I think we can all agree that the world is going through some complex, difficult times. Times that feel more intense for those of us who exist in the world carrying identities that don’t fall under societal “norms.” In times like these, it can feel like the options for our survival, joy, and flourishing are limited. But if there’s one idea we can turn to, to hold onto a light that is not necessarily all-healing but all-important, it’s community. Community can be found among our closest friends, but it can also be found among people we’ve never met; if a shared like-mindedness and belief system exists. It can be found through activism and through art. Right now, in New York City, it can be found among the audience members, creators, and performers who allow Girl, Interrupted to thrive in its musical form, night after night. Community can’t always help us escape our nightmares, but it can help us face the issues that threaten our dreams, and beautifully, bravely, Girl, Interrupted gives voice to so many fears we all face, all while reminding us that we are not alone in facing them.
The Girl, Interrupted musical is crucially based on the book by Susanna Kaysen. Many might know the movie Girl, Interrupted, also an adaptation of the book. But it might come as a bit of a surprise to learn that Kaysen’s story is actually a memoir of her time at a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s. While the Girl, Interrupted musical, of course, expands and imagines the material beyond the specific lines of the source text, it ultimately remains much more faithful to the book than the movie version of the story. And, importantly, the musical cleaves to the intention that Kaysen holds closest to her heart for her life’s tale.
In 2022, Kaysen noted of her book, “The familiar thing, I think, was a person adrift, frightened, overwhelmed by existence and unable, for a moment, to engage with a life for herself…A lot has changed in the decades since this book was published, and even more since I was in the hospital. And perhaps the stigma of depression and ‘mental illness’ has diminished somewhat. But suffering doesn’t change. This book, written under a delusion, has brought many readers some comfort. I hope it still has that to offer thirty years later.”
And it is safe to say that the Girl, Interrupted musical, expertly written by Martyna Majok, with gorgeous original music by Aimee Mann, perceptive and nuanced direction by Jo Bonney, and lovely choreography by Sonya Tayeh, precisely achieves this bringing of comfort.
The Girl, Interrupted musical follows the story of Susanna, played by Juliana Canfield, as she admits herself into the McLean psychiatric hospital, where she connects with the other young women in the facility, all of them holding onto their struggles, their hopes, their identities, and one another as they try to understand what it means to live. Creating Susanna’s cohort of community in the hospital is her earnest roommate, Grace, played Mia Pak, the closed-off but warm-hearted Daisy, played by Katherine Reis, the hopeful but struggling Polly, played by Sally Shaw, the standoffish but fragile Tori, played by Gabi Campo, and, of course, the self-proclaimed “psycopath,” who wishes for community no lesss than anyone else, Lisa, played by King Princess.
All of these young women are brilliant in their roles. And what I like the most is the different kinds of womanhood on display in the musical. There’s Lisa’s Bowie-like androgyny, Polly’s welcome warmth, Daisy’s high femininity, Grace’s girl-next-door energy, Susanna’s more conventional charms, and Tori’s bold, self-assured style. In what I felt were super meaningful stage directions, no woman even sits in a chair the same way, Lisa sprawling, Polly tucking her ankles behind each other, some leaning with their feet up on each other’s chairs; the personalities of these characters poured out onto the stage from the smallest details to the largest, helping to build a full, realized, resonant vision of every woman in her own right. Even while, in essence, trapped in a place that was trying to diminish their differences and their otherness, the individuality of each woman shone.
In sharp contradiction to this, every man in the musical was played by the same actor (also brilliant) Manoel Felciano, who is billed simply as “The Male Presence.” While, of course, there is variation among men, in this musical, the notion of “The Male Presence,” the haunting, chilling, suffocating hold that society and the patriarchy have on our lives, was illustrated PERFECTLY by this conceit. The symbolism felt wholly effective and not at all trite. The idea in the Girl, Interrupted musical is not that every man is evil, but that the systems that we live in are meant to oppress, and that oppression is so often delivered through the forms of men who would rather benefit than take a hard look at what’s happening around them.
