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| Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! | |
| Posted by: SCH 06:16 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| I just saw a performance of Jagged Little Pill at A.R.T. and I am blown away!! This is one of the most amazing musicals I have seen in ages and ages. I didn't expect it to be so emotionally overwhelming, and I was surprised to find tears streaming down my face over and over and over again. I also outright sobbed several times during the show and had to be careful to hold back so as not to make noise. It needs some tweaking, which I'm sure will happen before it inevitably comes to NYC, but the quibbles I have with it are minimal. It is a thrilling, moving, intelligent piece of work. The performances are all excellent! And, Lauren Patten's rendition of You Oughta Know stopped the show with a standing ovation, every moment of which was totally earned. She owns that number in such a real way, and the song in the context of the show is one of the most powerful musical numbers I've ever seen in my 40 years of avid theatergoing. I am so glad that I made the trip up to Boston from NYC to see this, thanks to the urging of several folks who raved about it to me. They were right! I hope to post a more detailed reaction to the show, but I'm still so emotional at the moment that this is all I can manage. This is one of those shows that will take a while to fully process and recover from. |
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| re: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! | |
| Posted by: ntjvy 02:55 pm EDT 06/04/18 | |
| In reply to: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - SCH 06:16 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| Just booked a weekend trip to Boston based on this and other ATC buzz. Thanks for sharing, can't wait! | |
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| re: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! | |
| Posted by: twocents 11:46 am EDT 06/04/18 | |
| In reply to: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - SCH 06:16 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| one of the most powerful musical numbers I've ever seen in my 40 years of avid theater going. I am so glad that I made the trip up to Boston from NYC to see this, thanks to the urging of several folks who raved! Yikes. And Drummergirl thought I was over caffeinated in another thread above! |
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| re: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - Dissenting Opinion with Spoiler | |
| Posted by: BostonTheatre 08:39 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
| In reply to: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - SCH 06:16 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| I saw the same performance as you today, and agree with you that Lauren Patten's rendition of You Oughta Know was incredible. However, one song does not make a complete musical. There were several problems with this show, and I'm not sure it can be saved. First, Alanis' songs from Jagged Little Pill are light years better than her other songs included in the show. Every time I heard a non Jagged Little Pill song, I was bored out of my mind. Second, the show is just too unfocused and tries to cover every single issue facing America right now. I much prefer American Idiot, which essentially had no plot, yet conveyed a consistent message. Finally, why tie up this show with a nice bow at the end? It would have been far better if Paulus ended the show like Finding Neverland with the mom dying. It would have been far more effective. I hope they change it. | |
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| re: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - Dissenting Opinion with Spoiler | |
| Posted by: SCH 10:53 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - Dissenting Opinion with Spoiler - BostonTheatre 08:39 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| I happen to have enjoyed American Idiot a great deal and saw it multiple times. There was much to admire in that show. I understand why you found Jagged Little Pill unfocused since it does take on a great many issues in our society, but I didn't see it that way. I thought that all of the issues were dealt with in ways that were very realistic and relevant today and each issue had a very important role to play in the arcs of the four major characters. What Jagged Little Pill had for me that American Idiot did not was that it made me feel, very, very deeply. I am still shocked at how emotionally overwhelmed I was by it. While I think there are tweaks that could be made to improve this show, I don't believe it needs saving or that it needs major retooling. From the sniffles I heard around me during the show, and the comments I heard from other audience members after the show, I know I'm not the only one who had this experience. I experienced it as a very complete and effective musical (especially the second act) that may not be for everyone. I really found it emotionally cathartic and totally thrilling as a piece of theater. I'm also realizing that there are elements of the choreography that I just can't get out of my head, either. | |
