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May 22, 2018 12:48 PM Subscribe
Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill has been made into a musical opening May 24th at the American Repertory Theater. NPR has a piece with Diablo Cody.
From the NYT article: “Jagged Little Pill” strips away the picture-perfect veneer of a Connecticut family over the course of a year and reckons with issues including gun control and opiate addiction. The show tackles hot-button issues like opiate addiction, gender identity and sexual assault, as well as more quietly urgent ones like transracial adoption, marital bed death and image-consciousness. It also contains imagery from the Women’s March and the #NeverAgain gun-control movement.
Previously
From the NYT article: “Jagged Little Pill” strips away the picture-perfect veneer of a Connecticut family over the course of a year and reckons with issues including gun control and opiate addiction. The show tackles hot-button issues like opiate addiction, gender identity and sexual assault, as well as more quietly urgent ones like transracial adoption, marital bed death and image-consciousness. It also contains imagery from the Women’s March and the #NeverAgain gun-control movement.
Previously
You should drive there in second gear.
posted by sjswitzer at 2:26 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by sjswitzer at 2:26 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
I've got my tickets! This is going to be entertaining one way or another.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 3:20 PM on May 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 3:20 PM on May 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
I want you to know I’m very happy for her.
posted by The Gooch at 3:54 PM on May 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by The Gooch at 3:54 PM on May 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
I wonder if I would like this. I could see it, and I still regret missing Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 as it got off the ground there.
As a sad angry '90s teen girl, I didn't enjoy this album because it reminded me of everything I hated about being a sad angry '90s teen girl. I didn't want to be bitter and resentful about boys all the time; I was, of course, but I wanted to be better than that. And so I listened to showtunes.
And now this is showtunes. I've also learned by now that you can't fix your pain by deciding that you're too good to feel it, that you just don't want to be someone with that kind of rage and vulnerability. Maybe I'm ready for this show.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:57 PM on May 22, 2018 [10 favorites]
As a sad angry '90s teen girl, I didn't enjoy this album because it reminded me of everything I hated about being a sad angry '90s teen girl. I didn't want to be bitter and resentful about boys all the time; I was, of course, but I wanted to be better than that. And so I listened to showtunes.
And now this is showtunes. I've also learned by now that you can't fix your pain by deciding that you're too good to feel it, that you just don't want to be someone with that kind of rage and vulnerability. Maybe I'm ready for this show.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:57 PM on May 22, 2018 [10 favorites]
opening May 24th at the American Repertory Theater.
So this is going down in a theater?
posted by bondcliff at 4:04 PM on May 22, 2018 [48 favorites]
So this is going down in a theater?
posted by bondcliff at 4:04 PM on May 22, 2018 [48 favorites]
*sighs*
Favorited. But watch yourself, counselor...
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:14 PM on May 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
Favorited. But watch yourself, counselor...
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:14 PM on May 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
*Looks at watch*
I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner, but...
“Ironic” is sung in the context of a high school writing workshop and the scene makes a joke from the elephant in the room: decades of pedants nit-picking the song’s misuse of the word “ironic.”
“I’m probably laughing the hardest in the audience,” Ms. Morissette said, adding that when she worked on the song with the songwriter and producer Glen Ballard, “we didn’t give a [expletive] about the malapropism.”
She also didn’t think many people would even hear it. But once “Ironic” became a hit, there were entire website forums dedicated to shaming the song and — in true internet fashion — thinking of ways to murder Ms. Morissette.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:20 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner, but...
“Ironic” is sung in the context of a high school writing workshop and the scene makes a joke from the elephant in the room: decades of pedants nit-picking the song’s misuse of the word “ironic.”
“I’m probably laughing the hardest in the audience,” Ms. Morissette said, adding that when she worked on the song with the songwriter and producer Glen Ballard, “we didn’t give a [expletive] about the malapropism.”
She also didn’t think many people would even hear it. But once “Ironic” became a hit, there were entire website forums dedicated to shaming the song and — in true internet fashion — thinking of ways to murder Ms. Morissette.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:20 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
I really want this to be good. The A.R.T. where it was developed is fucking fabulous and a great breeding ground for excellent musicals like The Waitress and Apocalyptic Vaudeville.
Bummed I'm not in MA to see this one. When we heard about it, the lady and I (both fans of the album) had the same reaction: that sounds like it should be terrible but it's almost certainly going to be excellent.
posted by es_de_bah at 4:24 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Bummed I'm not in MA to see this one. When we heard about it, the lady and I (both fans of the album) had the same reaction: that sounds like it should be terrible but it's almost certainly going to be excellent.
posted by es_de_bah at 4:24 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm more of a Robin Sparkles man, myself.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:32 PM on May 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:32 PM on May 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
I heard about this when it went into development, but didn't realize it was happening, like, now. I'm excited for it to be good and to be worthwhile overall. I'm one of the (what I suspect is very few) who have continued to follow Alanis' career across the decades, and some of her more recent albums are really outstanding. Flavors Of Entanglement from a decade ago struck me as quite good but the next in my library, 2012's Havoc And Bright Lights, I con't remember listening to enough for it to create any impression on me. That's the most recent offering I have from her. Maybe I should catch up on whatever moves she's done since then.
