Characters / Jagged Little Pill

The Healy Family

Mary Jane Healy

Mary Jane "MJ" Healy

Originated by: Elizabeth Stanley & Heidi Bickenstaff

Other productions: Natalie Bassingthwaighthe

The mother of the Healy family who strives to outshine the other moms in her community.

• Abusive Parents: Downplayed. MJ does love her kids, but pushes Nick to be perfect and is constantly critical of Frankie.
• Blaming the Victim: When she first learns of Bella being sexually assaulted, she says that while it's very unfortunate that "these things" happen, Bella should've been more careful. Afterwards, it's revealed that MJ was raped in college under similar circumstances.
• Control Freak: She's desperate to keep up her status as a "super mom" as another mother puts it. This is evident in how she makes a comment about Frankie's short shorts and protest signs.
• Granola Girl: Downplayed. She is shown making paleo pancakes with agave syrup and mentions that she sold blondies to support endangered seals, but she isn’t a hippie as is typical of the trope.
• Education Mama: Part of keeping up her perfect image is making sure her son, Nick, excels in school.
• Functional Addict: MJ manages to keep up her image and keep her opioid addiction on the down-low.
• Hypocrite: She gets mad at Frankie for having consensual sex with Phoenix, but doesn't seem to care about Bella being raped. To be fair, this is a result of her own issues stemming from being assaulted.
• It's All My Fault: As seen with how she deals with the news that Bella was raped, MJ blames herself for being sexually assaulted in college. But at the end, she comes to accept that she was a victim as part of her healing process.
• Junkie Parent: She became addicted to opioids after getting into a car accident.
• Meaningful Name: "Mary Jane" is a song about someone being comforted after hiding their struggles for so long. This is highlighted during the hospital scene after MJ overdoses.
• Parents as People: She tries to be a good mom and does care about Nick and Frankie, but is in part doing so to keep up appearances.
• Rape as Backstory: She was sexually assaulted during college, and still struggles with the guilt and shame stemming from it.
• Sexless Marriage: MJ's sex drive has lowered while Steve is addicted to pornography. However, they seem to be on the path to fixing their relationship at the end of the film.
• Stepford Smiler: She presents herself as the perfect mother with a wonderful, successful family publicly, but never addresses the problems she or they struggle with.

Steve Healy

Steve Healy

Originated by:Sean Allan Krill

Other productions: Tim Draxl, Chris Hoch

The workaholic, porn addicted father of the Healy family.

• All Men Are Perverts: Downplayed; Steve isn't openly hyper sexual, but he's addicted to pornography and according to MJ, has very interesting tastes.
• Desperately Craves Affection: The premise of "So Unsexy"
• Disappeared Dad: Downplayed. He's around, but for the most part, not involved in his kids' lives.
• Parental Neglect: He's distant and uninvolved in his kids' lives, though he does care about them.
• Workaholic: He's been so focused on his job that he forgot to be apart of Nick and Frankie's lives, which MJ angrily points out to him in Act II. In her Christmas letter, MJ mentions he now works sixty hours a week.

Nick Healy

Nick Healy

Originated By:'Derek Klena

Other productions: Liam Head, Dillon Klena

The oldest child of the Healys, whose academic talent helps uphold MJ's image.

• Academic Athlete: He's not only a top student and cello player, he's also on the swim team.
• Accomplice by Inaction: During Lancer’s party, he witnesses a drunk Bella being taken away by Andrew to be raped, but doesn’t do anything. In Act II, he also admits to MJ that he walked in on Bella being raped, but didn’t do anything. He makes up for his inaction in the end.
• The Atoner: After the aforementioned incident, Nick struggles to decide if he should go to the police or not. At the end, he tells them everything and protests alongside Bella and other survivors.
• Broken Ace: He's a top student, Harvard bound, but struggles to keep up with MJ's expectations, as shown in his solo number "Perfect".
• Brainy Brunette: He has dark brown hair and was admitted into Harvard early.
• Calling the Old Woman Out: In Act II, he decides to talk to the police about what happened to Bella. MJ tries to prevent him, but he calls her out for only caring about her image. She slaps him across the face in response.
• Disappointing Older Sibling: To Frankie at the start of Act II, when she learns he saw a drunk Bella being taken advantage of by Andrew.

Frankie: Are you saying you don't believe her? Is this some kind of "bro code" shit?

• Momma's Boy: He's very close with MJ, but feels smothered by her high expectations.

Frankie Healy

Mary Frances "Frankie" Healy

Originated by: Celia Rose-Gooding

Other Productions: Emily Nkomo, Lauren Chanel

The rebellious, outspoken adopted daughter of the Healy family.

