The Alanis Morissette musical, now at the Pantages, made numerous changes to its script following criticism about how lead character Jo was portrayed.
A pre-Broadway version had numerous lines that signaled Jo as gender-nonconforming — a rarity for a Broadway musical — but many of these lines were removed when the musical opened on Broadway in late 2019. The production — as well as Lauren Patten, the cisgender woman who originated the role — later stated publicly that Jo was never written or conceived as nonbinary.
apologizing for the lack of transparency and accountability regarding the character of Jo. “We should have protected and celebrated the fact that the non-binary audience members saw in Jo a bold, defiant, complex, and vibrant representation of their community,” the statement read. “We commit to clarity and integrity in the telling of Jo’s story. The story of a gender nonconforming teen who is on an open-ended journey with regard to their queerness and gender identity.
“We are rising to the challenge of making a show that is committed to taking on subject matter that is not easy,” says director Diane Paulus. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn, to be rigorous about what we’re presenting to the world, and to prioritize the health and wellness of our cast, who put themselves inside a storyline that can be taxing, especially when it intersects with their lived experiences.
Book writer Diablo Cody modified these scenes, along with others that address Frankie’s transracial adoption with more specificity, with the help of playwright MJ Kaufman, poet and professor Lauren Whitehead and dramaturg Martine Kei Green-Rogers — a dramaturgical team that includes nonbinary, transgender and BIPOC representation.
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