As increasingly artists from the pop world add writing a Broadway musical to their career-goal lists, Sara Bareilles stands out as one of many brightest success tales from that group.
Waitress — the musical adaptation of Adrienne Shelly’s beloved impartial movie, that includes music and lyrics by Bareilles — was an unequivocal Broadway hit, operating for almost 4 years after a gap in April 2016.
That yr, Bareilles’ rating earned her two Tony nominations (out of a complete 4 for the present), and she or he went on to carry out the lead position of Jenna for 3 totally different stints. The manufacturing performed London’s West Finish in addition to internationally, garnered a Grammy nomination for its unique Broadway solid recording, and yielded each a standalone Bareilles album (What’s Inside: Songs From Waitress, launched on Epic Data between the present’s off-Broadway and Broadway runs) and a movie of the stage present (which debuted on the Tribeca Movie Pageant in 2023).
Sara Bareilles performs throughout the curtain name for Broadway’s “Waitress” at The Brooks Atkinson Theatre on March 31, 2017 in New York Metropolis.
Noam Galai/Getty Photos
Now, Bareilles — who’s been warmly embraced by the broader theater neighborhood, and racked up one other Tony nomination final yr for her portrayal of The Baker’s Spouse in Into the Woods — is making her return to Broadway.
She’s writing the music and lyrics for The Interestings, an adaptation of the New York Occasions bestselling novel by Meg Wolitzer with a e book by Pulitzer- and Tony-nominated playwright Sarah Ruhl.
The plot of Wolitzer’s novel revolves round character Jules Jacobson and her mates from an unique childhood arts camp (the titular Interestings, as they name themselves) who develop as much as discover various levels of success and satisfaction or disillusionment with the place a artistic life has led them.
When it got here out in 2013, the Occasions referred to as it “heat, all-American, and acutely perceptive in regards to the motivations of its characters,” likening it to trendy Nice American Novels and praising Wolitzer’s “inclusive imaginative and prescient and beneficiant sweep.” With its complicated, layered feminine protagonist and various solid of characters, in addition to the knotty themes it explores — starting from what qualifies as success as to if being extraordinary is the one path to it — the e book appears wealthy materials for musical adaptation, and it’s simple to see why it appealed to Bareilles, whose Waitress balanced the buoyant with the bittersweet.
The Interestings is being produced by Matt Ross, and is at the moment in improvement; further artistic workforce and manufacturing particulars can be introduced within the coming months.
