Review: JAGGED LITTLE PILL at Theatre Under The Stars

I remember when everyone had the Alanis Morissette CD JAGGED LITTLE PILL.  In 1995 either you owned it, your girlfriend, your sister, or your gay brother did.  And everyone knew the career defining single “You Oughta Know” which dominated radio and MTV (back when the channel played actual videos).  Alanis and producer Glen Ballard took the grunge of the mid 90s, and married it with a pop sensibility that blew up the charts like no other artist had done with her big record label debut.  She was a unique voice that defined the era of plaid, JNCO jeans, and beanie hats.  Isn’t it ironic the music from that album is now translated into a theater piece that takes on every hot button issue of the 2020s? JAGGED LITTLE PILL the musical tries to address global warming, trans rights, non-binary struggles, opioid addiction, Black Lives Matter, gay rights, date rape, feminism, the Me Too movement, teenage drinking, and even white soccer mom struggles all in two acts.  It’s not perfect, and surprisingly it is most effective when it ignores the issues and gets personal.  Like Morissette’s music, it works best when it comes from the broken heart.  

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This show is presented by Theatre Under the Stars, and it has an official touring cast that includes Broadway actors and regional talent hand-picked to deliver JAGGED LITTLE PILL over an extended engagement.  The cast is near flawless, and the reason to see this run in Houston is for them.  JAGGED LITTLE PILL had a short Broadway engagement thanks to COVID, and this troop is the closest you will get to seeing what that original staging felt like.  This is near the end for many of the cast, and you can feel their deep love of the material pour out in their performances.  

The narrative of the show centers around the Healy family, a mother and father with their son and an adopted black daughter.  We see them initially through a picture perfect Christmas card type setting, but soon realize through the mother’s commentary that much more is happening below the surface.  The daughter is struggling with her racial and sexual identity, the son is trying to live up to their “perfect” expectations for him, the father is an absent work-a-holic, and the mother has become addicted to pain pills after a car accident.  To add fuel to their individual fires the kids are surrounded by their friends who also struggle with issues (there are so many issues).  

The script from Diablo Cody is a fun conglomeration of witty dialogue married with a ton of social problems that seems to try to address far too much.  The show goes on for two hours and thirty minutes, and man does it feel stuffed to the brim with hot topic issues.  Any audience member prone to using the word “woke” is probably going to feel alienated quickly.  But the show does work admirably when it mines the personal problems of addiction or teen angst on a character level.  There is a crispness to it that is refreshing even if it is overstuffed with a large agenda.  Cody understands the heartbreak of a teenager and a mom well enough to make those two very realistic.  

It’s always strange when a musical focuses on the hits of one singular artist, because the songs all fit a certain style and voice.  JAGGED LITTLE PILL benefits from the Alanis Morissette tunes, but they present a special problem for any of the cis-gendered males who suddenly have to deliver her trademark wailing female voice as a dude.  The women and non-binary actors rule this roost, and deliver the songs the most effectively.  There is a one-two punch in the second act which features Morrissette’s “You Oughta Know” and “Uninvited” which soar to dizzying heights thanks to their delivery from the cast members who know how to mine the feminine fury for all it is worth.  These are the moments that made me realize the strength of taking this JAGGED LITTLE PILL.  

The strongest performance of the evening belongs to Heidi Blickenstaff as Mary Jane Healy.  Heidi helped bring the show back after the pandemic shut-down of Broadway, and she returns here for the tour to amaze audiences.  It is “a little too ironic” that the cast member who probably listened to Alanis in her youth is now the one who becomes the heart and soul of JAGGED LITTLE PILL.  Her mom’s struggle with opioid addiction and a desperate need to be perfect is the best narrative arc in the show, and Heidi hits every note exactly right.  She is a powerhouse, and her performance during “Uninvited” left me shaking in my seat.  

Jade McLeod is a non-binary performer who takes on the gender fluid role of Jo, a character who the subtext and how they play the part lets you know identifies as non-binary.  Most audience members will not realize what is happening. It is never clearly or explicitly spelled out, yet they bring a trans fury to the delivery of “You Oughta Know” that transcends gender or identity.  It rips the song out of the domain of being purely one thing or the other, and Jade’s acting and singing of it is remarkable.  They blow the roof off the building, and do far more justice to the piece than the script does.  In the scene it is a simple break-up song, but in the delivery it is epic. The show features no less than three non-binary performers, and they all use their trans identities to flavor a theater piece that never truly addresses their community in any direct way.  But they are there, we see them, and they are amazing.  

Two other standouts are Allison Sheppard as Bella, and Lauren Chanel as Frankie.  One has to play the victim of an assault, and the other is the black adopted sister who is struggling with her identity on all fronts.  They both possess the right voices to bring Alanis to life on stage, and they bring a fierceness to their acting that moves their narratives along nicely.  The rest of the cast is good and capable, but you get a feeling some of the guys are out of their comfort zones vocally.  The chorus is most effective at transforming “Forgiven” into a choral rhapsody to end Act One.  In general the ensemble is tight and focused, and act as Greek chorus to all of the high stakes social drama.  

Technically the set is sparse, and relies on projections and lighting tricks to fill out the space rather than huge set pieces.  A rock band is above the cast in a loft rather than a pit which contributes to the rock concert feel of everything.  Costumes seem to come straight from the 90s with a lot of plaid, but the setting is modern day.  Some of it feels a little out of place, but overall there is a nice sheen to the show.  

JAGGED LITTLE PILL is half brilliant and half hackneyed, but there are moments when it is dizzyingly great.  A clever but overstuffed book married with challenging pop rock songs keeps the cast and audience on their toes, but when it hits the high it is worth it.  “You Oughta Know” and “Uninvited” are two of the most amazing pieces of musical theater acting I have seen in years. Alanis Morissette created music that spoke to everyone’s hurt inner bitch, and I suspect most will recognize that person in this show again.  The surprising thing is now she’s a soccer mom with a Starbucks gift card and an opioid habit rather than a twenty-something jilted by a TV star.  Or alternatively they have become they. My how the 90s have changed now that the dust has settled.   

JAGGED LITTLE PILL plays at the Houston Hobby Center through September 10th.  Theatre Under the Stars is the producing company that brings in this tour.  Photo used features actor Dillon Klena and company of the North American Tour of JAGGED LITTLE PILL by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade and was taken in 2022.

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