A Not-At-All-Tough Pill to Swallow

I had planned a different blog post for today. But then last night, I saw Jagged Little Pill.

This musical based on the songs of Alanis Morissette had a brief and ill-fated fun on Broadway, affected just months after opening by the COVID shutdowns of 2020, and then affected again shortly after re-opening by a wave of COVID infections among the cast that brought the show to an early end. Now it's back in a touring U.S. production.

I didn't exactly have high hopes going into the performance. There are way too many "jukebox musicals" coming out of Broadway these days, and the ones I've seen are all "meh" at best. They all have the same problem: they feature threadbare stories (usually based on the life of the featured artist) that bend over backwards to fit in the narrow catalog of songs they have to work with. One's enjoyment of such fare turns entirely on whether one likes the artist in question... and even then, the shows can't help but be a pale imitation of just listening to the original song recordings.

Jagged Little Pill surpasses all that to a stunning degree. And I personally attribute it all to the woman they turned to to write the script. Diablo Cody has a notable career in film and television of telling stories that blend acerbic wit and genuine heart. She was also apparently a big fan of Alanis Morrissette's music, and willing to work within the one creative restriction Morrissette reportedly gave this production: don't make this musical her life story.

The result is a jukebox musical done not just right, but superbly. There is an actual story here, with many well-realized and topical subplots and themes, including addiction, racial justice, sexual identity, and rape. It's so defiant and matter-of-fact that it could have come across false or reductive, were it not for Diablo Cody's earnest writing assuring you that this isn't performative, but deeply felt. It could have come across like "medicine" (the title of show becoming, well... if not "ironic," then on-the-nose), but Cody weaves in dozens of legitimately great jokes to lighten the mood.

And the real trick of the writing -- which deservedly won the Tony for Best Book of a Musical -- is that the songs all feel completely organic. Imagine that you'd never heard "Head Over Feet" or "Hand in My Pocket" or "You Learn" (hard as that might be). You would never know that these songs weren't written for this musical. (Side note: Morrissette actually did write two original songs for this show... but you'd never know those weren't deep album cuts that simply never got radio play.) It's all organic in a way that no other jukebox musical I've ever seen even comes close to.

Then there are the moments where writing and acting converge to create something truly magical. It happens at least once in each act of the show: first in the new song "Smiling" in Act One, which features a haunting melody staged with stunningly complex and well-executed choreography that feels like watching an excellent, special-effects laden music video play out in real time. (I'd love to tell you the specific gimmick of the staging, but I think it would spoil the fun if you ever get to see it.)

Then there's the staggering one-two punch in Act Two, back-to-back, of "You Oughta Know" and "Uninvited." Performers Jade McLeod and Heidi Blickenstaff give powerful, emotional performances that each brought the production to a halt for enthusiastic applause. The script has cleverly steered their characters to moments where each song is the perfect peak for their story arcs. It's another way in which Jagged Little Pill bucks a Broadway trend, of the second act almost never being as good. Even if nothing about the production was good, these two songs would be reason enough to see it.

But just about everything else about the production is good. Things maybe drag for just a bit in the middle of the first act -- but then, laying this much story track takes a bit of time, and this features more significant characters than the average Broadway musical. The interpretive dancing of a large chorus is perhaps occasionally distracting -- though moving any complicated dancing to them lets the main cast focus on the acting and singing.

In any case, I'd give Jagged Little Pill an A-. It's in Denver a short while longer, and then continuing to tour the U.S. If you have a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.