Canadian star Alanis Morissette has had an interesting enough life, growing up as a twin with her parents as teachers in military schools, living in Germany as a child, appearing in children’s comedy sketch show, debuting as a dance-pop artist and eventually transforming into the anguished rocker who blew up the charts in 1995 with “Jagged Little Pill.”
“Jagged Little Pill: The Musical” isn’t about any of that. The Tony-winning jukebox musical, based on playwright Diablo Cody’s book, is about a suburban family in crisis with the mom (MJ Healy) hooked on opioids and an accusation of date rape within the friend circle of her teenage kids.
“Apparently, [Alanis] was very adamant that it was not to be about her,” says Jade McLeod, the 25-year-old Toronto native who plays the role of Jo Taylor in the touring production that runs Jan. 24-29 at the Benedum Center.
“It’s brilliantly done,” McLeod says. “To compare it to ‘Mamma Mia’ feels absurd, but in terms of how the music is interwoven into the story, it's similar to that. We're telling this fully coherent story about this American family, through the album, and it's so cohesive, it's almost spooky. Off the top of the show, and off the top of the album, you have the song ‘All I Really Want,’ and you get insights into all of these different characters and their wants and needs of the things that they're struggling with, and it makes perfect sense for the stage and for this story.”
“Jagged Little Pill” premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., in May 2018, and opened on Broadway in November 2019. It was interrupted by Covid before closing in December 2021 after 36 previews and 171 performances.
“I had a friend who went to New York right before the pandemic and saw it on Broadway, and he came back and he was like, ‘This show is so you. This role, it is literally just you on stage. You need to audition for this.’”
McLeod did just that in February 2022, and landed the part of Jo, the love interest of MJ’s daughter, Frankie.
“It was a role I felt very called to,” McLeod says, “as a queer person, as a nonbinary person and as a rock fanatic. I was like, ‘This is totally me.’ ”
McLeod, who wasn’t even born when “Jagged Little Pill” was released, became an Alanis fan middle school.
“You have to remember, I'm from Canada, so we experience pop culture like 10 years later than everyone,” McLeod says with a laugh. “I’ve always been a fan of more punk music — that kind of tonality is what I’m drawn to. So, even though she was around before I was experiencing some of the themes in her music, it still really got me into music, in general.”
That love of rock music was in direct conflict with McLeod’s opera training.
“The opera world is pretty rigid, it's pretty strict, and so my teacher was like, ‘You can only sing opera. You have to only sing classical. You must study these Italian arias, these German songs,’ and all these things. And I would go home into my bedroom and belt rock music at the top of my lungs. Tells you a lot about who I am as a person. But that opera technique is such a fantastic foundation. I'm so grateful for it even though I don't really use it now.”
The 20-plus-city touring production of “Jagged Little Pill” began in September in Las Vegas, and it was at the opening night in LA when they were visited by Morissette herself.
“She chatted with us for a few hours,” McLeod says. “She was great. She's such a spiritual human being. She's so calm, and it was definitely insightful to ask her questions about where these songs live in the body and how to do them justice.”
McLeod’s own approach is to follow Morissette’s style while putting a personal spin on it.
“We share some similarities. I have a little bit of that raspy tone. I have a little bit of that yodel, so that's again part of why I was so excited to do this. I love trying to imitate parts of what she does and incorporate that into my style.”
McLeod’s favorite moment comes early in the show, after the company does "Right Through You" and the Healys do "All I Really Want."
“Everyone's gonna want me to say ‘You Oughta Know’ because it's so iconic. And I love to sing that every night, but ‘Hand in My Pocket’ is so much fun right off the top of the show. I get to do it with our Frankie, who is played by Lauren Chanel, and we just have the greatest time on stage every night. So that's my favorite.”
Times are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets start at $35; trustarts.org.
First Published: January 19, 2023, 11:00 a.m.