A ‘Jagged Little Pill’ for healing and caring

Alanis Morissette was a teenager when she started writing the songs for Jagged Little Pill — the album released in 1995 — starting with the resounding question, “Do I stress you out?” One of the best-selling albums in the history of American music, it became a cult expression of unbridled female anger, angst, and sexuality. A few decades later, the musical inspired by the album is on a countrywide post-Broadway tour, making its Philly stop through Jan. 15. It’s still as relevant and searing as ever.

Back in 2016, director Diane Paulus took “all of 30 seconds” to say yes to turning the seminal album into theater. “I had a sense of the potential of these songs on stage, the emotional power of it all. And the kind of event that could be created around experiencing this album live,” she said to The Inquirer. With Diablo Cody, who wrote the playbook, Paulus created Jagged Little PilI, the musical. Morissette’s only request; she didn’t want a biopic but an original story.

What emerged was the story of a white family in Connecticut — the Healys — living out their complicated lives through the intersections of race, addiction, abuse, and sexuality, all the while trying to hold onto a facade of a “normal, happy” family. A show, as Paulus said in a 2019 Playbill interview, has to grow on its own. Through many navigations and interrogations with depictions of gender and contemporary politics, the show has indeed grown and constantly strived to do better.

An earlier production underplayed the gender nonconformity of the character Jo. But Jade McLeod, who plays Jo on the tour, and identifies as nonbinary, said “[now] it’s really exciting, because the Jagged team, really allowed all of us — but especially me — to bring my whole self to the show. There was never a point in which we were expected to recreate what happened on Broadway.”

For McLeod, who like Morissette, is from Canada, “Alanis was one of the first women in music that was angry and unapologetic. I’m a huge punk rock metal fan, but Alanis made [that anger] mainstream. Can you imagine what it was like in 1997? Listening to her on your own and being like, ‘What? Who is this?’” Certainly not in 1997, but I definitely remember asking the same questions after listening to “You Oughta Know.”

The young actors in the cast may not have grown up listening to Morissette, but they’re all converts. Allison Sheppard, who plays Bella, downloaded the album on her phone before she got on the plane to New York for her first callback. On the long flight from California, she listened to the album on constant repeat. “I was so invested in wanting to book this role that it became the only thing I listened to” for three weeks straight, she said. “Which would have been really painful if I didn’t book it. Because by then I could recite the entire album backwards.”

» READ MORE: Two Critics Review 'Jagged Little Pill'

As much as the musical is fueled by a youthful cast, it is — much like the album — rife with dark themes and the ways in which the Healys deal with them. Reliving trauma — even scripted ones — can take a toll on the actors as they embody and perform the pain every night. “One of my first questions,” McLeod said, “was what resources are available to us as cast members as we go on this tour.” They mentioned they’re all given access to resources like counseling services and workshops around gender and racial inclusion.

Sheppard, who plays a sexual abuse survivor, “wanted to be sure that the story that was being told every night was a full story that ended with hope for survivors.” Creating a community and support for survivors is what keeps her going. “It’s become a very cathartic experience” for her as she helps create an “empowering show” every night. Instagram messages of gratitude from members of the audiences continue to validate Sheppard’s efforts. The show, McLeod said, demands the audience to embrace its themes. The people who are resistant but still stay till the end are the kind of audience McLeod loves performing to. “They might leave here being like this thing sucks. But somewhere deep down, you’re having feelings about it, because we asked you to.”

“As an artist, I don’t think I’ve ever learned more, done something, or healed more as a human [than] by doing this show. You feel like you’re having a personal experience,” said Heidi Blickenstaff, who plays Mary Jane Healy, the matriarch whose trials and ultimate healing form the crux of Jagged. “And then magically, there are other people in the audience who are having that exact same experience with you. Before you know it, you’re in this amazing club, where you’re sharing your healing with others,” she added.

In what is perhaps the most captivating scene of the musical, Mary Jane confronts a painful past, set to Morissette’s “Uninvited.” “At the end of the show, I really do feel like I got a lot of crap out, thanks to being able to literally scream. I have never in my life on stage — and I’ve been doing this forever — screamed at all of my demons. I recommend it to everyone.”

Morissette is an advocate for therapy and mental health care and Paulus admits learning a lot from her when it comes to understanding trauma and healing. “She has always said,” Paulus said, “the way we heal is in relation to each other.” A duty of care is a principle that guides the Jagged cast and crew. For Dillon Klena who plays Nick (his brother, Derek, played the same role on Broadway) “the best form of activism is theater.”

“If you can get somebody to believe something,” he said to The Inquirer, “then I feel like you’re making a difference.” For him, the character of Nick epitomizes people who find themselves caught amid crises but can’t decide what they should do. “People can connect with Nick because even if you don’t understand something, there’s always something to learn from a situation. Something that helps you grow and become better.”

“Theatre,” Paulus said, “is ultimately completed in the audience.” The crew and cast are constantly adding “nips and tucks” to the show to keep up with the contemporary moment “without it being tied specifically to a political day.” The protest signs, like the show itself, keep changing as the musical travels.

Quoting her favorite Morissette song, Paulus described the heart of Jagged Little Pill: “You lose, you learn/You bleed, you learn./You scream, you learn.”

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“Jagged Little Pill” runs at Kimmel Cultural Campus until Jan. 15. Tickets: https://www.kimmelculturalcampus.org/events-and-tickets/202223/broadway/jagged-little-pill/