‘Jagged Little Pill’ the musical is coming to the West End this autumn

Alanis Morissette’s 1995 grunge-pop album ‘Jagged Little Pill’ is one of the most successful records of all time, with over 30 million copies sold. Its angsty screeds on everything from exes to the Church – plus radical redefinition of the word ‘ironic’ – powered it to the status of one of the defining records of the ‘90s and – of course – of Morissette’s career: unsurprisingly it is vastly more successful than anything else she’s ever done.

It casts such a shadow that inevitably this Broadway stage musical is just directly named after it: it’s both a still evocative name and confirmation that yes, all of ‘Jagged Little Pill’s songs will indeed be appearing here.

With a book by Diablo Cody (‘Juno’ et al), ‘Jagged Little Pill’ won praise (and two Tonys), but had a somewhat bumpy ride overall, spending most of its official run on Covid-related hiatus, and picking up bad publicity for changing the character of Jo from nonbinary (in its initial pre-Broadway run) to cis (for Broadway). Apologies were issued by producers and a promise to do better, but it was a bit moot for the US production as it closed just a couple of months after reopening last year, stiffed by the Omicron wave.

Which brings us to London. We don’t have a date or a theatre, but the show’s official account has promised us it’s happening in the autumn (technically it said the ‘fall’ but whatever) so presumably we’ll know more fairly soon. Whatever the case, we’re assuming the gender issues will have been harmoniously resolved in what – we should warn you – is not a feelgood romp but a pretty gritty and adult show that follows a family dealing with various crises of faith, sexuality, repressed trauma, drug addiction and much much more.

You can sign up for updates on ‘Jagged Little Pill’s West End premiere here.

Read Time Out New York’s review of the original production.

The must-see London theatre shows to book for in 2022.