The sounds of an angry beat drive the protestations of a scorned lover, reminding her ex, “I’m here to remind you of the mess you left when you went away. It’s not fair to deny me of the cross I bear that you gave to me. You, you, you oughta know.” This is not a 1995 Alanis Morissette concert but a scene from the new musical Jagged Little Pill. The show, currently playing at the American Repertory Theater (ART), is based on the Morissette song catalogue, mostly focused on her singular album of the same name. This show is no jukebox musical. It is less Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and more American Idiot, a show which took the music of Green Day and crafted it within an excellent book that explored issues both broad (war, drug use, escapism, etc.) and intimate (family estrangement). Like American Idiot, Jagged Little Pill covers important contemporary topics in the context of a family drama.
Lauren Patten as Jo and the company of Jagged Little Pill (Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva)
And I’m here to tell you that Jagged Little Pill is the next great mental health musical. In the best tradition of Next to Normal and Dear Evan Hansen, some of the major themes of the show deal directly with mental health, including sexual abuse, trauma, and addiction while telling the story of the Healy family, picturesque Christmas card on the outside, unmitigated mess on the inside.
The experience itself of the show does what great theater can do: It ever so slightly and forever alters your DNA for the better. What I witnessed at a recent performance of the show prior to it’s May 25th opening was a musical that is going to heal a lot of hearts. The mental health topics are sensitively handled by book writer Diablo Cody and director Diane Paulus. The opioid epidemic is highlighted with one character’s compulsive use of her pain medication to dull the emotional hurt. Watch “Uninvited” become a song about grappling with addiction (with jaw-dropping choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui). As is sexual assault, presented in a manner that makes you question your own assumptions about predators and personal culpability of the victim. “No” becomes an uneasy confrontation about the experience of rape and its impact. Both of these numbers are among the best artistic representations of those topics I have seen on stage or elsewhere. Prepare to feel appropriately uncomfortable.
Kathryn Gallagher as Bella (center) in the aftermath of trauma (Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva)
Like its aforementioned predecessors, treatment is also discussed. We even get a glimpse inside of Mr. and Mrs. Healy’s first couples therapy session, which humorously displays the frequent finger pointing and avoidance that occurs. Unlike much of popular entertainment, treatment and rehab were not the punch line or grossly misrepresented. In fact, accurate information about recovery was given in regards to treatment recommendations (i.e. protracted rehab following detox) and prognosis (i.e. relapse is common and expected).
Sean Allan Krill and Elizabeth Stanley as Steve and Mary Jane Healy (Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva)
Most individuals have been impacted by trauma, abuse or addiction, either within themselves, a family member, or a friend. Those experiences are indelible and yet almost impossible to put into words. If you relate in any way to these harmful life experiences, get yourself to the American Repertory Theater. Go to this show. Feel seen. Be healed.
If you or a loved one has experienced sexual abuse, please click on the website for RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) for information and resources: https://www.rainn.org/
If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, please click on the website for SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) for information and treatment: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline
