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Music

This seems totally unnecessary, but I’ll probably go and see it anyway.

You Oughta Know: Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill musical coming in 2018

A team of Tony and Oscar-winners is helping Alanis Morissette turn her influential 1995 album Jagged Little Pill into a musical debuting in 2018.

The Canadian singer-songwriter unveiled concrete details about the long-gestating project, first announced in 2013, on Tuesday.

Tony-winner Diane Paulus (Waitress, Finding Neverland, revivals of Pippin, Hair, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess) has signed on to direct the production and premiere the show at the American Repertory Theatre (ART) in Cambridge, Mass., where she serves as artistic director.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno) will write the book of the musical (the storyline), while Tony and Pulitzer winning composer Tom Kitt (Next to Normal, If/Then) will take care of orchestrations and arrangements.

The contemporary musical will follow multiple generations of a family and touch on themes of gender identity and race.

“This team that has come together for this Jagged Little Pill musical is my musical theatre dream come true,” Morissette said in a statement.

“The chemistry between all of us is crackling and I feel honoured to be diving into these songs again, surrounded by all of this searing talent. Diablo and Diane are already taking these deeply personal songs that are part of my soul’s marrow to a whole other level of hope, freedom and complexity.”

The musical will premiere at the ART in May 2018. The regional American theatre is also where Paulus debuted the current Broadway musical Waitress, which features the music of Sara Bareilles.

Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, which she co-wrote with Glen Ballard, featured hit tracks such as Ironic, You Oughta Know and Hand in My Pocket. It earned five Grammy Awards, including for album of the year, and has sold more than 33 million copies worldwide.