Sara Bareilles, Sarah Ruhl Musical The Interestings Will Make World Premiere in 2027

The Interestings, a new musical adapted from Meg Wolitzer's 2013 bestseller featuring a score by Waitress composer-lyricist-star Sara Bareilles, has set a world premiere in Berkeley Rep's 2026-2027 season, to be presented in association with Matt Ross. Previews will begin January 31, 2027, at the California theatre, with opening night set for February 17.

The project first emerged in 2024, when it was reported that Pulitzer finalist playwright Sarah Ruhl would team up with Bareilles on the project. Wolitzer has also now officially joined the creative team, and will co-write the musical's book alongside Ruhl. Also joining the team is two-time Tony-winning director Michael Arden (Maybe Happy Ending), and music supervisor Nadia DiGiallonardo.

"When I read Meg Wolitzer's unbelievably funny and poignant novel, The Interestings, I wrote the first song before I'd finished the book,” says Bareilles in a statement. “I felt like I knew these characters already, and they continue to inspire and challenge me to evolve as a writer and a storyteller. My love affair with them continues, and it has been the thrill of a lifetime to be entrusted with helping them sing. 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. It is especially wonderful to get the opportunity to bring a new work to one of the great theatres on the West Coast, Berkeley Repertory Theatre. As a Northern California girl, it feels like coming home with something I am so proud of, and that I am so excited to share."

Wolitzer's book centers on six teenagers who meet at summer camp in the 1970s and form a lifelong bond over dreams of leading creative, inspiring lives. Decades later, all six are living in New York City, navigating their professional and personal lives as they grow together and apart.

Casting and further creative team members are to be announced. Tickets will go on sale via Berkeley Rep season subscriptions beginning February 18 for renewing subscribers and April 15 for new subscribers, both at BerkeleyRep.org. A general sale date is to be announced.

Bareilles officially joined the musical theatre landscape as the composer and lyricist of Waitress, which premiered on Broadway in 2015 and earned her a Tony nomination. The singer-songwriter later starred in the musical as well, including a filmed stage performance that was released in 2023. Bareilles also played The Baker's Wife in the 2022 revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods, picking up another Tony nomination for her performance.

Primarily a playwright, Ruhl's works include Eurydice, The Clean House, In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play), Passion Play, Dead Man's Cell Phone, and Becky Nurse of Salem. The Clean House and In the Next Room were both Pulitzer finalists, and the latter was a Best Play Tony nominee as well. The Interestings could turn out to be Ruhl's first foray into musical theatre, though she previously adapted her Eurydice into a libretto for Matthew Aucoin's opera version of the work.