This article examines the workings of nostalgia within the Alanis Morissette jukebox musical Jagged Little Pill (2018). It applies theorizations of nostalgia to a close reading of Jagged Little Pill and its paratheatrical materials, with particular focus on its companion book. Using an autoethnographic approach to weave the author’s own memories and experience as a Millennial audience member into the analysis, the article illuminates how the musical moves beyond the typical use of nostalgia as a mode of entertainment and escape. It argues that as a jukebox musical, Jagged Little Pill appeals to the nostalgic fandom of the source material’s original audience, while filtering that source material through a contemporary lens. In so doing, Jagged Little Pill prevents the audience from being completely consumed by memory and demands their critical engagement with the social issues it explores, including gun violence and sexual assault. Following theorists including Svetlana Boym, who challenges the presumed incompatibility of nostalgia and utopia, the article analyses how Jagged Little Pill ’s multi-layered production of nostalgia connects past and present to offer hope for a better future. It considers how the hope Jagged Little Pill ultimately produces promotes intergenerational solidarity and, building on recent musical theatre scholarship, emphasizes the political potential of jukebox musicals – an important but often unacknowledged quality of the oft-dismissed subgenre.
Michelle MacArthur (Sun,) studied this question.