REVIEWS ARE IN: JAGGED IS EDGY

The musical based on Alanis Morisette’s generation-defining Jagged Little Pill opened to near-unanimous raves Thursday night at the Broadhurst Theatre. Chief among them was the New York Times, which called it “the first jukebox musical to truly make sense of its genre.”

Times critic Jesse Green wrote that the show “is fully in focus: clear in its priorities, rich in character, sincere without syrup, rousing and real. It easily clears the low bar of jukebox success to stand alongside the dark original musicals that have been sustaining the best hopes of Broadway in recent years.

“The 22 songs — all of them with lyrics by Morissette, most of them with music by Morissette and Glen Ballard — are as catchy and crunchy as ever. … Joyful and redemptive as it is at times, the show’s strength comes from the dead seriousness of its one presiding voice, filtered through characters who are more alike than their shame lets them know.”

Here are the other reviews you oughta know about:

Tim Teeman of the Daily Beast notes: “Broadway has a new star—Lauren Patten—and a jukebox musical that really is different and sets a standard for others to aspire to the same; and one that is as provocatively written as it is beautifully performed.”

Variety’s Marilyn Stasio writes, “It would be an insult to call this stage adaptation a jukebox musical, because unlike most specimens of that theatrical genre, the story seems to emerge organically from the music. … Morissette’s youthful perspective and the rocking-good score make Jagged Little Pill “feel very much of the moment — this moment.

And David Rooney opines in The Hollywood Reporter: “There are thrilling emotional peaks and urgently relatable contemporary issues that should generate a passionate audience for Jagged Little Pill among young theatergoers who responded to musicals like Next to Normal and Dear Evan Hansen.”