Seven years ago, the great singer-songeriter Aimee Mann told the Los Angeles Review Of Books that she was working on songs for a couple of stage musicals. One of them was an adaptation of Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir about her time at a psychiatric hospital in the '60s. Girl, Interrupted was already adapted into a 1999 James Mangold film with Winona Ryder, and Angelina Jolie won an Oscar for her role in it. The stage adaptation took longer than that.
In that interview with the LA Review Of Books, Mann said, "I was asked to write music for the stage adaptation of the book Girl, Interrupted. So literally right up my alley -- it’s about crazy ladies! So that’s very enjoyable. I don’t know when; plays always take forever." They sure do! In 2021, Mann released Queens Of The Summer Hotel, an album of songs that she wrote for that Girl, Interrupted musical. It's her most recent LP. When it came out, it sure seemed like the actual musical was dead. But now, it's finally coming to New York's Public Theater.
The New York Times reports that playwright Martyna Majok wrote the Girl, Interrupted stage adaptation, which will include Aimee Mann's songs. It's set to debut next May, and the cast has not yet been revealed. Majok won a Pulitzer Prize for her play Cost Of Living in 2018, and its director Jo Bonney will direct the Girl, Interrupted adaptation. Girl, Interrupted will also have choreography from Sonya Tayeh, who won a Tony for Moulin Rouge!
Majok is also attached to an upcoming Great Gatsby musical with songs from Florence + The Machine's Florence Welch, which was announced in 2021. At this rate, that Great Gatsby play will be ready to debut in 2029.