And it’s this sharp interrogation of society that is one of the facets that is so incredible about the Girl, Interrupted musical. Of course, the women in the hospital face are struggling with difficulties that live inside themselves. But those traumas would become so much more manageable, and perhaps wouldn’t even exist, if the way life is constructed did not fail them at every turn. It is not only the intense traumas within ourselves that we struggle with, but also the underlying constructions of society that force us into them. Woven, I thought, in perfect subtlety into many of the women’s stories was the way their blood families truly let them down, be that by forcing them into the hospital, or by forcing them out of it, but, in almost every case, by refusing to see them.
That said, I think the story left space for the idea that “We can only know what we know.” And that in the past, what we thought we knew was different than what we think we know now. And what we know now, we might look back on in the future, and consider foolish. An important reminder that we are always in a place on a journey, and all we can do is try to wrestle with the lot we are offered.
But, Girl, Interrupted is very clear, the worst thing we can do is try to wrestle alone. Instead, it is in our community, in the people who do see us, that we can find the solace we need to go on. And, at every turn, this was incredibly reflected by the wondrous music of this musical. To say that the music of Girl, Interrupted felt like a religious experience would be to massively undersell its wonder. The use of live instruments on stage, combined with the incredible, almost choral soundscape that was created around every song, made emotion well, and goosebumps form at every turn.
In most cases, the songs were sung prominently by two of the women, allowing us to learn about the various pains they carried in an intimate setting and to become invested in their relationships with one another. But also, in most cases, all the songs involved all the other main women singing as a chorus in the background. In this way, even though not every woman was singing in every song, all of the women’s voices were always together, a communal wave of sound and support for one another. And this beautiful mechanism perfectly underscored the idea that because these women had found one another, they never had to truly feel alone with their pain.
The songs of the Girl, Interrupted musical were all incredibly beautiful, sweet and symphonic, even as they tackled some of the most harrowing topics one could discuss in a musical; everything from suicide to abuse to schizophrenia. The lyrics were heavy and painful and yet laden with beauty. The juxtaposition acted as a perfect reminder that all parts of us, even those we perceive as the ugliest and darkest, deserve to be treated with grace. These songs truly allowed us to get inside the minds of these characters, but also resonated within each of us, who have no doubt experienced at least shades of these traumas. And in this way, we see the characters, and they see us, and we are all, again, wonderfully together.
Who among us has not felt a painful loss of time? Or found ourselves unable to be our truest selves because of external constraints that trapped us? Throughout Girl, Interrupted, we are invited to meditate on these pains, even as we discover we hold them together. And crucially, Girl, Interrupted is realistic and bittersweet. It doesn’t imply that having a community can heal all these great wounds. It does not promise us that we can win every battle when it comes to being true to ourselves, that we will always be able to rebel or find absolute freedom. But through having that community, we know our own identity better, our wounds are more easily carried, and the only lives we have become better, even when everything feels dark.
In addition to all of this, Girl, Interrupted really deftly does a lot with a little in its staging, keeping things simple so the emotions can pop, and also allowing the audience to incorporate their own imaginations into the mix, leaving space for our perceptions to blend with the staging. Although with time, I’d feel curious to see how the production design could expand. The Girl, Interrupted musical also knows how to layer humor with heaviness, bringing levity and lightness right at the moment when a break is much needed. Personally, as a professional writer, I enjoyed all the jokes about how you can’t possibly make a living as a professional writer. I see you, Girl, Interrupted, and you see me.
It’s fitting then that Girl, Interrupted ends with an incredible ballad called “I See You.” And it’s guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes as it makes the interesting framing device of the story, Susanna looking at the Vermeer painting “Girl Interrupted at Her Music” and pondering its meaning, come to true life. The finale involves all the women in the cast, and it swells, surrounds you, and brings you in. Community found. True catharsis achieved. Girl, understood.
Ultimately, Girl, Interrupted is a much-needed work for our time, one that makes us think about the past, present, and future, where we’ve evolved, where we’ve fallen short, and where we could still triumph. And about how community can’t heal all wounds, but it can certainly make our existence better as we navigate the perils of being true to ourselves, our beautiful otherness, and existing in society.
Girl, Interrupted is running until July 12, 2026, at The Public. Tickets are available now for purchase.