Watch the speech here
“Like many in the 90s, Alanis’ 1995 album sat center in the tape deck of my youth.
I remember sitting in the backseat of a car driven by my bestie Jane and out mutual friend Rob. We were driving around the city of Orange, it was probably 1995, and so naturally Jane and Rob were screaming the lyrics of “You oughta Know” and “All I Really Want” out the car windows, like they were indicting the world around them for all the wrongs they had suffered! They were the Frankie Healy & Jo of 1995. By screaming these lyrics they were saying, “Look at this messed up world.” “Let’s fix this crap!” “This is wrong!” … but in 1995 I was more like Mary Jane Healy. I’m hearing all this shouting and I’m thinking, “What’s the big deal? “Look at this beautiful SoCal day!” “I’m hardly struggling here.” But of course, I was sitting comfy on stack of student loans that would need to be paid back starting in a few years— but I didn’t need to think about that! Right!?
30-plus years later, now I’m looking around going… “things are so messed up! How did we get here? The world IS a hot mess!” Morrisette’s lyrics remain an anthem, to be screamed out our collective car window. When this album came out, it was 35-years after the Beatles. And we are now almost 35 years since this music was first was released. The musical Jagged Little Pill has brought these lyrics back to our consciousness…
I always enjoy considering how a title is chosen for a show like this. There are so many references that could have been used to title this musical. What they landed on, Jagged Little Pill, is from the song “You Learn.” We hear it echoed right at the top of the show:
SWALLOW IT DOWNWHAT A JAGGED LITTLE PILL…
IT FEELS SO GOOD
SWIMMING IN YOUR STOMACH
WAIT UNTIL THE DUST SETTLES
YOU LIVE YOU LEARN, YOU LOVE YOU LEARN,
YOU CRY YOU LEARN, YOU LOSE YOU LEARN.
YOU BLEED YOU LEARN, YOU SCREAM YOU LEARN
Jagged Little Pill explores themes of raw emotional honesty, anger, vulnerability, and personal relationships. The album and show capture the angst of multiple generations (90s youth through the album, and the youth of today through the musical), via the unflinching lyrics about betrayal, self-discovery, systemic social issues, and the contradictions of human experience. The story set in Connecticut may be in a fictional community, but it feels universal—just as universal as the cracks in the plaster of the walls of our set, which are deteriorating from the pressures of suburban expectations, and the hidden injustices surrounding the characters (and us)—abuses of power & control, which threaten our identities and our health.
Our production of Jagged aims to highlight this universality and the urgent need for us all to scream out our windows in defense of justice and healing.”
– Matthew McCray, Director, Jagged Little Pill
» Subscribe Today | » Buy Tickets | [button style=”btn-default btn-md” type=”link” target=”true” title=”» Learn More”
Comments are closed.