Aimee Mann turns the novel ‘Girl, Interrupted’ into songs

By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Singer and songwriter Aimee Mann has written a cast album for a musical that may never happen. She was asked to write songs for a stage version of the novel “Girl, Interrupted.” What emerged became “Queens of the Summer Hotel,” 15 songs created for a still-to-happen stage adaptation of “Girl, Interrupted,” Susannah Kaysen’s memoir about her psychiatric hospitalization in the late 1960s. Mann calls the process an “interesting puzzle” and a challenge. She wrote songs for each of the book’s characters and grounded the sound in the pre-hippie 1960s with the flavor of classical music running throughout the orchestration.