Sally Shaw

The Public Theater's adaptation of "Girl, Interrupted" is billed as a play with music. Curiously, the show isn't simply advertised as a musical--or as a concept album with lots of free-associative liner notes. Based on Susanna Kaysen's fragmented memoir about her 18 months of psychiatric confinement in the late 1960s, the production juxtaposes, rather than blends, the labors of iconic songwriter Aimee Mann and Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Martyna Majok. This approach allows each artist to pursue her own creativity while sparing director Jo Bonney from having to narratively merge their idiosyncratic contributions. It apparently explains, too, why "Girl, Interrupted" isn't officially a musical, since Mann's score doesn't have to push the plot forward--though, in fairness, Majok isn't worried about doing that on the script side, either. [more]