THEATER
Bitter Pill
Morissette tuner like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife
Celia Rose Gooding and Lauren Patten in “Jagged Little Pill,” with music by Alanis Morissette and book
by Diablo Cody, directed by Diane Paulus, at the Broadhurst Theatre.
Whose Santa is He Anyway?
Actor, playwright Jeff rey Solomon imagines an icon as gay
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
People hold tight to their
stories. Belief in a story
can be more persuasive
than facts, as our current
political discourse makes
clear. Stories are how we defi ne
ourselves in the context of a culture,
and whether it has a political
focus, a religious one, or virtually
any other slant, narrative is
powerful.
This even extends to our stories
about Santa Claus. Megyn Kelly’s
assertion half a dozen years
ago on Fox that Santa is white
touched off a storm of derision.
Yet the image of Santa created by
artist Haddon Sundblom for the
Coca-Cola Company nearly 90
years ago remains one of the sturdier
images of the jolly old man in
popular imagination.
But what if Santa isn’t that
with Glen Ballard, it remains
one of the top 20 best-selling
albums of all time.
The show also features lesserknown
tracks from her other albums.
“The Queen of Alt-Rock
Angst,” as Rolling Stone once
dubbed her, even contributed a
couple of new songs. The brash,
hip-hop infl ected choreography is
by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
Along with a spirited cast of 21,
eye-popping costumes (a cryptic
mix of Coachella, ‘90s grunge, and
“Mad Max” by Emily Rebholz), and
a kick-ass rock band, the entire
team works overtime trying to deliver
an engaging, heart-wrenching
parable for today’s audiences.
Despite the heroic effort, however,
my emotions were only intermittently
engaged. Try as it may,
this “Jagged Little Pill” simply can- MATTHEW MURPHY
➤ JAGGED LITTLE PILL, continued on p.25
guy? We’ve seen Black Santas,
bad Santas, and even Santa on
a Segway. Couldn’t one of the
charms of Santa be that he can
be imagined to refl ect different
children and stories?
That’s part of what motivated
actor and playwright Jeffrey Solomon
to create “The Santa Closet,”
a piece fi rst seen a decade ago as
“Santa Claus is Coming Out.” One
of his earlier plays, “Mother/ SON”
about his Jewish mother coming
to accept that her son was gay,
has been seen around the world,
and it prompted Solomon to speak
openly with kids about LGBTQ
issues. He found them remarkably
responsive and interested
but, he noted, “I discovered that
there were parts of these communities
that were equally passionate
about these conversations
BY DAVID KENNERLEY
One would be hard pressed
to assemble a more promising
pedigree than that
of “Jagged Little Pill,” the
clamorous new musical now rocking
the Broadhurst Theatre on
Broadway. The Tony-winning Diane
Paulus, who reimagined “Hair”
and “Pippin” a few years back and
brought “Waitress” to life, is at the
helm. Diablo Cody, who nabbed a
Best Screenplay Oscar for “Juno,”
wrote the book, and the Pulitzer
Prize-winning music director Tom
Kitt (“Next To Normal”) devised the
orchestrations.
And then there’s the main
source material — the explosive,
seminal album (also titled “Jagged
Little Pill”) from Alanis Morissette,
the scraggly-locked, angry young
woman who won four Grammy
Awards for her effort in 1995. Cowritten
CHUCK S. REECE
Jeffrey Solomon in his solo show “The Santa Closet,” at TeatroCírculo through December 22.
➤ THE SANTA CLOSET, continued on p.25
December 5 - December 1 24 8, 2019 | GayCityNews.com
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