If You’re Not Sweating to Jagged Little Pill, You’re Missing Out

The team at Broadway Inbound likes to keep healthy and loves Broadway, so when we found out there was a Jagged Little Pill-themed spin class, we strapped on our spin shoes to see what it was all about.

We attended a class at Cyc Hell’s Kitchen, a small spin studio in the heart of the theatre district, but JLP classes have also been happening at SoulCycle locations around New York. We were promised a heart-racing, sweat-inducing workout with music from Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album and the Jagged Little Pill original cast recording.

As we prepared for the class by limbering up and drinking some water, we found a woman who’d just come from a matinee of Jagged Little Pill. She’d signed up for the class, having no idea that it was going to feature music from the show she’d just seen! To say she was pumped is an understatement.

The rest of the class came specifically for this exclusive workout, so the enthusiasm was off the charts. The instructor, Elena, decked out in a Jagged Little Pill tee shirt, got us warmed up with Alanis’s original version of “Hand in My Pocket,” and people were already into it and singing along with the music.

Then it was time to get moving. As Elena encouraged us to push ourselves up hills (by ratcheting up the tension on the bike), she blared “All I Really Want” from the cast recording. As the Healy family (Celia Rose Gooding, Elizabeth Stanley, Sean Allan Krill, Derek Klena) begged for “some peace, man,” we begged for Elena to give our legs a rest. She refused.

On sprints, Elena needed to get us moving. Nothing does that better than Lauren Patten’s intense rendition of “You Oughta Know.” It’s a highlight of the musical, and just as it gets audiences out of their seats with applause, we were off our saddles and spinning as fast as we could.

The 45-minute class took us through some of the best songs from the show—“Right Through You,” “Ironic,” You Learn,” “Head Over Feet”—and even some remixes of Alanis’s music. Even though we were out of breath, we clapped with the music and tried our best to sing along.

By the end, we were all sweaty messes, but the music of Jagged Little Pill made it feel like a lot less time and effort. We can’t wait to see the show again and experience all those songs… and give our legs a rest!