• Adoption Angst: Frankie hates the way her parents are venerated just for adopting a Black girl and how MJ tries to make her fit in with the rest of the suburban kids.
• Amicable Exes: With both Jo and Phoenix at the end. Jo has moved on, forgiven Frankie, and found a new girlfriend, while Phoenix is just a friend.
• Black and Nerdy: She's a Black girl who writes poetry and is very socially & politically conscious.
• Bisexual Love Triangle: During "Ironic" she meets Phoenix, the "boy of her dreams"..while she's in a relationship with Jo (who is either a cis woman or nonbinary, depending on the production). She ends up cheating on Jo with Phoenix in "Head Over Feet".
• Deadpan Snarker: Particularly with MJ.
  MJ: Actually, we made blondies!
  Frankie: Of course they were blondies. Even your brownies are caucasian.
• Foil: Frankie is the rebellious odd-one-out in a conventional white suburban family, while Nick is (in her words) the beloved "homegrown hero".
• Gender-Blender Name: “Frankie” is a androgynous nickname which is short for “Frances”, her middle name.
• Interracial Adoption Struggles: Frankie feels stifled by how MJ doesn't acknowledge her Blackness as a part of her. While MJ has good intentions and wanted to make her daughter feel included, Frankie doesn't want to conform to whiteness.
• It's All About Me: After she runs away to NYC, she invites Phoenix to visit her but snaps at him (accusing him of only wanting her for her race) when he can't because....he has to care for his sick little sister. To be fair, she was reeling from the fight with her parents, and she's usually not that self-centered.
• It's All My Fault: When MJ overdoses and ends up in the hospital, Frankie blames herself, believing that if she hadn't snapped at her mother, it wouldn't have happened.
• Prodigal Hero: Double subverted and lampshaded by "Unprodigal Daughter". After a fight with her parents, she runs away to New York City, but comes back after hearing of MJ's overdose, deeply remorseful.
• Race Fetish: She believes Phoenix has one and only wanted to sleep with an "exotic" Black girl. However, she was under a lot of stress and wasn't being entirely rational.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She develops a crush on Phoenix when he stands up for her during a short story reading.
• Soapbox Sadie: She's very outspoken about social justice, and started a club to discuss current issues with her partner.
• Twofer Token Minority: Frankie is a Black bisexual woman.
• Waving Signs Around: A motif of hers. At the beginning, she and Jo have finished a sign reading "Fuck Fascism", and to demand free menstrual supplies, she makes a "Does My Period Scare You?" sign. During "All I Really Want", the ensemble waves signs with various social justice slogans on them.

Other students

Jo Taylor

Jo Taylor

Originated by: Lauren Patten

Other Productions: Max McKenna, Jade McLeod

Frankie's partner & a misunderstood queer teen.

• Abusive Parents: Their mother is unaccepting of their queerness and gender expression.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: Much to the outrage of many transgender fans, Jo's nonbinary identity was written out of the Broadway production. However, in the 2022 run, they're back to being nonbinary.
• Butch Lesbian: They're a lesbian and like wearing typically masculine clothing, much to their mother's disapproval.
• Gender Flip: In the World Premiere production, Jo was explicitly nonbinary and used they/them. However, when the show came to broadway, they were a butch woman. This has been the subject of discourse around space for trans creatives in theater.
• Given Name Reveal: Their mother deadnames them during "That I Would Be Good", and most adults seem to know them as "Joanne". They're not exactly thrilled about it.

And please stop calling me Joanne, I’m not a fucking fabric store.

• Twofer Token Minority: In some versions, they're a nonbinary lesbian.

Bella Fox

Bella Fox

Originated by: Kathryn Gallagher

Other Productions: Grace Miell, Allison Sheppard

A future art school student and friend of Nick's.

• Blaming the Victim: At the receiving end after coming forward with rape allegations against another student.
• Broken Bird: During the party, she is raped while drunk, and has topless photos of her spread around social media. Later on, after she tells the police, her classmates say offensive, dismissing and victim-blaming things about her.
• Et Tu, Brute?: When she was raped by Andrew, Nick walked in on what was happening but didn't stop him. There's also the fact that it took Nick talking to the police for them to believe her. However, she forgives him at the end.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Frankie. It's implied that they weren't close before, but became friends after Frankie & Jo fought to get justice for her.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: At Lancer's party, she greets Nick clearly intoxicated. That doesn't stop Andrew from assaulting her.
• Howl of Sorrow: Let's out a particularly haunting one during "No."
• Leitmotif: The haunting vocalizing that plays when someone recalls the night of Bella’s rape.
• Lust Object: Lampshaded and deconstructed during "Predator", a song about how she was preyed on by Andrew.
• Rape as Drama: During Lancer's party, an intoxicated Bella is raped by Andrew. She struggles to cope with her trauma as the show goes on.

Andrew Montefiore

Andrew Montefiore

Originated by: Logan Hart

Nick's best friend and Bella's rapist.

• Jerk Jock: He’s a rapist who happens to be on the swim team.
• Karma Houdini: He's still admitted into a good college despite what he did to Bella.
• Rich Kids: It's stated that his parents rented ponies and a ferris wheel for his 8th birthday.

Phoenix

Phoenix

Originated by: Antonio Cipriano

Other Productions: Ayden Calafiore, Rishi Golani

A new student and Frankie's other love interest.

• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Gender-inverted. The easygoing, sweet-talking gentle guy to Frankie's restless, outspoken brooding girl.
• Disappeared Dad: He "hasn't seen his dad in a minute."
• The Dutiful Son: Because Phoenix's sister has a lot of medical issues, he often helps his mom take care of her.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Jo notes that when talking to Frankie after class, it looked like he had drool on his shoes.
• Nice Guy: He is admiring of and chivalrous towards Frankie, although we don't see him interact with other characters much.
• No Full Name Given: Subverted. We never learn his last name in the musical, but the book reveals it to be "Vargas."