Carly Rae Jepsen Reveals the Broadway ‘Left Turn’ That Led to “10 Things I Hate About You” Musical

Dave QuinnSun, September 27, 2026 at 12:15 PM UTC

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Carly Rae Jepsen performs during Lollapalooza in August 2023Credit: Gary Miller/FilmMagic -

Carly Rae Jepsen opened up about writing the music and lyrics for Broadway’s upcoming 10 Things I Hate About You musical during an appearance on Jake Shane’s Therapuss podcast

The singer said she doesn’t think the project “would have happened” had she not made her Broadway debut in Cinderella in 2014

Jepsen called 10 Things I Hate About You the “dream of all dream projects” and said she’s “very, very proud” of its creative team

Carly Rae Jepsen can trace her upcoming 10 Things I Hate About You musical back to one pivotal career decision she made more than a decade ago.

The “Call Me Maybe” singer, 40, is writing the music and lyrics for the Broadway-bound adaptation of the beloved 1999 teen romantic comedy alongside Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Ethan Gruska. And while the project might seem like a new chapter for the pop star, Jepsen says it may never have happened had she not returned to her theater roots after becoming a global music sensation.

“I don’t think 10 Things would have happened had I not said yes to Cinderella back then,” Jepsen told Jake Shane while discussing her new double album Night and Dayduring an appearance on his Therapuss podcast this week.

Jepsen made her Broadway debut in 2014, taking over the title role in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella from Tony nominee Laura Osnes. The opportunity arrived just two years after “Call Me Maybe” turned Jepsen into an international pop star — and, as she recalled to Shane, accepting it wasn’t part of some carefully mapped-out career plan.

“It sounds like I was smart and had a strategy. It wasn’t like that,” she said. “I just got a phone call and I said yes.”

Carly Rae Jepsen in ‘Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella’ on Broadway in February 2014Credit: Walter McBride/WireImage

At the time, Jepsen remembered thinking the unexpected detour “sounds like relief” and “the right choice.”

“Sometimes I feel like the best decisions that I’ve made have been ones where I don’t overthink it too much, and I just sort of try it on and feel it and jump,” she explained.

Jepsen said she received the Cinderella offer while aboard a plane and immediately knew she wanted to take it. “I feel really happy that I took that left turn,” she said. “It’s actually brought so much.”

The official art for the Broadway-bound musical, ‘10 Things I Hate About You’Credit: Courtesy

More than a decade later, that path has led her back to Broadway with 10 Things I Hate About You, which is set to begin performances Aug. 17, 2027.

The new musical is based on the 1999 movie starring Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger, itself a modern reimagining of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Lena Dunham and playwright Jessica Huang are writing the musical’s book, while two-time Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon will direct and choreograph.

On Therapuss, Jepsen said couldn’t be more excited about the project.

“It is incredible. It’s been the dream of all dream projects,” she told Shane. “You can’t really think of a better script to get your hands on. I mean, that story is iconic for a reason and I think has a cult following for a reason.”

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And the singer said her excitement has only grown as the musical’s creative team has come together. “Our whole team, I think, is really — I mean, from day one it was good, and it’s just gotten more and more stacked,” she said.

Lena Dunham and Carly Rae JepsenCredit: Theo Wargo/Getty; Samir Hussein/WireImage

She went on to enthusiastically run through her collaborators, including Gruska, Dunham, Huang and Wheeldon, whom she jokingly described as a “choreographer/director/ballerina extraordinaire.”

She also singled out two-time Tony and Grammy winner Tom Kitt, who is handling music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations for the show, calling him the “music director of my dreams.”

“It just keeps getting blown-your-mind wild,” Jepsen said, adding, “I’m very, very proud.”

Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles in ‘10 Things I Hate About You’Credit: Richard Cartwright/Touchstone Pictures

The musical will follow sisters Kat and Bianca Stratford as they navigate “crushes, cliques, and teenage angst” while trying to figure out who they are on their own terms.

Stiles originated the fiercely independent Kat in the film, while Larisa Oleynik played her younger sister Bianca. When new student Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) falls for Bianca, he helps hatch a plan to find someone willing to date Kat so Bianca can date too.

Enter Ledger’s Patrick Verona, the mysterious school bad boy recruited to woo Kat — only for the scheme to become complicated when the two develop real feelings for one another.

Directed by Gil Junger and written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, 10 Things I Hate About You was released on March 31, 1999, and went on to become a defining teen comedy of the era. It also helped launch Stiles, Ledger and Gordon-Levitt to stardom.

Jepsen’s Cinderella run, meanwhile, wouldn’t be her last time combining her pop career with her love of musical theater. Two years after making her Broadway debut, she played Frenchy in Fox’s 2016 television production of Grease: Live.

Now she’ll make her return to Broadway from the other side of the footlights.

Casting and a Broadway theater for 10 Things I Hate About You have not yet been announced.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”