On Tour: Jagged Little Pill

You oughta know I caught Jagged Little Pill on tour.

I was lucky enough to catch a preview performance of the musical on Broadway in 2019, before the Broadway shutdown. I have previously written about the show during the pandemic and how deeply the performance affected me. Now, in about its fourth iteration of the show—after the edits made to the book in October 2021, and again for the tour—I was excited to see the revised version for the tour.

The material of this show has been fairly controversial during various parts of its run on Broadway and pre-Broadway, and while I want to acknowledge that, I want to keep the focus on the tour cast and this performance. I don’t think it’s fair to judge this company on the previous controversy within the Broadway company, and would rather uplift the talents and what the new cast brings to the table.

Jagged Little Pill is a jukebox musical with music by Alanis Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, and book by Diablo Cody, with additional music by Michael Farrell and Guy Sigsworth. The musical is inspired by Morissette’s 1995 album of the same name and deals with themes of pain, healing, and empowerment. The musical premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2018. The show transferred to Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre in the fall of 2019, and opened on December 5, 2019. After shutting down in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the production reopened in October 2021 and subsequently closed on December 17, 2021, in the wave of the Omnicron variant. Jagged Little Pill won two Tony awards and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2021.

The touring production uses a redesigned set from the original Broadway production, presumably for ease of traveling and for set up in various venues. The original production primarily used open scaffolding to create the illusion of a house on stage. The touring production uses more defined panels and set pieces to create the illusion of the house. At times the touring production often felt smaller or more closed on stage or that the use of set design filled in a large touring house space.

As far as jukebox musicals go, I really like the way Morissette’s music has been integrated into the musical. There are of course a few odd fittings into the score that come with the nature of a jukebox musical (the “Ironic” placement has never been the best to me, but of course the song is iconic and had to be included), but overall, if you’re unfamiliar with Morissette’s catalog, I’m not sure that you would realize it was a jukebox musical to begin with.

The book has also been revised since I saw the show on Broadway in 2019. It was mostly in the form of a few different punchlines, but also there were lines in the original production that were played as a punchline, which had turned to a more serious tone. Overall, I thought the book was fine. There are still a few spots that are a bit disjointed or don’t feel believable based on how we see the Healys interact amongst their family and with other characters. When the creative team had indicated they were making changes for the tour I had expected them to be more significant.

I was blown away by the talent in this cast. Heidi Blinkenstaff (Mary Jane Healy) leads this company with fearless force. Her voice is powerful and commands the room, while she dives deep into the character of Mary Jane, and pulls out a dynamic character in her performance. I was especially moved by her performance of “Smiling,” “Forgiven,” and “Uninvited.”

Jade Mcleod‘s breakout performance as Jo was a highlight of this production. Their voice is incredible and I was immediately hooked from “Hand in My Pocket,” and highly anticipated hearing their rendition of “You Oughta Know.” Mcleod brought the emotional Morissette punch to the stage and softened the blow with impeccable comedic timing.

I was thrilled to be able to catch Dillon Klena on stage in his national tour debut as Nick Healy. Klena excels in the deeper, emotional scenes, cutting through “Wake Up,” and “Perfect” with ease. He kept Nick multifaceted with both teenage angst and gentle remorse.

Lauren Chanel captured the fire of teenage spirit with her performance as Frankie Healy. Her voice is powerful, capturing the stage in numbers like “All I Really Want,” and “Ironic,” but her true showstopping moment was in “Unprodigal Daughter.”

I was so glad I was able to revisit this show. I laughed and cried, and with a bit of time away from it, I felt like I was able to watch it with fresh eyes and really feel it.

Thank U, Jagged Little Pill for a brilliant performance, and for finding the cracks and seams of our hearts!