[image]
[title]Make it Alanis Morissette’s ballbusting musical
I don’t think I can overstate how happy it makes me that Jagged Little Pill the Musical is back in Sydney. Seeing Maggie McKenna tear out their heart and their throat for a rousing rendition of ‘You Oughta Know’ will send shivers down my spine no matter how many times I see it. And seeing our Nat Bass evoking some rock-infused ‘Voodoo Child’ era vocals in her portrayal of a pill-popping, soul-cycling uptight suburban mother on a trauma regression. And that beautifully diverse company pulling off some wild dance formations while hauntingly singing to the chorus of ‘Hands Clean’, while seething around in a storm of adolescent rage and outfits ripped straight from a Dangerfield catalogue. Ugh! The list goes on.
I am rarely this enraptured by the so often surface-level nature of the jukebox musical. But Alanis Morissette’s music lends itself to a much richer narrative in Jagged, and each song feels as if it could have been written to tell that particular story in that particular moment. And no, this musical isn’t about Morissette’s life, but rather, it follows an American family coming apart at the seams, weaving in a tapestry of urgent social issues. Many have accused this show of biting off more than it could chew. However I believe the patchwork of issues that intersect in Jagged are reflective of everyday life, where we rarely have time to sit still with any one problem or experience before we are spun out by another.
If you enjoyed this show when it was in Sydney last year, it will be satisfying to see how much more the performers have settled into their roles. Either way, read our chat with stars Maggie McKenna and Tim Draxl and book your tickets, the season just added extended dates. It’s also a good excuse to take a sticky beak at the stunning refurbishments at the Theatre Royal, a modernist masterpiece that sat dormant for many years. The 25 Martin Place alfresco dining precinct has also just been officially launched, so there’s plenty of options around the theatre for pre- and post-show libations. Our food and drink editor’s top pick is Botswana Butchery.
Photograph: Supplied | Vag Dens by Vivienne Binns 1967
Or, this radical retrospective of one of Australia’s most outstanding feminist artists
Toothy vaginas and social commentary are two things I love to see come together in art. One of the MCA’s latest exhibitions gives us all that, cloth from an actual half-completed waistcoat made for Captain Cook by his wife, and more. Vivienne Binns: On and through the Surface is a free exhibition that covers six decades of work from one of the country’s most preeminent living painters, exploring her takes on sexuality, feminism, settler colonialism on the Pacific Rim and current modernity. Expect the strange and absurd.