Still, when your first major album and the one after that are Jagged Little Pill and Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, it's hard to somehow top that. Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos are the others I have in my library.
Looking at Wikipedia, I discover I basically own her entire catalog. Hrm. i had no idea I was a Super Fan!
posted by hippybear at 5:18 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Still, when your first major album and the one after that are Jagged Little Pill and Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, it's hard to somehow top that. Under Rug Swept and So-Called Chaos are the others I have in my library.
Looking at Wikipedia, I discover I basically own her entire catalog. Hrm. i had no idea I was a Super Fan!
posted by hippybear at 5:18 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
That theatre is going to be so full of go down on you in a.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:25 PM on May 22, 2018
posted by Sys Rq at 7:25 PM on May 22, 2018
I'd personally hope the show would be good enough to distract audience members from requesting that from their partners/dates.
posted by hippybear at 7:42 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 7:42 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Thank you for this. Listening to, and enjoying the hell out of, Jagged Little Pill right now.
I lived one year in Chicago right after college, working in theatre and generally fucking up my entire life, and this album will always be that year to me. I bounced back. Thanks for the hope, Alanis.
posted by greermahoney at 8:36 PM on May 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
I lived one year in Chicago right after college, working in theatre and generally fucking up my entire life, and this album will always be that year to me. I bounced back. Thanks for the hope, Alanis.
posted by greermahoney at 8:36 PM on May 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
Act 1. Scene 1.
Setting: A spoon factory in rural America. A small table with a single glass of Chardonnay. Through the back window we can see ominous clouds and the contrail of a passenger aircraft. MAUREEN is rifling through drawers and drawers of spoons.
MAUREEN: Ugh! I know this is a spoon factory but how are there no other utensils! And it's my wedding day! What else could go wrong?
posted by oulipian at 3:41 AM on May 23, 2018 [10 favorites]
Setting: A spoon factory in rural America. A small table with a single glass of Chardonnay. Through the back window we can see ominous clouds and the contrail of a passenger aircraft. MAUREEN is rifling through drawers and drawers of spoons.
MAUREEN: Ugh! I know this is a spoon factory but how are there no other utensils! And it's my wedding day! What else could go wrong?
posted by oulipian at 3:41 AM on May 23, 2018 [10 favorites]
This must have been my favorite album in high school. I remember being confused at hearing radio announcers shiver about how Alanis was such an angry person, and I was puzzled because other than You Oughta Know that's not accurate at all, and I realized that apparently women aren't allowed to ever be angry on the radio. It was a moment of enwokening for me.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:55 AM on May 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:55 AM on May 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
I more or less detest the idea of jukebox musicals, but Alanis's lyrics just seem innately theatrical. I can't wait to see what this becomes.
Also, I saw a theory posited in a watchmojo.com list of misinterpreted songs that "Ironic" is itself BEING ironic by stating that all the non-ironic events catalogued in the song are ironic.
And then, my mind exploded.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 7:36 AM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also, I saw a theory posited in a watchmojo.com list of misinterpreted songs that "Ironic" is itself BEING ironic by stating that all the non-ironic events catalogued in the song are ironic.
And then, my mind exploded.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 7:36 AM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
I love Jagged Little Pill a lot, enough that in a slightly tipsy state in a very bro-heavy bar I once spent $10 to play the whole thing in a row on the jukebox. This is so great and I'm going to try to find a way to see it.
posted by SeedStitch at 8:21 AM on May 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by SeedStitch at 8:21 AM on May 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
I remember being confused at hearing radio announcers shiver about how Alanis was such an angry person,
She had 4 or 5 songs on JLP that were unabashedly about calling people (usually men) out on their shit. In a society where women are supposed to be nurturing and accommodating, refusing to let bad behavior slide looks like hateful vitriol to those who have always gotten away with it before. The album also has sweet love songs and moving peices of patience and hope. But the percentage of the other was too damn high, so she was “angry.”
posted by greermahoney at 9:30 AM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
She had 4 or 5 songs on JLP that were unabashedly about calling people (usually men) out on their shit. In a society where women are supposed to be nurturing and accommodating, refusing to let bad behavior slide looks like hateful vitriol to those who have always gotten away with it before. The album also has sweet love songs and moving peices of patience and hope. But the percentage of the other was too damn high, so she was “angry.”
posted by greermahoney at 9:30 AM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
You are, of course, right about the different standards applied to women. But I don't remember a lot of the criticism of her calling the album hatefully vitriolic. I remember people who heard her on the radio saying that she seemed angry. I think that it's okay for people, including women, to be angry and to sing angry songs. I was going through a breakup at the time this album was out. I was hurt, embarrassed, despondent and angry and I listened to JLP over and over. In part, because it was angry. I had friends that also responded similarly to her music. Yes, women absolutely are called shrill and angry and told to smile, but at the same time some of the music on JLP was, "fuck you dude" and it was glorious.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:32 AM on May 23, 2018
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:32 AM on May 23, 2018
"“Ironic” is sung in the context of a high school writing workshop and the scene makes a joke from the elephant in the room: decades of pedants nit-picking the song’s misuse of the word “ironic.”
