Jagged Little Pill – REVIEW

Arts & Entertainment City Hub Stage Theatre & Performance

Renee Lou Dallow
July 20, 2022

Jagged Little Pill is an all American musical about an American family dealing with the issues of today. The story goes something like this: the family are upper middle class and white, though they do have an adopted daughter who is coloured. They all live in a lovely upper middle class house in Connecticut. Their son is almost perfect but not quite as he hasn’t got into the ‘right’ university. Is that Harvard over Princeton or Princeton over Harvard?

Jagged Little Pill. Australia-2021; Liam Head, Emily Nkomo, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Tim Draxl. Photo: Daniel Boud.jpg

The mother is your typical upper crust mom. She dresses well, speaks well and belongs to all the right community and charity groups. She presents perfectly but, as we soon find out, is really “perfectly imperfect.” The father works too much and is never home. He watches porn while she pops pills.

We are bombarded with Alanis Morissette as the family leaves their comfort zone, the family living room, for a typical day in their world – each doing their own thing. Too loud and too American at first but as the story progresses the music ceases to overwhelm us and becomes an integral part of the whole.

Jagged Little Pill Australia 2021 – Grace Miell and cast. Photo: Daniel Boud

Each character bares their heart and soul to the audience as they plead for help. There is a love triangle as the bisexual daughter, Frankie, very much in love with Jo, her girlfriend, finds herself also attracted to Phoenix, a guy in her class at school. Then there is the rape of Bella, a friend of Frankie’s, at a party. Turns out that the perpetrator is a friend of Frankie’s brother, Nick. Nick saw it happen and did nothing to stop it. So now we have a betrayed girlfriend, Jo, a rape victim, Bella, and a disillusioned idealist, Frankie who finds that Pheonix is not ready for commitment. That’s only the first act.

The second act really focuses more on the mother, Mary Jane Healy, who is trying so hard to keep it all together yet obviously falling apart at the seams. As she pops even more pills, the healing begins. Mary Jane ends up in rehab, Jo belts out Morissette’s “You Oughta Know”, venting her frustration with Frankie’s betrayal and Bella takes her protest to the streets. Eventually everything works out and there are changes made for the better in a very American style happy ending.

As a musical, Jagged Little Pill works on so many levels. The sets, choreography, direction, lighting, and orchestra seated on the mezzanine level above the stage all combine to create an energetic, almost electrifying cross between a live rock concert and a theatre event. The ensemble was particularly effective as each had developed their own three dimensional character which they kept, even when moving props. Each had their own story and their own relationships which were related in the movement.

Jagged Little Pill Australia 2021 – AYDAN, Emily Nkomo. Photo: Daniel Boud

There was a tribute to jazz ballet too – an eighties craze – brilliant in silhouette. There was one ensemble member who really stood out and deserves a mention: Josh Gates gave each movement block everything he had and the tone of the scene became his as he soaked it all up like a sponge.

As for the leads, it was Natalie Bassingthwaighte, who stole every scene with her sharp, almost flippant wit, almost at odds with a body that just wanted to collapse in a heap. Two scenes stand out. The scene in the church in which she admits her denial and the scene where she grapples with her inner self in a complete meltdown leading to an overdose.

A close second was Jo, played so sincerely by Maggie McKenna, who literally rips your heart out with her portrayal and certainly earned her standing ovation with ‘You Oughta Know.’ In fact, the whole cast was something kind of wonderful. Jagged Little Pill is a combined effort and a powerhouse of a musical.