Sara Bareilles talks about adapting Meg Woltizer’s The Interestings

Sara Bareilles I had no problems getting inspired by I WolitzerThe 2013 coming-of-age novel, the interesting ones.

After winning the Tony Award for Best Original Score for Waitress In 2016, Bareilles, 44, signed on to score the musical adaptation of the interesting oneswhich is currently in the workshop phase. Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright Sara Ruhl is writing the book.

“I read it very quickly,” Bareilles said exclusively. Us weekly in November of Wolitzer’s novel. “It was only a couple of days and I couldn’t believe how vibrant and alive the world felt to me.”

Both Waitress and the interesting ones They feature characters who feel distant from the younger, more ambitious versions of themselves, but Bareilles noted that the latter has a “sophistication” that is not present in Waitress.

“(These characters) are hyper-intellectual, while Waitress “It is a small community, (a) southern town,” he explained. “These are, like, New York intellectuals. So, I think that music (for the interesting ones) reflects that a little.”

For Bareilles, the “biggest challenge” of the project was “trying to distill and condense” a 560-page novel into a musical.

“We are not going to do a six-hour show. They are done, but we didn’t try to make that kind of spectacle for this book,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure that what’s distilled are the juiciest parts of this novel, knowing that nothing (what we do) is really going to contain everything that this novel contains. And I will always recommend that people, regardless of what they like or don’t like about the musical, read this book. I think the book is very special.”

the interesting ones follows a group of friends who meet as teenagers at an art camp in 1974. The novel’s central character, Jules, sees herself as less sophisticated than her peers, and those insecurities follow her into adulthood as romanticizes Ash and Ethan’s lives as their old friends. and marriage.

Bareilles said he “felt very close” to the characters when he read the book, specifically Jules.

“[She]has a little bit of Peter Pan syndrome. I think we often see that trope in men, and I don’t know if we see it as often in women, where they just have a hard time letting go of their ambition and their hopes for his younger self,” he explained. . “This is a topic that occupies a very prominent place in Waitressand it’s something I struggle with a lot in my life too.”

Jules’ tendency to dream of greener pastures impacts her husband, Dennis, who can’t help but wonder if his life will ever be enough for her. Bareilles explored this conflict in a song called “Enough,” written from Dennis’s perspective.

“I wrote ‘Enough’ before I even finished the book,” Bareilles said. “I was very moved by the character of Dennis and the themes that emerged around childhood and growing up and what is enough and when can we be content with what we have?”

It is not yet known if Bareilles will join the cast of the interesting ones. (While Jessie Mueller originated the lead role of Jenna in WaitressBareilles played the role in seasons on both Broadway and London’s West End).

“Right now, I think the only role I can play is just being a songwriter and (trying to) help put the pieces of the puzzle together,” the singer-songwriter said. “But I mean, I love the idea of ​​being back on stage.”

Bareilles, however, performed “Enough” during three career-spanning shows at the Kennedy Center in September, accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra. The performances were filmed for PBS’ Next at the Kennedy Center series and the special, titled Sara Bareilles: New Year’s Eve with the National Symphony Orchestra and friends – will premiere on December 31.

“It is a completely new experience for my audience to hear my work performed with the extraordinary touch of a giant orchestra,” Bareilles said of the show. “It was daunting in the sense that we wanted to get the set right and choose songs that would speak very well (with) an orchestra.”

The program has special guests Rufus Wainwright, emily king and David Ryan Harris and touches on various periods of Bareilles’ career. Beloved songs like “Love Song,” “Gravity,” “King of Anything” and “Brave” made it to the setlist along with some deeper cuts and a couple of Waitress melodies.

“It’s really a luxury to be able to immerse myself in all the music of my life so far,” Bareilles said. “It was just an unforgettable experience.”

The prolific songwriter is also adding more music to her songbook. He is currently working on his seventh studio album.

“I’m writing a lot about grief,” said Bareilles, whose friend Gavin Creel died at 48 in September, two months after he was diagnosed with metastatic melanotic sarcoma of the peripheral nerve sheath, a rare form of cancer. The couple shared the stage in both Waitress and the 2022 reactivation of in the forest.

“I lost a dear friend recently (and) I lost another friend in 2020. I haven’t written for an album since before the pandemic,” Bareilles said. “I think in terms of my spiritual metabolism, I’m pretty slow. I know a lot of people who were making a lot of music during and around the pandemic, and I just wasn’t doing anything. So, I think I’m processing that chapter of my life now: the isolation, the pain and the loss.”

While Bareilles assured fans that the album “won’t be entirely sad,” he believes it’s important to leave room for “uncomfortable” topics.

“It’s not something our culture supports very well. I think we do a lot of escapism, which I think we also need; “I don’t think it’s worthless at all, but I do think there’s also merit in going to dark places and resting there and really processing what’s happening there,” he said. “It’s not like any other record I’ve ever written. In a way it goes all over the place and it’s not a formula. “It feels like I’m telling stories that need to be told.”

Sara Bareilles: New Year’s Eve with the National Symphony Orchestra and friends will air on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app on Tuesday, December 31 at 8 pm ET.