“I’m probably laughing the hardest in the audience,” Ms. Morissette said, adding that when she worked on the song with the songwriter and producer Glen Ballard, “we didn’t give a [expletive] about the malapropism.”
She also didn’t think many people would even hear it. But once “Ironic” became a hit, there were entire website forums dedicated to shaming the song and — in true internet fashion — thinking of ways to murder Ms. Morissette."
I feel like these little angry debates usually end with somebody chiming in to discuss the various types of irony, of which the examples in her song are applicable. Maybe that's just because I dip out at that point since the matter seems resolved -- realistically no reason to assume everyone else is ready to put away their smug pitchforks.
posted by GoblinHoney at 2:10 PM on May 24, 2018
“I’m probably laughing the hardest in the audience,” Ms. Morissette said, adding that when she worked on the song with the songwriter and producer Glen Ballard, “we didn’t give a [expletive] about the malapropism.”
She also didn’t think many people would even hear it. But once “Ironic” became a hit, there were entire website forums dedicated to shaming the song and — in true internet fashion — thinking of ways to murder Ms. Morissette."
I feel like these little angry debates usually end with somebody chiming in to discuss the various types of irony, of which the examples in her song are applicable. Maybe that's just because I dip out at that point since the matter seems resolved -- realistically no reason to assume everyone else is ready to put away their smug pitchforks.
posted by GoblinHoney at 2:10 PM on May 24, 2018
Playbill has posted a round-up of links to reviews of the premiere.
From the Boston Globe:
The defining song of Morissette’s emotionally incendiary “Jagged Little Pill” is a bed of nails called “You Oughta Know.” In the American Repertory Theater’s world premiere production at the Loeb Drama Center, it arrives in the second act and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as if called to attention by a military commanding officer. It was the same reaction I had when I first heard it 23 years ago. Age has not dulled the song’s urgency. It still rumbles like a thunderstorm, climaxing with a voice cracking “You-oo-oo oughta know.” Its staying power was clear when the audience at the ART rose to offer a standing ovation. The ovation came at the end of the song, not at the end of the show.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:47 PM on May 25, 2018
From the Boston Globe:
The defining song of Morissette’s emotionally incendiary “Jagged Little Pill” is a bed of nails called “You Oughta Know.” In the American Repertory Theater’s world premiere production at the Loeb Drama Center, it arrives in the second act and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as if called to attention by a military commanding officer. It was the same reaction I had when I first heard it 23 years ago. Age has not dulled the song’s urgency. It still rumbles like a thunderstorm, climaxing with a voice cracking “You-oo-oo oughta know.” Its staying power was clear when the audience at the ART rose to offer a standing ovation. The ovation came at the end of the song, not at the end of the show.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:47 PM on May 25, 2018
I saw this last night. I'll try to keep this spoiler-free...
It was very fun night at the theater. Overall, the show is a mixed bag, but a lot of it was quite excellent. "You Oughta Know" was definitely fire. They teed it up perfectly, and the actor knocked it out of the park. "All I Really Want" was super awkward and "Ironic" felt like something we just had to get through. "Hand in my Pocket" was great, as was "Uninvited". Most of the rest seemed to function fine. I haven't seen a lot of jukebox musicals, but I imagine they all have the problem of the songs not matching up perfectly with the scene the way they would in a traditional musical.
It was a show that captured the energy and rage of adolescence, and provided the nuance and depth of a raging adolescence. It was overstuffed with plot, each of 3 or 4 storylines touching on a hot button issue of today. Their intentions are good, but they don't leave themselves room to give any one of these stories the attention they deserve. There are performances and pieces of choreography that flesh things out as far as they can, but I was ultimately left wanting more.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 9:08 AM on May 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
It was very fun night at the theater. Overall, the show is a mixed bag, but a lot of it was quite excellent. "You Oughta Know" was definitely fire. They teed it up perfectly, and the actor knocked it out of the park. "All I Really Want" was super awkward and "Ironic" felt like something we just had to get through. "Hand in my Pocket" was great, as was "Uninvited". Most of the rest seemed to function fine. I haven't seen a lot of jukebox musicals, but I imagine they all have the problem of the songs not matching up perfectly with the scene the way they would in a traditional musical.
It was a show that captured the energy and rage of adolescence, and provided the nuance and depth of a raging adolescence. It was overstuffed with plot, each of 3 or 4 storylines touching on a hot button issue of today. Their intentions are good, but they don't leave themselves room to give any one of these stories the attention they deserve. There are performances and pieces of choreography that flesh things out as far as they can, but I was ultimately left wanting more.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 9:08 AM on May 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Well, "Leave 'em wanting more" is a standard trope of show business, so from that perspective, it was entirely successful.
posted by hippybear at 12:31 PM on May 26, 2018
posted by hippybear at 12:31 PM on May 26, 2018
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