PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It was an album, then a musical, and now — a novel.
The musical of Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” is playing at the Academy of Music through January 15.
Philadelphia author Eric Smith recently wrote a young adult novel adaptation of the musical’s story.
“When you think about YA novels and you think about the teen experience,” he says, “it's figuring out who you are, figuring out what the world is like, and then figuring out what your place is in that world, right? And all of the characters go through that.”
The story revolves around a seemingly perfect family in suburban Connecticut, the Healys — but when you pull back the curtain, they’re all going through complicated and often painful issues.
The show — co-written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody ("Juno") — closely follows both kids and adults, with the family’s mother, Mary Jane Healy, at the center. But for a YA novel, Smith had to hone in on the teenage characters.
“[I] had conversations with the creators about like, what I could do, how much more of a story can I tell with the kids now that the adults are being pushed into the background,” he says. “And that was probably the most challenging part because they had to have sort of deeper fleshed out stories than what you saw in the show.”
On stage, Dillon Klena plays Nick Healy, the golden child who’s perfect on paper, but is still figuring out who he is and how to handle things that aren’t so pretty.
“I am the advocate for the people who are resistant to change,” Klena says. “My goal is just to open eyes, because if you just get somebody one step closer to learning something or growing, they can become a better human being.”
The story addresses challenging and complicated topics, including race, sexual identity, gender dynamics, addiction, and sexual harassment. It’s a lot for one show to take on — but Allison Sheppard, who plays Nick’s best friend Bella, says these are all things that real families are going through. They’re just afraid to talk about them.
“There's something to relate to for everyone,” she says. “For these cities and these communities where people have had to hide these truths about themselves, to see people living authentically going through the same things that they are…it feels important.”
The creators, actors, and writers of both the show and the novel worked with Alanis Morissette herself. It was important to everyone to channel the energy and messages of her music — primarily the need to be heard.
“The show is about young people standing up and using their voices to evoke change,” Sheppard says, “and that's exactly what Alanis did with her music.”
Smith will be joining the cast of the tour for a reading and discussion at Novel Idea on January 13. The author lives in Fishtown and says Philadelphia has had a big impact on his writing.
“In fact, I have a book that comes out later this year called ‘With or Without You”, and it's about rival cheesesteak trucks,” he says.
“There's something about Philadelphia that makes it feel so perfect for young adult books, because it's a city that feels like it's always growing, even though it has so much history… Philly sometimes feels like a young teenager trying to figure it out. And that's what makes me love it so much.”
You can buy the book “Jagged Little Pill” online here or at most major bookstores.
Tickets to the show are available through the Kimmel Cultural Campus.