While many are familiar with the concept of books being adapted into Broadway shows, it’s rarer to hear of Broadway shows being adapted into books—though the phenomenon has gained traction in the past decade with such notable examples as Dear Evan Hansen, which became a bestselling novel, Alice by Heart, and The Prom. That’s exactly what happened with Jagged Little Pill, the Tony-nominated, Grammy-winning show that debuted on Broadway in December 2019, based on the 1995 album of the same name by Grammy Award-winning artist Alanis Morissette. The show was brought to life with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard, co-writer and producer of the original Jagged Little Pill album as well as a number of other notable projects. Rounding out the team is Diablo Cody, Academy Award-winning screenwriter behind such critically acclaimed hits as Juno.
Featuring Morissette’s iconic songs, the musical’s plot revolves around the Healy family—parents Steve and MJ, their biological son, Nick, a high school senior headed to Harvard in the fall, and 16-year-old transracial adoptee Frankie, who is struggling to find her voice and her place in the family. The novel takes things a step further, focusing on Nick, Frankie, Latinx transfer student Phoenix, classmate Bella, and Jo, Frankie’s “friend with some benefits.”
“Some of the characters in the musical don’t really have a big side story,” said the novel’s author, Eric Smith, YA author (You Can Go Your Own Way) and agent. They have an implied backstory, and, in the book, we got to really explore how they got to where they are.” While, in Smith’s mind, MJ is the protagonist of the musical, he wanted to take her out of the main story and turn her into more of a side character. “That was really challenging because her decisions and her character are key to the book and how everything threads together.”
One of the most vocal characters in the novel is Frankie, who juggles teenage growing pains with a passion for social activism and the exploration of her sexuality. Jo, her best friend and partner, is queer, and stifled by a religious upbringing. Phoenix finds himself the unwilling third party in a love triangle with Frankie and Jo, while Nick is desperately trying to hold himself and his family together while maintaining his reputation as the perfect son, student and brother. Life takes a turn toward the unthinkable after a heinous sexual assault disrupts their lives and forces them to cope not just with the situation, but with the consequences of their own choices.
Smith’s journey with the project began on social media. “It was the result of a lot of complaining [that I did] on Twitter. I’m adopted, and I get a little grumpy about the lack of adoption rep in children’s books.” As a transracial adoptee, Smith was uniquely suited to write the stage-to-page adaptation, particularly the character of Frankie—the youngest of the Healy family and a Black woman living in a primarily white world. “A lot of the big feelings that readers come across in this book and that are on display in the musical felt so close to me, like Frankie’s frustration at being a transracial adoptee and really having no one to talk to about racism and social issues that she’s facing. And her mom kind of brushes it off. It’s not because she doesn’t want to talk about it, it’s just that she doesn’t know how.”
After the tweets is when the project took off. “I guess I just happened to tweet it at the exact right time,” Smith recalled, “because I got an email from [editor] Maggie [Lehrman] at Abrams and she was like, ‘Hey, you know, I have this IP project. One of the characters is a transracial adoptee, just like you. I think maybe you might be the person to write it. Can we have a phone call?’ ”
He wrote up a “monster synopsis” of where he saw the story going for the musical producers, Cody, and other editors, and explained where he felt things could be expanded and characters developed and received “green lights across the board.” As part of the process, Smith was encouraged to push creative boundaries. “At one point, Diablo told me to take more risks on some of what I was doing, which was really exciting to hear from someone I admire so much. I had a lot of free rein to dig in and do what I wanted.”
When asked about the biggest risk he took, he replied, “Maybe with Nick. I definitely don’t try to give him a redemption arc because he messed up big time in the story and the musical.” Smith strove to detail Nick’s fall from grace. A fall caused in large part by Nick’s drive for perfection, and the perceived expectations for same—and potential restorative justice arc. “It’s difficult to write that sort of thing where you’re not shaming somebody, but you’re showing why they did something wrong and how they’re trying their best to pull their way back from what happened.”
Smith, who is a long-time fan of Morissette’s music, drew from a variety of influences, including the original album and Broadway show, other musicals such as Spring Awakenings and Heathers, and fellow YA authors. “When I think about the authors who inspire me the most in terms of their style of writing and themes, I absolutely devour everything that Jeff Zentner does. He writes such beautiful, powerful stories with this emotional sensitivity that is so unmatched. I love his writing so much and I really tried to explore Phoenix’s character in the way that I feel like he does, where there’s a lot of introspection in all of his work.
As well as drawing insight from the literary milieu, the lyrical writing of musicals played a large role in the novel. “Musicals do this wonderful thing where they have all these heightened, intense emotions in a very compact amount of time. That was one of the challenges with Jagged Little Pill because it’s a short novel, but there’s five characters and you have to get all of that in there.”
What Smith ultimately hopes that readers of any age take away from the novel is the idea of what it means to be an ally and to use one’s voice. “Bad things happen when you don’t speak up when you have the opportunity, even when it’s really scary. I’m hoping that people read this and realize that their voice can be used for good things. Everyone in this book is just so desperate to try their best, but oftentimes they end up failing each other because they’re not speaking up in the way that they should or the way they want to.”
The book will come out on April 26 from Amulet Books. While the Broadway show has closed at the Broadhurst Theater in New York City, the West End and North American tours are kicking into high gear this fall.
Jagged Little Pill: The Novel by Eric Smith with Alanis Morissette, Diablo Cody, and Glen Ballard. Abrams/Amulet, $19.99 Apr. 26 ISBN 978-1-4197-5798-3
