'Jagged' was her thrill: Oscar winner Diablo Cody writes Tony-winning show around Alanis Morissette album

Former Twin Citian Diablo Cody has snagged half of the EGOT, the entertainment world's holy grail. She won an Oscar for her debut screenplay, "Juno," and a Tony for her debut book of a musical, "Jagged Little Pill." Now if she could just add an Emmy and a Grammy to her mantel, she will be in the rarefied company of Viola Davis, John Legend and Audrey Hepburn.

"I sometimes feel like I bumbled into it which, I know, is kind of an obnoxious sentiment but it's true," Cody said by phone from her California home ahead of the Minneapolis engagement of "Jagged," which opens Tuesday at the Orpheum Theatre. "I feel like Forrest Gump all the time, like, 'What am I doing in the Olympics?'"

Winning gold?

Born Brook Busey in suburban Chicago, Cody reinvented herself, and found her nom de pole, in four formative post-college years in Minnesota, where she worked as a feminist stripper at the Skyway Lounge and as a peepshow performer at SexWorld.

The University of Iowa grad also wrote for City Pages while living in Robbinsdale. She left the Twin Cities about 17 years ago for Hollywood, where she lives with her husband and three sons. We caught up with her in an interview edited for clarity and length.

Q: Even before we get to the musical, it's hard to script a career arc like yours — from stripper and peepshow worker to celebrated Oscar and Tony winner?
A: I really do feel very fortunate. And timing and luck have factored into my success tremendously. I'm definitely not the most competent creative out there — there's always going to be a million people doing it better than me. But I'm proud of my tenacity. It's no small feat to survive in this business for almost 20 years. I tell myself it's like a rodeo. I just have to stay on the horse.

Q: You've had a magic touch, winning the industry's top prizes in film and theater on your first effort. What was it like leaping into theater?
A: After many years in the movie business and having a lot of creative and financial disappointment, to be totally honest, it was gratifying to have this experience with "Jagged Little Pill." And winning the Tony did make me feel like, OK, maybe there's a place for me where maybe my voice is necessary.

Q: Did you lock yourself in a soundproof room to get reacquainted with it and come up with the narrative?
A: Unfortunately, I live in the opposite of a soundproof room with three sons [ages 8, 11 and 13] — very noisy. But I did listen to it a million times.

Q: What new things did you hear?
A: A lot of the songs are narrative. Some even had character names in them, like the song "Mary Jane," which was the jumping-off point for me. Listening to a song like "Perfect," I can totally envision that character, I can totally envision that narrative arc. I'm not saying it's an easy process, but I felt very fortunate to have that source material. Alanis Morissette had the narrative [embedded] already.

Q: The show has so many social issues under the veneer of a perfect postcard family. Talk with us about what it was like to braid those narratives together.
A: If I'm being perfectly honest with you, I regret trying to integrate all of those story lines. I had no idea what an undertaking it would be. We did a lot of research on each topic. There's sexual assault, transracial adoption, opioid addiction, gender [identity], mental health. I kept saying to [director] Diane [Paulus], we have to drop one of these threads. But I believe Diane when she says that's what the world is like today. We don't have the luxury of addressing [just] one thing at a time.

Q: What new things did you hear listening to the album with your adult ears?
A: I was sort of surprised to discover that the theme was not what I thought it was when I was young. I initially thought the main theme of "Jagged Little Pill" was feminine rage. I've heard songs like "All I Really Want" and "You Oughta Know" and that was my takeaway.

Q: That's what a lot of people took away.
A: But if you really listen to it beginning to end, it's a very hopeful, life-affirming album that's about how healing can't begin until you confront what's wrong.

Q: What was it like meeting and working with Alanis Morissette?
A: I've always been starstruck by her. The first time I met her I didn't recognize her because she was blond at the time. I remember feeling relieved because I could just pretend she was some random person. Sometimes in these jukebox musicals the original artist plays a kind of fairy godmother/godfather role. That was not the case with her. She was like part of the wonderful creative team.

Q: Your respect for her grew?
A: I'm somebody who's been disappointed by meeting many of her heroes. Alanis was the opposite of that. Truly, she was the best creative partner and she was willing to do anything she needed to do for the show. We could have asked her for 10 songs and she would have done them for us. She gave me license to rewrite lyrics, which was totally surreal.

Q: Favorite moment working with her?
A: It was the first time that we ran through the whole show workshop in 2017. It's not staged, it's not blocked out, people are just saying their parts in rehearsal. I remember thinking to myself, if she doesn't like this, nothing else matters. All I cared about was pleasing her. And when she turned to me and said, "We did it," I just thought, "OK, at this point I don't care what critics say. I don't care if three people show up to see it. I made Alanis Morissette happy."

Who: Book by Diablo Cody. Music and lyrics by Alanis Morissette. Directed by Diane Paulus.

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $40-$139. hennepintheatretrust.org.