Music Review: Jagged Little Pill: Original Broadway Cast Recording

Jagged Little Pill: Original Broadway Cast Recording

based on music by Alanis Morissette (Hoopla Digital Music)

 

This 2019 Broadway musical makes extensive use of the songs of Alanis Morissette that appeared on her third studio album, Jagged Little Pill in 1995 (as well as other Morissette music). The musical credits the music to Morissette and Glen Ballard, with book by Diablo Cody, and additional music by Michael Farrell and Guy Sigsworth. Morissette wrote two new songs specifically for the musical, “Smiling” and “Predator”, the former of which has subsequently been included on one of her albums.

 

The music all serves as a framing sequence for a story about a family going through some complicated times. Mary Jane “MJ” Healy is a mother, trying to hold her family together, despite the fact that it’s falling apart. Her husband is addicted to pornography, her teenaged daughter Frankie is trying to figure out what her sexual identity is, her “perfect” son Nick can’t live up to his reputation, and MJ herself is addicted to painkillers following a car accident. Iconic Morissette songs, like “All I Really Want”, “Hand in My Pocket”, “Forgiven”, “Hand Over Feet”, “You Oughta Know” and “Uninvited” take on multiple new meanings as sung by these characters, who are trying to find their way through a painful world to some pockets of happiness.

 

Honestly, though I do love Morissette’s original album, the performances and interpretations of these iconic songs by the various cast members of this show have almost more emotional power than the original recordings. Morissette was closely involved in the transition of her work onto the Broadway stage, and is said to be very pleased with how the show turned out. Sadly, the show made its Broadway opening in December 2019, and was one of the many shows to have been shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic — whether the original cast will return to recreate the show once the pandemic is done is unknown. Jagged Little Pill did receive 15 Tony Award nominations, and this album won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. The libraries have it available as a digital album through Hoopla, though not as a CD.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the original Jagged Little Pill album by Morissette, or the sheet music from the Broadway musical by Alanis Morissette, available in the Polley Music Library.]

[ official Alanis Morissette web site ] | [ official Jagged Little Pill Musical web site ] 

 

See Jeremiah J.’s review of Alanis Morissette’s original Jagged Little Pill album in the July 2013 Staff Recommendations on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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