Sara Bareilles details new album 'Good Grief' and stage adaptation of 'The Interestings'

Sara Bareilles is opening up about the grief, fertility struggles and loss that shaped her new album 'Good Grief,' while revealing why Meg Wolitzer’s 'The Interestings' became her next stage musical project. The conversation, on 'Books That Changed My Life,' shows how the novel is influencing Bareilles’ first theatrical adaptation since 'Waitress.'

Why it matters: - Sara Bareilles is channeling several years of personal loss into new creative work. - Her next stage musical adaptation signals a major return to theater after a decade. - The project links one of pop’s most recognizable singer-songwriters with a widely read contemporary novel.

What happened: - Bareilles discussed her new album, Good Grief, and her adaptation of Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings on a recent episode of Books That Changed My Life with host Chris Collins. - Bareilles said the album has been in progress since 2020. - Bareilles said The Interestings will be her first stage musical since Waitress, which opened ten years ago. - The full conversation is available on Books That Changed My Life.

The details: - Bareilles said the album reflects "every kind of loss," including COVID, the deaths of two best friends and her fertility journey. - Bareilles said the record also carries hope and is "transformative grief," not a somber project. - Most of the album was recorded upstate at Dreamland Studios and at Aaron Dessner’s Long Pond Studios. - Bareilles said she wanted tranquility and natural space while making the record. - One of the album’s rawest songs, "Forever," is written from the perspective of her friend Gavin. - Bareilles described The Interestings as a "portal" that opened a new channel to music and storytelling she had not written before. - Wolitzer’s novel follows a group of teenagers who meet at an arts camp in the early 1970s and spans about 40 years. - Bareilles said Meg Wolitzer’s writing is singular, funny and exact in its character work. - Bareilles said she was drawn less to plot than to the novel’s themes of yearning, striving, disappointment and missed connections. - Bareilles identified Jules as the character she relates to most because of her outsider status and awkwardness. - Bareilles said Jules’s arc is about stopping the chase for being "interesting" and learning that "just being is interesting." - Bareilles said her therapist refers to that idea as "unique and ordinary medicine."

Between the lines: - Bareilles appears to be using both projects to process the same emotional terrain from different angles. - The album and the stage adaptation suggest a creative reset rooted in grief, not retreat. - Bareilles’s interest in The Interestings points to a larger artistic pull toward stories about identity, aging and self-worth.

What's next: - Bareilles is continuing work on the stage version of The Interestings. - Good Grief positions Bareilles for a new musical chapter shaped by both personal reflection and theatrical storytelling. - Fans of Bareilles and Wolitzer can watch the full conversation on Books That Changed My Life.