “10 things” they love about this unexpected but tantalizing pairing—proof that in Broadway’s ever-expanding universe, all roads lead back to Shakespeare, high school—and a great pop hook.

Photo Credit: DepositPhotos.com