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| re: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - Dissenting Opinion with Spoiler | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 09:13 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - Dissenting Opinion with Spoiler - BostonTheatre 08:39 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| Based on the audience reaction the day I saw it, the show doesn't need to be saved. It doesn't work for you, but it clearly was working for a lot of people, and will almost certainly continue to do so. I hear your critique of how full the show is, and I went it afraid that it would be overstuffed, but I felt that Diablo Cody did a masterful job of having all of those big issues running through one well-drawn family and their community. I would say the show has a consistent thread, which is what does it take for us to understand each other's humanity and build community? That's why the ending is so powerful: we watch a family begin in a place of superficial perfection that masks a deep dishonesty with themselves and each other, and we see the difficult steps they must take to drop those masks and live as their honest selves, which is a form of healing. All of the plot threads stem from this basic conflict that they are living through, and it's one of the aspects of the book that show how brilliant Diablo Cody is. One of the things that I love about the show is that it winds up being a far more traditional and conservative story than the progressive aggression of the first 10 minutes would suggest. This is a show that ultimately affirms the family and affirms happy endings (but not easy endings), which is what the Great American Musicals tend to do. Why do you want the mother to die? How would that actually help the story that Cody, Paulus, and Morisette are telling? |
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| re: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - Dissenting Opinion with Spoiler | |
| Posted by: BostonTheatre 09:31 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - Dissenting Opinion with Spoiler - Singapore/Fling 09:13 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| I generally agree with your opinions on the shows that you like, ie, Passing Strange, Hedwig, The Light in the Piazza (3 of my favorites), but I disagree with you on this one. You're right, I should have clarified that it probably doesn't need to be "saved" to make money. I mean, just look at the shows mentioned above, how many of them have been "successful"? Since when does populist approval equal artistic success? I hadn't read reviews prior to going in and it's not surprising that the NY Times agrees with me. It felt like Paulus was trying to remake her version of Hair, but how about a little subtlety in addressing rape and the #metoo movement? Everything about it was shoved in our faces. I found the ending predictable, not powerful at all. At least N2N had sort of the right idea with Diana walking out on at the end. The mother dying would show that people actually die from opioid use, something that is happening every day in America, and many people don't know until it's too late. |
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| re: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 07:17 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
| In reply to: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - SCH 06:16 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| This was 100% my reaction to seeing it last week. In reference to Ann's question: I've known these songs since the album came out in the 90s. There is definitely an amplification of the songs' meaning in the show - when a familiar opening is played, the recognition of what that song is and how it fits the moment often created an extra punch for me - but ultimately, the songs in and of themselves are powerful in how they tell the story. There was at least one song that was either new for the show or new to me, and it was also very effective, so familiarity doesn't seem to be necessary to the enjoyment of the show. |
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| Were you already familiar with/fond of the songs before seeing it? nmi | |
| Posted by: Ann 06:58 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
| In reply to: Jagged Little Pill - Amazing!! - SCH 06:16 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| re: Were you already familiar with/fond of the songs before seeing it? nmi | |
| Posted by: SCH 10:34 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
| In reply to: Were you already familiar with/fond of the songs before seeing it? nmi - Ann 06:58 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| I had a passing familiarity with some of the songs, mostly the ones that got a lot of airplay when they came out. Ironic is the song I knew the best, and I loved how it was used here. I also knew Hand in Pocket fairly well, particularly from repeatedly watching Judith Light singing it in Transparent. I was familiar with, but didn't really know You Oughta Know very well. Most of the other songs were new to me. I have to say that nothing about this felt like a jukebox musical to me, and it never felt like existing songs being forced or shoehorned into a book. The music felt like it could have been written specifically for this show, which I think is a great testament to Diablo Cody's book. Just to add, I found the staging and the choreography to be excellent, too. |
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| re: Were you already familiar with/fond of the songs before seeing it? nmi | |
| Posted by: PurpleMoney 07:20 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
| In reply to: Were you already familiar with/fond of the songs before seeing it? nmi - Ann 06:58 pm EDT 06/03/18 | |
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| Thanks for posting. I go to Moulin Rouge and JLP on June 30th. Both so different and I hope to be extraordinary theatre. | |
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