Jagged Little Pill National Tour — Page 2

Saw last night’s performance. The lottery seats were in row D of the balcony, which were perfect. It looked well sold around us but definitely not sold out. Our row specifically had a bunch of empty single seats, so each group was able to spread out, which was nice. I couldn’t see the two balconies above us so I am unsure what the whole picture is with sales. 

I actually went in with low expectations and wound up completely moved by the entire experience. The design was spectacular and I found it very effective. The transition into the church at the end of act one was especially thrilling. The book and story are definitely imperfect, but I was very invested in it. Not everything landed, but the stuff that did made me very emotional, as someone who has experienced some of the traumas dealt with in the show. 

Heidi was on and she was phenomenal. I’ve been a fan since the [title of show] days and have never gotten to see her live in anything, so it was a real treat to finally have that experience. Smiling, Forgiven, and Uninvited were emotional and impactful, my friend and I both had streaming tears during those songs. 

Jade McLeod was also a standout as Jo, and their You Oughta Know brought the goddamn house down. But the whole Frankie/Jo/Phoenix subplot feels super underbaked. 

But overall I had a wonderful time and am very glad to have seen it. 

Updated On: 1/14/23 at 12:17 PM

I'm assuming this is no longer coming to Toronto? It seems to be scrubbed from the Mirvish website. I don't remember if it was supposed to be a tour stop or sit-down production.

I saw it on 1/19 (Providence, RI). The interesting thing was that the 1/17 performance on Tuesday was cancelled and refunded. https://www.rimonthly.com/you-oughta-know-the-jagged-little-pill-show-will-go-on-at-ppac/.  (There were apparently sufficient seats for later performances in the week. Automatic refund if you didn't call by Friday to reissue the ticket).  After starting 20 mins, tech work for an hour, restarting at beginning for 10 mins they gave up and cancelled.  Apparently Heidi came out and entertained the crowd during the hour.

It was a pretty solid show, but quite a few differences from the original ART version I saw twice.  Definitely more family friendly -- probably could have brought my kids.  They explain a lot of things in more detail, which I'm not sure makes for a better show.  Also, Jordan Leigh McCaskill was in for Frankie -- she was pretty good but not outstanding, very confident and comfortable though, I would have thought she was the regular if I hadn't specifically checked the board.

 

Updated On: 1/20/23 at 05:02 PM

I was at the Tuesday cancelled performance in Providence and came back Thursday to see it. Heidi was very kind and funny and charming when she came out and chatted with us for about 15-20 minutes at the first breakdown on Tuesday. Anyway, I thought the cast was pretty good with Heidi and Jade the clear standouts. (Actually I wasn't a huge fan of Dillon Klena -- both his singing and acting at certain times were pretty rough.) I came away really wanting to see both women in other (better?) shows.

I hadn't seen this before and am not a huge Alanis fan (so only knew the big hits). I didn't really love act 1 but with the one-two punch of You Outta Know and UnInvited halfway through act 2 and all through the end, I ended up liking it a lot more overall than I expected to. The choreography felt really dated/distracting to me...until Uninvited, which I actually really enjoyed and found the staging for very clever and compelling. There were definitely moments when songs with abstract lyrics seemed kind of shoehorned into very heavy and specific confrontations that I didn't love, but I guess that's a jukebox musical for you. Overall I'm glad I was able to go back and see it.

Heads up to anyone planning to catch this in Cincinnati - Heidi is out the whole week