No. no no no no no no no.

No.

Let me start with what I did like, and then I’ll get into why the show overall did not work for me at all:

1. The music. I really like Alanis Morissette. I like how she has a clear artistic voice, i.e. you can hear a song and know she wrote it. I think her catalogue is really lovely, and I think it’s wasted in this musical, partly because the sound quality of this production is so, so bad, and partly because some of the actors’ diction was incomprehensible.
2. The cast was energetic, youthful, and full of life, even for a Wednesday matinee performance.
3. It’s a jukebox musical, but the music doesn’t feel out of place and ties in well with the plot (even though I don’t like the plot).
4. The dancing was beautiful. Really, really beautiful. Carmella Taitt and Shelby Finnie were featured, and I found their performances very moving.
5. Dillon Klena‘s acting. I thought he was wonderful, grounded, earnest.
6. Allison Sheppard, Jade McLeod, and Julie Reiber‘s voices. I really liked Jade McLeod’s performance of “You Oughta Know,” even if I do fear for the health of their vocal chords after the screamo-style moments toward the end of the song.
7. Elaine Watson – best voice of the cast. I was sad she wasn’t featured more, but was happy to see her when she was.
8. The fact that Rishi Golani describes himself as a “Mario Kart prodigy” in his playbill bio.
9. The sweaters that Frankie (Teralin Jones) wore.

Ok, so now onto why this show bugs me. As a springboard for discussion, please see the photo below, which is a snapshot of a touring cast performing one of the first numbers of the show. Note that the signs held up are the same for all productions:

Photo credit: Daniel Boud.

If you can’t see the image above/it’s too small to read, I’ll list the signs for you:

• “Trans is beautiful”
• “Stop separating families”
• “Does my period scare you?”
• “No justice no peace”
• “My body my choice”
• “Black joy matters”
• “Disability rights are human rights”
• “The oceans are rising and so are we”
• “Queer kids for peace”
• “White silence costs lives”
• “This pussy grabs back”
• “Don’t be a fossil fool”
• “Loves knows no gender”
• “No ban on stolen land”

A couple of thoughts:

1. Too much going on, such that no issue is given the dedicated time and space it needs. I.e. standing for everything –> standing for nothing. Perhaps all noble causes, but edit.
2. By grouping together every cause under the sun, the show is taking the stance that all of these are of equal moral significance, and to believe one cause, you must believe them all. I find this to be an overly simplistic and alienating position. I was personally ok with the signs shown, but to say that I wasn’t worried that someone would hold up a sign that would make me feel unwelcome in this space would be untruthful.

Those were my two main problems with the show – it tackled too many issues, and this position of moral superiority. I’ll dive a bit deeper into both of them now.

1. Tackling too many issues: As I did for The Doctor, here’s a list of the issues explicitly discussed in this show, separate from just holding up signs with slogans:

• Rape and rape culture
• Slut shaming
• LGBTQIA2S+ rights, gender identity
• Drug addiction
• Anti-black racism
• Interracial adoption
• Religion
• White suburban malaise
• Marital problems/absentee father
• Porn addiction
• General teen drama – unrequited love, teen drinking and partying, bullying, etc.

Too much. Too messy. Edit.

2. A position of moral superiority: The show paints the lead character, Frankie, as the moral centre of the universe – she knows better than everyone else, and it’s she against the world. No one wants to join Frankie’s general activism club except her best friend Jo. No one seems to care about a young woman’s rape except for Frankie and Jo. Frankie makes multiple comments about how she doesn’t fit in to her community, nor does she want to. She is above the repugnant, one-dimensional white carb-avoiding suburban moms of Connecticut. And, at the end of the show, Frankie’s mom gives a speech about how Frankie is an inspiration and we should all be more like her. As written, I found Frankie to be full of optimism, sure, but not particularly sympathetic. She’s sort of whiny, one-dimensional, and she didn’t show growth over the course of the play. The biggest change Frankie went through was deciding to wear pants instead of shorts.

I would also argue that this show seriously under-writes almost all the characters to begin with, simply using them as tools to discuss many issues at a surface level. This comes at the expense of creating fully fleshed out people, and sacrifices the opportunity to dive deeply into complex moral dilemmas. For example, secondary character Nick walks in on his best friend raping a girl, and he doesn’t stop it. The show stays pretty superficial – he’s scolded for not doing anything in the moment, and the message we take away is to not be a bystander. I think the show only skimmed the surface of what could have been an interesting thought experiment. Why did Nick freeze? Did he not understand what was going on? Was he too drunk? Did he not care? Was he protecting his best friend? What do you do if you find out your best friend is a rapist? “Don’t be a bystander” is a good message, but understanding how people become bystanders is more compelling.

I sort of question who this show is for. The takeaways are things I *hope* we can all agree on – rape is bad, even pretty moms can become drug addicts, etc. I don’t think there are any novel concepts being introduced. It’s sort of basic, for lack of a better term.

So, yeah. Jagged Little Pill reminded me of the SNL skit about a high school theatre club. I understand this review will be divisive, and if you loved this show, I’m happy for you. I just…didn’t.

Just for fun: I intended to include a brief show synopsis at the beginning of the review (as I often do), but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to do so in an efficient manner. Below is my best attempt – spoilers abound:

Jagged Little Pill is about a black teen named Frankie, who was adopted by a privileged, seemingly perfect white Catholic Connecticut family. Her older brother, biological son Nick, has been accepted to Harvard, so Frankie feels like she’s a disappointment. Additionally, Frankie’s dad Steve is a workaholic and addicted to porn, and her mother MJ is addicted to painkillers. Frankie’s hobbies include protesting every social issue, writing poetry, and being pissed at her family. Frankie is bisexual, and her gender-non-conforming best friend/lover Jo seems to be more into Frankie than Frankie is to Jo (this will become an issue later). Anyway, Frankie and Nick go to a party where a girl named Bella is raped by Nick’s best friend Andrew (who, of course, wears a jacket with a logo resembling that of Canada Goose), but no one seems to care about the rape except for Frankie and Jo because they’re the moral centre of the world. In fact, Nick saw the rape happen and said nothing. Also at this party, Frankie starts to develop feelings for a new student named Phoenix. A few scenes later, the two of them have sex, Jo walks in and gets mad. (This plotline is just an excuse for Jo to sing the best song of the show, You Oughta Know, but it contributes virtually nothing to the main plot). Frankie runs away to NYC for a hot second, and then gets upset when Phoenix is too busy dealing with his sickly sister and single mother to come pick her up. He also says he doesn’t love her yet, which makes Frankie sad. (It’s been 15 seconds, girl, calm down). Meanwhile, MJ gets more into drugs, we find out she was raped in college but blamed herself for it, and she overdoses (not fatally). Frankie and Jo organize a rally for Bella, where the participants hold up various signs like “we believe Bella.” (It’s taken as a given that a public rally specifically for a woman who was very recently raped is a great idea, but this felt weird to me). MJ goes to rehab and makes the bold statement that everyone can benefit from therapy (such a brave opinion), Nick tells the truth to the police and takes a gap-year to reflect and grow, and Frankie volunteers for Black Lives Matter. The end.

P.S. No.

The Jagged Little Pill National Tour is in Toronto at the Princess of Wales Theatre until Nov. 26, 2023. You can purchase tickets in advance here, or same-day rush tickets here.

Featured image: mirvish.com