Theatre 2023: Jagged Little Pill

I have watched three musicals (two of them juke box musicals) within the span of a month, and it is interesting to compare them.  While I previously complained that the plot and number of songs included in the musical “Six” felt lightweight, it was the complete opposite with the  musical “Jagged Little Pill”, based on the songs of Canadian grunge-pop/rock singer Alanis Morissette.  Mining the lyrics primarily from her 1995 multi-platinum album of the same name, Jagged Little Pill the musical has a complex storyline that deals with dark themes including family dysfunction, anxiety, substance abuse, implicit racism, gender identities, and sexual assault.

In comparison to “In Dreams” which features the catalog of Roy Orbison, both Orbison and Morissette sing many sad songs about pain and loss.  But where Orbison’s tunes are melancholic and regretful ballads (“Crying .. over you”), Morissette’s are angsty, angry and aggressive rock songs (“It was a slap in the face, how quickly I was replaced …”) with loud instrumentation featuring heavy bass and percussion. 

While a few of the lyrics of Morissette’s songs were changed to better suit the plot, the instrumentation was not rearranged and remained loud, distorted and overwhelming.  When paired with bad acoustics at the Princess of Wales Theatre and the softer voices of some of the performers, it made the poignant lyrics very difficult to hear.  The background music was so loud that it drowned out much of the singing.  I was particularly frustrated by the song “That I Would Be Good” where I could only hear that first part, but not the resolution of each sentence.  All I could hear over and over again was “That I would be good, even if ..”  I wanted to scream “if what????”.  It was only when I got home and listened to the soundtrack while reading the lyrics that I discovered how perfectly many of the songs fit into the plot and enriched the back-stories of the characters.  Once again I lamented not doing more research before watching the show.

The book for Jagged Little Pill was written by Diablo Cody who won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for the 2007 movie Juno.  The main protagonists are the Healys, who outwardly portray the image of the perfect middle-class family unit, as described by matriarch Mary Jane (MJ) in her annual Christmas card.  Behind the scenes, we see that MJ is addicted to prescription pain killers after a car accident, her estranged husband Steve is a workaholic who missed much of his childrens’ upbringing, their adopted teenaged black daughter Frankie is bisexual and searching for her racial identity within her white family, while teenaged Nick is weighed down by the expectations of being the golden child and perfect son.

Usually towards the beginning of a musical, you have the “I Want” song which describes the hopes, desires and motivations of the main character or characters.  What better Morisette song to choose than the one titled “All I Really Want” with the various lines of the song portioned out to the appropriate characters.  Frankie idealistically wants a better, just world where people are not apathetic.  She also desires a soul mate who understands her and can talk intelligently to her.  Nick wants peace from the stress of trying to be perfect while MJ and Steve want to have patience to deal with their kids (and each other?).  Steve also wants more time while MJ seeks comfort.  The words of this song are sung verbatim by the cast except for a one word change where Frankie asks MJ if she thinks about her “bills, pills, deadlines”?  It was impressive how the lyrics of this one song could fit so aptly to the motivations of each character and made me think about the process of how a juke box musical is developed.  Do they pick the songs first and fit a story within the lyrics, or have the skeleton of a story and find songs that match?

The gender non-conforming character Jo (not Joanne!) is in a relationship with Frankie until Frankie meets and falls in love with Phoenix, who is male.  Jo’s outraged performance of “You Oughta Know”, expressing their hurt and anger at being dumped and betrayed, is a tour de force that stopped the show to rounding applause.  The song starts off slowly then builds into what feels like an erupting volcano with the stage bathed in bright red light that symbolized their rage.

MJ’s drug abuse is illustrated in an amazingly choreographed sequence that starts with her trying to get more drugs from the pharmacy but is out of refills.  She keeps up appearances when encountering other school moms at the gym, then meets a drug dealer in the alley and buys illegal drugs before going home to unpack groceries.  Singing the soulful song “Smiling” that describes her world crashing around her while she has to “keep on smiling”, the entire scene that we just saw is replayed backwards with all the characters moving slowly in reverse.  This was one of two songs that were written specifically for the musical.

Nick sings the song “Perfect” to relay his anxiety and anguish of trying to measure up to impossible expectations.  When he witnesses the sexual assault of his friend Bella while she was passed out drunk at a party, Nick is reluctant to get involved.  MJ also encourages him to stay silent, afraid that he might be named as an accomplice.  When Nick finally decides to come forward and relays what happened, the rape scene is re-enacted with the help of an incredible dancer who acts as an avatar for Bella who sings “Predator”, the second haunting new song that Morissette wrote specifically for the show.

This same dancer is used in the scene where MJ overdoses on fentanyl-laced opioids while singing “Uninvited”, as if personifying the hellish turmoil that she is experiencing.  As the saying goes, “when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing; when it becomes too strong for song, you dance”.  This certainly was showcased in these extremely emotional scenes and the impact was breathtaking.  In all, the choreography was probably the best part of this musical.

I was so surprised to learn that the eleven o’clock number “No” was not written specifically for the show since it fit so perfectly.  In a rally organized by Frankie to support her, Bella sings “My mind is invaded. My gates are ignored … What part of no, do you not understand?”  This is the most powerful scene of the show as anti-abuse signs are held up by most of the cast.

After all that trauma, the show ends on a happier, hopeful note with the various broken relationships being mended and friends and family reconciling.  The cast sings “You Learn” to illustrate that despite all their bad choices and decisions, they have learned to be better people (“You live, you learn; You lose, you learn…).

In considering the three musicals that I watched back-to-back-to-back, I think I liked Jagged Little Pill the best.  It was the most ambitious in terms of themes and plot, did a fabulous job of matching the lyrics of Morissette’s songs to the story, and used dance to the utmost effect.  I gained a greater appreciation for Alanis as well.  I hope that she is happier now since that was a lot of pain and anger and disappointment that she wrote about in her younger days.