There are moments in The Company Theatre's Jagged Little Pill when the Healy family's home seems almost incapable of containing everything happening inside it. Walls shift, projections fracture the familiar suburban landscape, bodies move urgently across the stage and Alanis Morissette's music surges underneath it all.
The effect is exhilarating, but it also serves a deeper purpose. The Company Theatre's South Shore premiere of Jagged Little Pill, which enters its final weekend Aug. 13-16 in Norwell, takes a story about a family desperately trying to appear whole and gradually dismantles that illusion in front of us.
In this production music, choreography, lighting, projections and an inventive set don't simply accompany the story; they become part of its emotional language. As the polished suburban façade of the Healy family begins to fracture, the world surrounding them seems increasingly incapable of remaining neatly contained.
Ryan Barrow's scenic design gives that idea a physical form as the Healy home continually shifts and transforms around its inhabitants. Dean Palmer Jr.'s lighting reshapes the space while Jack Gruman's projections can make the familiar suburban environment feel distorted, unsettled and occasionally surreal. The three elements work in concert, visually reinforcing one of the musical's central tensions: the difference between how a family appears from the outside and what its members are experiencing within.
Critic Jeanne Denizard similarly praised the production's visual vocabulary, describing the setting as "as lively and urgent as the musical's pacing" and Gruman's projections as offering a "gritty, skewed and occasionally kaleidoscopic view of a Connecticut suburb."
The visual transformation is matched by Zoe Bradford and Sally Ashton Forrest's deeply considered direction. What is particularly effective is the way movement and character rarely feel separated. The ensemble doesn't simply enter to accompany a musical number and disappear when the dramatic work resumes. Bodies in motion become part of the characters' emotional worlds, heightening anxiety, isolation, anger and release.
That integration was deliberate.
During the rehearsal process, cast member Dana Sullivan described Bradford's approach as one that pushed actors beyond blocking and into an examination of why their characters behave as they do. Scenes were read and discussed before being staged, with actors encouraged to investigate what was underneath the dialogue. When choreography and dramatic scenes intersected, Bradford and Ashton Forrest worked together to marry those elements rather than treating them as separate pieces of the production.
The result is a show in which movement frequently feels psychological. The ensemble can seem like an extension of what the central characters cannot say aloud. Bradford said during rehearsals that there were moments when the combination of song, dance and storytelling made her realize what the production could become. At its core, she said, the show is ultimately about "the power of healing when a family bonds together in spite of differences."
The performances give that vision its emotional force. Nikita DaRosa brings urgency and vulnerability to Frankie Healy, the adopted daughter determined to make herself heard in a family where difficult truths are too often left unspoken. Emma Keane's Jo Taylor provides another of the production's emotional anchors, and the relationship between Frankie and Jo moves convincingly between humor, affection, uncertainty and heartbreak.
Denizard also praised DaRosa and Keane as "both powerful vocalists," highlighting their playful performance of Hand in My Pocket and DaRosa's "tenacity and soaring vocals" as Frankie.
Those qualities are evident throughout the production. DaRosa gives Frankie a fierce determination without sacrificing the vulnerability underneath it, while Keane brings considerable emotional depth to Jo. Their performances make the complicated relationship between the two characters feel lived-in rather than simply another component of the plot.
Under music director Robert McDonough, the eight musicians in the pit give Morissette's familiar songs both force and immediacy. The music certainly carries the recognition factor that initially draws many people to Jagged Little Pill, but the production doesn't treat the score as a collection of hits waiting for applause. Songs including Hand in My Pocket, All I Really Want, That I Would Be Good and You Oughta Know function as dramatic material, revealing what characters cannot always articulate through dialogue.
Sullivan, who stars as Mary Jane Healy, described the musical during rehearsals as far more than the jukebox musical audiences might initially expect. She emphasized that the songs aren't musical interludes but essential pieces of the storytelling, changing characters and advancing their journeys.
Her portrayal of Mary Jane demonstrates precisely what she meant. Mary Jane has invested enormous energy in maintaining the appearance that she has everything under control. Sullivan allows that control to erode gradually, revealing the fear, shame and vulnerability underneath it. Rather than reducing Mary Jane to her addiction or her role as a mother, the performance asks audiences to see the complicated person behind both.
Sullivan, who also works as a pediatric nurse practitioner, said during rehearsals that she was particularly drawn to the shame and stigma surrounding many of the issues explored in the musical. She described Mary Jane as someone who is "holding it all together on the outside" even as the audience sees her "unraveling on the inside."
That vulnerability is central to a show unafraid to venture into difficult territory. Jagged Little Pill addresses addiction, sexual assault and consent, mental health, race, identity and family conflict. The material can be intense, but the production consistently returns to the possibility of connection and to the idea that acknowledging imperfection may be the first step toward healing.
The storyline involving Bella, played by Natalia Spear, is among the production's most difficult and emotionally demanding. Rather than allowing her experience to function merely as a catalyst for other characters, the production asks the audience to remain with its consequences. The result is deeply affecting.
Audience members have responded strongly to that emotional honesty.
"This show has to be the best show Company Theatre has ever done. Just exceptional," one audience member said.
Another specifically pointed to Bella's performance: "It was fantastic! The actress who played Bella brought me to tears with her performance. Truly moving! Bravo!"
That reaction gets at what makes this production more than an opportunity to hear a catalog of songs that defined a generation.
Morissette's music certainly supplies its pulse, from Ironic and Hand in My Pocket to You Oughta Know, but the songs become vehicles for characters trying desperately to understand themselves and one another. Lyrics written decades ago find new meaning when placed in the mouths of people confronting addiction, identity, first love, sexual violence, parental expectations and the uncomfortable realization that the people closest to us may be carrying struggles we cannot see.
The music is familiar. The emotions underneath it can feel startlingly immediate.
Bradford said before opening that the themes explored in Jagged Little Pill could just as easily be unfolding "with a friend, a neighbor or in your own family." She emphasized that when crises threaten relationships, the musical ultimately asks what it takes for people to find their way back to one another through understanding, forgiveness and love.
That idea is embedded throughout The Company Theatre's production, but importantly, the show doesn't arrive there easily.
Jagged Little Pill begins with a family deeply invested in appearing whole. What The Company Theatre has created is most affecting when that appearance can no longer be sustained. The set shifts. The projections distort. The movement becomes urgent. Voices that have struggled to be heard become impossible to ignore.
By the time the lights come down, perfection seems considerably less important than the messy, painful and profoundly human work of seeing one another clearly.
Audiences have three remaining opportunities to experience the production at The Company Theatre in Norwell:
Friday, Aug. 14 — 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 15 — 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 16 — 3 p.m.
Jagged Little Pill is recommended for mature audiences and contains mature themes, strong language and depictions of addiction, sexual assault and mental health struggles.
Tickets and additional information are available through The Company Theatre.