Diablo Cody grew up in Lemont, Ill. — a town she remembers as having nine churches and zero bookstores. One early escape for her, and millions of other teens trapped in small towns, came with Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill.
Cody became a Hollywood heavyweight, winning an Academy Award for writing Juno and going on to write half a dozen more films and create television programs. But back in 1995, she was just another confused 16-year-old listening to Morissette explore pain, defiance and recovery.
“I don’t think Alanis has ever formally called it a concept record, but it feels like one,” Cody said on a break from rehearsing American Repertory Theater’s adaptation of Jagged Little Pill. “So many of the songs are about confronting things that are painful. And we are in a moment when even people like myself, who might normally be apathetic, have realized it’s time to wake up, look around and get involved in our world.”
In 2014, ART artistic director and Jagged Little Pill director Diane Paulus recruited Cody to write the book for the new musical — the debut production runs May 5 to July 15 at Loeb Drama Center. But Cody couldn’t find the time between projects she had already committed to.
“Not being able to do it kind of haunted me,” she said. “So when it actually came back around, which generally doesn’t happen, I thought, at the risk of sounding like a total basic (expletive), it was a sign from the universe. I knew in my heart I had to do it and I would have been consumed with jealousy if someone else had gotten to write it.”
Cody is part of a generation that considers Morissette’s debut a masterpiece. Released when rock gods such as Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain dominated the scene, Jagged Little Pill, with its honest, angry and tender voice, outsold everything — by some accounts it has sold 33 million copies, making it the 12th-best-selling album of all time. It is a sacred text, and Cody knows it.
“Whenever you are adapting anything, there are going to be people who consider the original extremely important,” she said. “Years ago, when I was working on an adaptation of Sweet Valley High, I was surprised to find how protective people were of those books. With something like Jagged Little Pill, an album people cry to in their bedroom while processing trauma, I feel I have a responsibility to do it right.
“I wouldn’t have gotten involved if the material felt dated and this was going to be some kind of nostalgic cash grab,” she added. “To me the music is profound, the songs are really powerful, and so this is not an ordinary jukebox musical.”
Cody and the creative team stress this is in no way a biography of Morissette. Instead it uses the album’s music to tell the story of a contemporary American family grappling with the uncomfortable truths of modern life (beyond that, details are scant).
For Cody’s first foray into theater, she’s found excellent cohorts. Along with Paulus, the team includes music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Tom Kitt (of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Next to Normal).
“I wasn’t even in high school drama club, so there has been a steep learning curve,” Cody said. “I have been very fortunate to be surrounded by people like Diane and Tom who are masters of the form. I learned as I went and appreciated no one ever condescended to me during the process.”
Even Morissette herself has blessed Cody’s work.
“I was really nervous before I started working with her,” Cody said. “Because there are a lot of artists who wouldn’t be amenable to some random screenwriter coming in to rewrite their lyrics just to fit a scene. But she has been completely supportive of revisions. She’s just been so cool and so great with it all.”
