Jagged Little Pill to Premiere at ART — Page 5

karen24 said: "I’m visiting Boston with friends in June and our “host” friend got us tickets for this. She said the only seats she could get were close to the stage, so now I’m worried, since none of us are even close to 6 ft tall! I hate sitting too close to a tall stage & getting a stiff neck. Oh well. We’ll just make the best of it. I’m interested in seeing it as it’s always exciting to see a new show, and I do like the music."

I sat front row when Waitress was there and the stage is high but not super high. I'm 5'9" and I could see everything happening.

They rebuild the staging from scratch for pretty much every show at the ART, so what you saw 2 months or 2 years ago is likely very different now.

I caught the show on Tuesday. The stage is indeed quite high but a lot of the actual action is downstage and there's really nothing happening on the floor apart from highly repetitive group choreography and one small scene (which is pivotal but you don't need to see what's happening to know it's happening unless you're a pervert).

The book is quite strong plot wise. Dialogue is fantastic too, imo. Humor flowed pretty smoothly and it really did not feel like a jukebox musical. Agree with other posters that they need to work on a few other side characters to make them more compelling, or at least give them more dimension. Steve Healy/Dad in particular was one of the painfully under-developer character who need a better arc than "he was an absent father" (which, btw, is near impossible to internalize since he's ALWAYS on stage). Minor changes could really make the show perfect.

Celia Gooding was out again. Her understudy was really good in act I, she sort of disappeared for me in the second act. Partly because of how the character is written, but mostly because of how underwhelming the performer was in act II. The story was too intense for her to be playing the character in the exact same way in both acts.


Lauren Patten - HOLY COW that voice! I wanted to give her a standing ovation after her big number in act II. The audience gave it a well deserved sustained applause which probably lasted at least a solid minute if not two. Rest of the performers were good but no one was really mind-blowing. Some singers were pitchy but I am more forgiving of that because the songs are damn hard and a little bit of vocal coaching can fix it. They definitely need to recast a couple of actors up there if they won't change the book - their stage presence is not strong enough for them to make up for a weak character.

Now the staging and direction. Sigh. Full disclaimer - I don't like Diane Paulus' work. She makes the stage too busy with a lot of crap happening which distracts you from meat of the show. But oh my, she has held back in this show a lot. Some scenes like the rape and overdose scenes are truly genius. There's a few numbers which warrant the concert like feel to it and she's done them justice, but the band coming on stage in every 2nd song loses its power. I hope she reduces the noise in some of the other critical scenes, especially with the flickering background. Speaking of which, I was not a fan of the set design. Personally don't think the show needs to rely on projections and panels this heavily. I know it takes a lot of choreography and tech precision, but that scenery feels lazy to me. It stopped feeling fresh 7 years ago.

The Next To Normal comparisons are inevitable, but I personally thought that music in this show is better. I wouldn't mind seeing what Robert Spencer or Brian D'arcy James could do with Steve Healy's role.

Do the musical arrangements have the same rock edge as the original music on the cd. My fear is that they may have "smoothed" them over a bit.

I’m on the train home after coming up to Boston to see this today and thought that it was OK. Like the tagline says, the truth can be tough to swallow (yes, that is really the tagline!), and the truth is that Jagged Little Pill is highly derivative of several shows, namely Josh Radnor’s Spring Awakening, American Idiot and especially Next to Normal.

There’s lots of “Seasons of Love” staging a.k.a. plant the cast in dramatic poses across the front of the stage and have them belt as hard as they can with hand gestures and pulled faces.

The music is orchestrated well, but it all sounds a hell of a lot like Next to Normal’s orchestrations which only adds to the comparisons with the similar plot.

The show needs a better opening. There’s a smattering of singing from the ensemble and then two book scenes that are reminiscent of “Just Another Day” from N2N, followed by “All I Really Want,” which almost feels like filler so early on. “Hand in My Pocket” comes next and you can feel the audience perk up finally hearing a hit.

The songs spring forth more organically than they do in most jukebox musicals, but Alanis’ lyrics are all about feelings and mood; they never advance the plot at all.

The musical has a real problem with focus. There is a very heavy sexual assault/rape plot line given to a minor character we basically never get to know and learn nothing about aside from the fact that she was raped. You can have so much of the plot revolve around this character who has received so little agency to tell her story from the authors. The father and brother are nothing roles, though the actors try their best.

Elizabeth Stanley plays Mary Jane, who is so much of a Diana redux that you have to wonder if the creators went to the Lincoln Center Library to watch N2N and copy the same story. Maybe Tom Kitt gave them permission to do so? I kid, but the similarities are strong.

The staging/choreography is most like American Idiot/Spring Awakening- lots of young, angry kids jumping around, kicking and punching up into the air.

The cast is very diverse and the message leans hard into the #metoo movement. I didn’t love the set and HATED most of the projections. Many were unintentionally hilarious. I will be curious to see this again when it presumably comes to Broadway after they’ve (hopefully) fleshed out all of the supporting characters.

The show is about FEELINGS! And they are DEEPLY FELT!!!

There is a plot...I’ll condense it with SPOILERS below...





The show begins with Mary Jane (Stanley) narrating the annual Christmas letter from her perfect Greenwich, CT home, surrounded by her husband, Dan, daughter Natalie and son Gabe, the perfect loving family, so adoring. MJ was in a car accident months before and is now addicted to pain pills. She even goes to visit a pharmacist and later a therapist (with husband- real character name Steve). She battles this addiction throughout the play, leading to an eventual overdose which is reminiscent to Diana’s suicide attempt and later hospitalization.

Steve, like Dan, is endlessly supportive of his wife, wants to make the marriage work out and attempts to hold the family together.

The son- Nick- has just been accepted to a great school and he’s quite committed to doing homework. That’s all there is to say about him...

The daughter- Frankie- in a way is the real lead of the story. She is bisexual and has a gender non-binary best-friend/friend with benefits named Jo. She then meets another student named Phoenix, who is basically the Henry or the story, and they have a sexual relationship too.

Bella, a friend of Frankie and Jo’s, is the one who was raped, but her role is tiny. It’s a date rape at a drunken house party by a classmate type deal, and we don’t find out anything about Bella other than her victim status. She is not a fleshed out character and I guess the show is more about how everyone reacts to the rape rather than Bella telling her story.

There are scenes parodying the shallow women of Greenwich. There’s a scene with three post-yoga women in a coffee shop. The black barista asks one what she’ll be having and the woman responds, “A skinny flat white.” “Shocker,” replies the barista. “Would any of you like a pastry?” “NO!” all three shout in irritated unison. Not exactly edgy social commentary.

Will the family come together, or will they break apart? Alanis’ songs help them sing about all of their feelings. There is a resolution.

BroadwayConcierge said: "Blech. "Feelings" shows make me cringe. Kind of regretting having planned a trip to Boston for this one..."

Next To Normal, If/Then and Dear Evan Hansen. The trilogy of angsty musicals. Suppose I'll add this one to avoid.

Full disclosure: Did see the first two and will see the third when it tours. Just because they are not my cup of meat my group patrons are usually interested. "What I did for love".

dramamama611 said: "Um...aren't the purpose of musicals "feelings"? That's why we sing, after all.

When words are no longer enough, we sing; when singing isn't enough, we dance."

Good call! There are musicals without "feelings" but I tend to hate those. Of course, we don't just want feelings and nothing else. A healthy and engaging plot with songs that helps us "feel" something (happy, sad, anger, excitement, admiration) is a good recipe.

I really am excited to see Jagged Little Pill. I just don't know if I can make it to Boston during the run and may have to wait until broadway.