The 2019 Broadway musical built around Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album, reimagined as a contemporary family drama tackling opioid addiction, sexual assault, gender identity, and racial transracial adoption, earning 15 Tony nominations.
Alanis Meets #MeToo
“Jagged Little Pill” opened December 5, 2019, using Morissette’s 90s alt-rock anthems to tell an entirely new story about a suburban Connecticut family unraveling. The Healys appear perfect - until Mom’s opioid addiction, daughter’s sexual assault, and son’s struggles with sexual identity and race (adopted Black son in white family) explode.
The musical earned praise for Lauren Patten’s show-stopping performance of “You Oughta Know” as Jo, a queer character grappling with bisexual erasure. Patten won the 2021 Tony for Featured Actress, though controversy erupted when some fans felt the non-binary character Lava deserved more focus than cis lesbian Jo.
The show tackled issues aggressively relevant to 2019: #MeToo sexual assault politics, white privilege, gender fluidity, opioid epidemic, performative activism. “Smiling” became an anthem about women’s rage, “Uninvited” explored trauma, “Ironic” was recontextualized for social media generation irony.
Despite 15 Tony nominations (second-most of 2020, behind “Moulin Rouge”), it won only 2 awards, with critics divided on whether its issue-heavy approach was courageously confrontational or heavy-handed. The show closed December 2021, a shorter run than expected.