ELIZABETH STANLEY (Mary Jane Healy)

previously appeared on Broadway in the revival of On the Town (which received a Drama Desk nomination), Million Dollar Quartet, Cry-Baby, and the Tony Award–winning revival of Company, as well as the first national tours of The Bridges of Madison County and Xanadu. On television, Stanley can be seen in NOS4A2, FBI, The Get Down, The Affair, Black Box, Made in Jersey, Fringe, The Chappelle Show, and PBS Great Performances: Company.

What is your first memory of hearing Jagged Little Pill, the album?

My history with the album goes back to my teenage years, and I always think of it in conjunction with learning to drive, because that must’ve been what was happening in my life around the time. I remember being in the car without parents, which felt new, and really cranking up the hits whenever they would be played, because her music is...it’s like you have to sing along at the top of your lungs. We moved a couple of times, but at that point in time I was living in a town of a thousand people called Camp Point, which is in rural Illinois.

Did you connect to the lyrics at the time?

I think I was a little bit sheltered, just being where I was. It’s been such a treat to circle back to the album now as a woman in her forties and be like, “Oh, I did not understand those lyrics at the time.” It’s amazing to me that Alanis had that maturity and that depth at that age. It’s like, “Wow.” Way beyond where I was, that’s for sure.

How did you get the role of Mary Jane?

I got the appointment for the audition a couple of years ago. I remember it was a self-tape, which is unusual for theater to have that be the first step. I was like, “Why?” They said, “The creative team is all very fancy, and so it’s hard to coordinate their schedules.” I was like, "OK."

But I was going out of town the next day. My brother and sister-in-law were having a baby shower, and so I was like, “I have to do it today.” The audition was singing the song “Forgiven.” And “Forgiven” was one of the songs that I didn’t know because that one didn’t get a lot of radio play at the time. I really spent the whole day studying, and then in the last hours of sunlight, put myself on my iPhone and then got it.

“‘Smiling’ is such a great shorthand
for who this character is...
‘I have this really great, privileged life,’
undercut with true desperation
and self-loathing.”

Did you feel any pressure at first to sing in the style of Alanis? Because she has such a distinctive voice.

No. They always asked us to make it our own. Even in the first audition, I remember seeing the breakdown saying, “Please do not imitate Alanis Morissette. Make it your own,” which is such a relief, because who could be her?

I guess I feel like I was always just sounding like me, and not really trying to be anything else. Our music team has great ears, so any time something starts to sound not quite appropriate in style, they would rein us in. Sometimes, for me, I know because of where I grew up and just the way that I learned to sing, every now and then they’ll be like, “That’s starting to sound a little country, so that’s maybe not the right style.”