Jagged Little Pill BROADWAY REVIEWS

• NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF Jagged Little Pill

  

  Review: With ‘Jagged Little Pill,’ They Finally Fixed the Jukebox

  Jesse Green

  December 5, 2019: The great news for “Jagged Little Pill,” and for us, is that its creative team, led by the director Diane Paulus, did more than just fiddle with a show that, though blurry, was already entertaining. The overhauled version that opened on Thursday at the Broadhurst Theater is fully in focus: clear in its priorities, rich in character, sincere without syrup, rousing and real. It easily clears the low bar of jukebox success to stand alongside the dark original musicals that have been sustaining the best hopes of Broadway in recent years.

  READ THE REVIEW

• DEADLINE REVIEW OF Jagged Little Pill

  

  ‘Jagged Little Pill’ Broadway Review: Hot Buttons, Alanis Morissette Songs And One Very Troubled Family

  Greg Evans

  December 5, 2019: Still, as harsh as its realities get, Jagged Little Pill, with its we can work it out ethos, doesn’t have the heart to suggest intractable, long-term consequences for its tribulations, moving to the inevitable year-later Christmas letter that contains an improbably tidy ending for the family and all of its skeletons. Jagged Little Pill can’t resist polishing itself and smoothing out every one of its prickly shards, reducing each microcosmic social issue to a future anecdote recalled at the holidays, told by one big happy family.

  READ THE REVIEW

• VARIETY REVIEW OF Jagged Little Pill

  

  Broadway Review: ‘Jagged Little Pill’

  Marilyn Stasio

  December 5, 2019: Nearly 25 years after “Jagged Little Pill” hit the shelves of record stores, Alanis Morissette’s innovative 1995 album has arrived on Broadway under the muscular direction of Diane Paulus, who launched this galvanic production at the American Repertory Theater. The show’s supportive book by screenwriter Diablo Cody interprets Morissette’s musical idiom as a universal domestic drama — with strong emphasis on the kids and their friends — recounted in heart-wrenching song. It would be an insult to call this stage adaptation a jukebox musical, because unlike most specimens of that theatrical genre, the story seems to emerge organically from the music. Both structurally and thematically, comparisons to the 2008 musical “Next to Normal” by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt are probably inevitable. (In each show, an all-American family is profoundly challenged by a mother suffering from a debilitating condition.) But Morissette’s youthful perspective and the rocking-good score make “Jagged Little Pill” feel very much of the moment — this moment.

  READ THE REVIEW

• HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW OF Jagged Little Pill

  

  'Jagged Little Pill': Theater Review

  David Rooney

  December 5, 2019: Still, there are thrilling emotional peaks and urgently relatable contemporary issues that should generate a passionate audience for Jagged Little Pill among young theatergoers who responded to musicals like Next to Normal and Dear Evan Hansen. The messiness of the show's craft is even somewhat justified by its focus on "perfectly imperfect people, just like you." Whatever the weaknesses of the creative team's work, they deserve credit for breaking the jukebox mold and building a story that wrestles with real feelings and takes a stand against complacency.

  READ THE REVIEW

• NEW YORK OBSERVER REVIEW OF Jagged Little Pill

  

  Alanis on Broadway: Did ‘Jagged Little Pill’ Get Sugarcoated?

  David Cote

  December 5, 2019: A more positive way to spin the situation is to say, Jagged Little Pill is an embarrassment of riches, just heaped in an ungainly pile. In many areas, it is. The cast is enormously appealing, with Stanley doing outstanding work as a mother who can be narcissistic, shallow, and horrid, but whose journey to the bottom is truly heartbreaking. How an actor so healthy and fresh can grow gaunt and haggard on command is a marvel. Gooding, as the brash, no-wave feminist in search of herself, is pure charisma with a pop belt to die for. Patten (whose DNA was clearly spliced from Laurie Metcalf and Bebe Neuwirth) is an instant star. Klena and Krill have less to do, but they do it quite well.

  READ THE REVIEW