Los Angeles Times: In the first act of “Jagged Little Pill,” the new Broadway musical featuring Alanis Morissette songs, a teenager named Bella sits timidly on a sofa trying to piece together what little she can remember from a party the night before. Passed out from all the alcohol, she momentarily regained consciousness to see a male classmate on top of her.
8 comments:
In this article, Diablo Cody, the book writer of Jagged Little Pill warns audience members that this new Broadway show is not a "fun night at the theatre", as it deals with incredibly heavy topics surrounding sexual assault. Following the Me Too movement and more and more news arising surrounding sexual assault and its victims, the entertainment industry has responded by creating work that discusses this topic. At first, I was apprehensive about this play because I worry that we as a society are becoming desensitized, however after reading more about the creative team and their intention for the piece, I am intrigued. The fact that this is one of the first times this topic has appeared on Broadway holds some weight, as people often think of broadway musicals as super happy experiences where actors spontaneously burst into song and dance, however, more and more theatre is being used as a medium to tackle important and relevant topics. Also, the fact that the playwright is a survivor herself is very important to the content of the show.
In this article, Diablo Cody, the book writer of Jagged Little Pill warns audience members that this new Broadway show is not a "fun night at the theatre", as it deals with incredibly heavy topics surrounding sexual assault. Following the Me Too movement and more and more news arising surrounding sexual assault and its victims, the entertainment industry has responded by creating work that discusses this topic. At first, I was apprehensive about this play because I worry that we as a society are becoming desensitized, however after reading more about the creative team and their intention for the piece, I am intrigued. The fact that this is one of the first times this topic has appeared on Broadway holds some weight, as people often think of broadway musicals as super happy experiences where actors spontaneously burst into song and dance, however, more and more theatre is being used as a medium to tackle important and relevant topics. Also, the fact that the playwright is a survivor herself is very important to the content of the show.
Jukebox musicals are everywhere nowadays, but it seems like "Jagged Little Pill" is at least more unique than the rest. I have personally not seen the show, but based on the title I had assumed it dealt with serious topics. And the article made me feel that way as well. While our world is complicated and filled with a wide variety of issues, it seems that this production could have focused in on a smaller range rather than attempting to tackle every single one. However, I am fond of the comments made by the choreographer of finding a happy medium between disturbing depications of assault and ambiguous artistic ones. It is important for the audience to feel the complexity and emotion of the experience without turning an audience away. Regardless, I hope there are warnings when the audience enters the theatre, but also when they decide to purchase a ticket.
I don't usually love jukebox musicals, but I'm excited to see Jagged Little Pill. Jagged Little Pill is one of my favorite albums of all time, so I've decided I'll give the show a fighting chance. I'm going to New York for spring break and Jagged Little Pill is one of the shows I'm thinking about seeing, so I was on their website and I noticed that they have a tab for resources, which lists phone numbers for sexual assault and mental health resources, which I think is obviously super great as both a content warning and resource for audience members. The show definitely needs more content warnings than that, because a tab labelled "resources" isn't super interesting or eye-catching, so part of me thinks that the show should have content warnings in the theatre, but I'm not sure that's enough. Imagine purchasing a ticket (and maybe traveling to New York) just to find out that you won't be able to comfortably watch the show. So, I really hope they'll add warnings on every platform you might get tickets. But, aside from all of that, I'm excited to see the show and I'm excited for a show to tackle such important topics.
This article talks a lot about how the content of this show is very new for the Broadway audiences. And at first, I thought that since I see content like this all the time in movies and TV that I was also seeing it in the theatre, but after thinking more about this, I realized that they are right and this isn’t very common in the theatre. The only show I can think of that I have seen that covers the topic of sexual assault is Good Kids. I have not seen Jagged Little Pill or heard very much about it, but since this seems to be the first time sexual assault is being addressed on the Broadway stage, I really hope they do a good job with it. There are so many TV shows and movies that cover the issue of sexual assault so poorly, and I would not want this show to do it in such a way that discourages others from producing shows with similar content.
I've read a lot of articles about Jagged Little Pill since the musical came out, but I guess I had never been told what the story was, so the information in this article came as a bit of a surprise. On the other hand, I have been listening to the original album a lot recently, probably just because I've been hearing so much about it and wanted to revisit it, but it actually makes a lot of sense that a jukebox musical based on that album wouldn't be your traditional peppy musical. Compared to other albums that have been made into musicals, it has a lot more grit and shows the pain that others caused Alanis Morissette. Rape is such an important thing to be discussing right now, and putting it in the context of these nostalgic songs helps people connect with it on a deeper level. I think people often scoff at the idea of jukebox musicals being serious because of the reputation of Mamma Mia, which is probably the most well known jukebox musical of the current generation of Broadway hits and has a mostly upbeat tone. I will admit I used to make judgements about what jukebox musicals could be, but the subject matter of Jagged Little Pill shows that they can be a lot more, and I hope that writers continue to move in that direction.
Ive been interested and wanting to see Jagged little Pill for a while. A lot of my comments on posts on here that are about jukebox musicals are really negative, because I am so sad that there isn't more original content on Broadway. In a way, I feel like this show is more forgivable because there is an original story, only set to Alanis Morrisette songs. I would be interested to see how those lyrics interact with the new story. Although a majority of the time that I hear about a movie or TV show that talks about sexual assault, I feel wary about whether or not it is appropriate, I feel that the creative team is handling the subject with care, and I really appreciate that. I love Derek Klena, and the Jagged Little PIll's performance at the ball dropping ceremony in New York was pretty good, so I am hoping that soon I will get to see this show!
I think that, oftentimes, jukebox musicals are complicit in the sort of romantified reality that Broadway has traded in since forever. There are definitely periods where the trends of the Great Wide Way have been significantly less escapist, and we are definitely moving in that direction again with shows such as Slave Play and its contemporaries making their way onto the popular stage. I think that it is interesting that themes of sexual abuse and sexual assault are much more of a common theme or topic in television and the movies than in live theatre; I had never thought about it before but, once brought to the front of my brain, that delineation is glaringly obvious. I am not sure what it is that makes it socially acceptable to experience these themes in one medium but not the other - perhaps that one discussion is happening live and the other one has the possibility to be muted - but I think that the creators of Jagged Little Pill are going about it the right way: by creating a platform for discussion and sharing and by bringing attention to a hard subject in a respectful and palatable way.
Post a Comment