A stage adaptation of “Girl, Interrupted” will bow at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater. Adapted by playwright Martyna Majok from Susanna Kaysen’s 1993 memoir of the same name, the new play with music will bow in May 2026 at the downtown Manhattan venue. Jo Bonney is set to direct and Sonya Tayeh will choreograph “Girl, Interrupted,” which will feature original music by Aimee Mann. Commercial producers Barbara Broccoli and Angelica Zollo are attached.
Set in the 1960s, “Girl, Interrupted” follows Susanna, a resident at a psychiatric hospital. Susanna finds the hospital both a refuge and a prison and discovers an unexpected connection with her fellow residents. The original memoir received a 1999 film adaptation starring Winona Ryder and Oscar-winning actor (and Tony Award-winning “Outsiders” producer) Angelina Jolie.
Playwright Majok received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “Cost of Living,” a drama whose subsequent Broadway production received a 2023 Best Play Tony Award nomination. Majok’s play “queens” is currently playing Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club’s City Center Stage I.
Singer-songwriter Mann is a two-time Grammy Award winner for studio albums “The Forgotten Arm” (which won Best Recording Package in 2006) and “Mental Illness” (Best Folk Album in 2018). Mann crafted the score for the 1999 film “Magnolia” and earned her a Best Original Song Academy Award nomination for the movie’s song “Save Me.” Mann’s 2021 album “Queens of the Summer Hotel” was inspired by the original “Girl, Interrupted” book.
Bonney received a Best Direction of a Play Tony nomination for helming the aforementioned “Cost of Living,” while Tayeh won a Best Choreography Tony for “Moulin Rouge!”
“Martyna is a playwright of extraordinary sensitivity and power; Aimee is a songwriter of unparalleled insight and beauty,” said Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis in a statement. “Together they’ve created a breathtaking look at women, mental illness and the all-too flawed systems America has created to handle them. Heart-breaking, inspiring and profound, under Jo Bonney’s magnificent leadership, this is a show unlike any other.”
Exact dates, casting and additional creative team members will be announced.
