Juliana Canfield and King Princess, currently starring in Girl, Interrupted at New York's Public Theater, bring a fresh perspective to Susanna Kaysen's cult memoir. The show, which took a decade to develop, finally premieres off Broadway, chronicling Kaysen's stay in a psychiatric facility in the late 1960s.
A Musical Adaptation of a Beloved Memoir
Based on the 1993 bestselling memoir by Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted may seem an unlikely candidate for a musical. However, after ten years of effort, the adaptation is now gracing the stage at New York's Public Theater. The cast includes Tony-nominated actor Juliana Canfield as Susanna and pop star King Princess, making her stage debut as Lisa.
While the theatrical interpretation draws solely from the memoir, James Mangold's 1999 film adaptation, starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, looms large in the audience's minds. Canfield recalls the film's impact on her as a teenager: "I was a very type-A teen and it was thrilling to watch other teenagers behave in ways that felt so distant from how I thought I was allowed to behave. The movie felt like permission to accept that I was struggling with things; it was cathartic for me."
Origins and Creative Team
The show's origins began with producer Angelica Zollo, who discovered Girl, Interrupted as a teenager. She brought the idea of adaptation to her parents, both producers, including her mother Barbara Broccoli, who controlled the James Bond franchise. For the music, Zollo envisioned Aimee Mann, whose dark-witted songwriting earned an Oscar nomination for Magnolia. After the pandemic postponed the production, Mann released her songs as the 2021 album Queens of the Summer Hotel, though she is no longer actively involved.
In 2017, the production team approached playwright Martyna Majok, who won a Pulitzer for Cost of Living. Majok had seen the film but not read the book: "I fell for Susanna’s voice, her wit, clear-eyed perspective, and her beautiful heartache. [Kaysen] collected these extraordinary characters that lived so loudly on the page."
Structuring the Memory Play
The book's nonlinear structure presented challenges. Majok chose to frame the production as a memory play, toggling between older and younger Susanna. The stark set captures institutional minimalism with a circular platform resembling a nurse's station and leveled platforms upstage. Props are minimal: chairs, cots, and a piano. "It became this dance of tension between them and what they have to teach each other," Majok says. "The 38-year-old Susanna is questing for something to help move her life forward."
As revealed in the memoir, Kaysen learned of her borderline personality disorder diagnosis 25 years after discharge. When 18-year-old Susanna checks into McLean after a suicide attempt, she finds friendship and camaraderie with other young women. Canfield spends the entire show onstage, transitioning from emotional duress to calm reflection. "Older Susanna is a reprieve from the difficult mental space that the younger Susanna often finds herself in," she says.
Characters and Music
The adaptation focuses on five female patients: Tori, an amphetamine addict; Daisy, with OCD and likely sexual abuse; Polly, a burn victim with schizophrenia; Grace, a composite character; and Lisa, a mischievous sociopath. King Princess developed Lisa's physicality by watching videos of jaguars and glam rocker Marc Bolan: "She’s kind of a predator, she slinks around, very hip-forward, pussy-forward." A shapeshifting male presence and three female staffers round out the cast.
The elegant folk music emerges organically during therapy and late-night chats about real-life McLean patients like poets Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath. Cast members play instruments live, harmonizing as a chorus. Choreography by Tony winner Sonya Tayeh is understated, involving a revolving stage. Despite heavy subject matter—suicide, electroconvulsive therapy, mental illness—there are moments of levity, like a birthday party for catatonics. The two-hour show flies by.
Relevance Today
King Princess recalls watching the movie as a young teenager: "I felt like I was watching something in secret. For me, it was a queer film because of the kiss. [With] Angie and Winona’s relationship, I was like, ‘Oh, this is a gay movie,’ and I related to it. All the girls were in there for varying degrees of shit that’s pretty normal." The adaptation features its own queer moment, though context differs from the film.
Conversations around mental health have evolved, but the material resonates today. King Princess notes: "I think it’s probably more relevant than it was 10 years ago because of the oppressive verbiage around non-male people in this world. A lot of our government officials have the same point of view as male doctors in the 60s, they sound straight out of our script!" She also draws parallels between the girls' horror at Vietnam war coverage and today's news cycles. "You swap out the single-channel TV in the common room for our phones, and it’s the same. It’s a story about finding community in a really bizarre place."
Ultimately, the narrative of a young person finding their place remains meaningful. Canfield says: "It’s always difficult to navigate being a teenager, no matter the time period. Girl, Interrupted is an evergreen reminder that you are not alone in that struggle."
Girl, Interrupted is at Public Theater, New York City, until 12 July.
