'10 Things I Hate About You' Musical Sets Broadway Premiere with Lena Dunham and Carly Rae Jepsen
A musical adaptation of the 1999 teen film "10 Things I Hate About You" will begin preview performances on Broadway on Aug. 17, 2027 — 28 years after the movie opened in theaters. Variety reported the date on Aug. 17, 2026.
Lena Dunham is writing the musical's book — the spoken scenes that connect the songs — with playwright Jessica Huang. Pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen, known for the 2012 hit "Call Me Maybe," is writing music and lyrics with Ethan Gruska. Variety confirmed the creative team.
Christopher Wheeldon, a Tony-winning director and choreographer whose Broadway credits include "An American in Paris" and "MJ the Musical," will direct and choreograph. Tom Kitt, the composer behind "Next to Normal," is handling music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations — the layer of work that shapes how the score sounds when played by a Broadway pit orchestra. Mike Bosner, a producer whose credits include the current revival of "The Last Five Years," is producing. Variety published the full team.
Opening night, casting and theater information have not been announced. In Broadway's calendar, preview performances are the tryout weeks before opening night, when the creative team can still make changes — audiences see the show, but critics hold their reviews until the official opening. For now, the Aug. 17, 2027 start date is the only firm date on the calendar.
The original film starred Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger and was written for the screen by Karen McCullah and Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith. It modernizes Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," setting the plot — a father who will not let his younger daughter date until the older, sharper-tempered one finds a suitor — in a Seattle-area high school. Playbill first reported the creative team in April 2025, before a Broadway date was set; People noted the 28-year gap between film and stage.
What makes the project stand out is the mix of names. Dunham created and starred in the HBO series "Girls" but has not previously written for Broadway. Jepsen has built a devoted pop following since "Call Me Maybe" but has never written a theatrical score. Wheeldon, by contrast, is a Broadway veteran, and Kitt's orchestrations have shaped some of the most successful musicals of the past two decades.
The producers will still need to announce a theater — a key step in the Broadway pipeline, since a house has to be booked and a production has to fit the stage. They will also need to set a capitalization figure, the money raised to get the doors open, and eventually weekly running costs. Those numbers typically surface closer to the first preview.
For audiences, the Aug. 17, 2027 date puts the show in the late-summer lane — a quieter stretch on the Broadway calendar, before the fall openings and the spring crush that lead up to the Tony Awards eligibility cutoff. Tickets are not yet on sale.
