A pre-Broadway run is set for “The Interestings.” The previously announced musical adaptation of Meg Wolitzer’s novel will have its world premiere at California’s Berkeley Repertory Theatre during its 2026-2027 season. Previews will begin Jan. 31, 2027, ahead of a Feb. 17 opening.
Also newly announced are further creative team members. The musical will be directed by Tony Award winner Michael Arden with musical supervision by Nadia DiGiallonardo. As previously announced, the musical features a score by Tony nominee Sara Bareilles with a book co-written by Wolitzer and Tony nominee Sarah Ruhl.
“The Interestings” concerns six friends who bond over their shared dream of leading creative lives. Following their lives from childhood to decades later, “the show explores friendship, love, envy, class, art, money and power, and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a life,” the creative team said in a joint statement.
“I wrote the first song before I’d finished the book,” Bareilles revealed. ”I felt like I knew these characters already…Meg’s novel is the blueprint for what this creative team is conjuring, and it has been a complex, deep process of arrival and discovery and surrender and delight.”
In addition to being a two-time Grammy Award winner, Bareilles is a Broadway composer, lyricist and actor, with Tony nominations for her work composing the 2016 musical “Waitress,” writing lyrics for the 2018 tuner “SpongeBob SquarePants” and performing as the Baker’s Wife in the 2023 revival of “Into the Woods.”
Ruhl received a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut, “In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)” and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Wolitzer is a New York Times bestselling novelist and author of 14 books, three of which have been turned into films. She is the co-founder and co-director of Stony Brook University’s BookEnds program for emerging novelists.
Arden is a two-time Tony-winning director. In 2025, he was awarded the Tony for best direction for his work on “Maybe Happy Ending.” His newest work, “The Lost Boys,” will be arriving on the Main Stem later this season.
DiGiallonardo was the musical supervisor, co-arranger and orchestrator for the recent Broadway production of “Real Women Have Curves.” She previously held the same roles on the Broadway production of Bareilles’ “Waitress.”
Based in Berkeley, California, the Berkeley Rep has produced over 500 shows since it began in 1968, including 90 world premieres.
Additional details, including cast and creative team, will be announced at a later date.
