On the surface, everything looks just right.

A carefully written holiday letter. A polished home. A family that knows how to smile at all the right moments.

But beneath it all, every family has its secrets. 

Some hide in plain sight: forced smiles, quiet dinners and conversations that never quite happen.

But a mother recovering from a traumatic accident and an adopted daughter struggling to be understood leave a father who’s too consumed with work to notice the distance growing in his own home. 

When conversations stall and tension lingers, what begins as small fractures starts to splinter into something much harder to hide. 

But for the Healy family, what’s left unsaid doesn’t get completely buried; it gets sung in “Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill: The Musical,” taking over the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College from April 30 through May 24.

“While every family might not be dealing with every single one of the issues the Healy family does, hopefully, everyone in the audience connects with at least one of their dynamics,” director Michael Bello said. “The family is seemingly picture-perfect, but it sort of adjudicates. What does that mean? What is a picture-perfect family? Is the idea of a picture-perfect family actually the perfect family?”

These questions unfold through confessional lyrics from alternative rock-folk music written by a ‘90s icon, Alanis Morissette. 

Built around her 1995 hit album “Jagged Little Pill,” the production weaves Morissette’s emotionally charged songs directly into the Healy family’s story, giving voice to feelings too complicated — or too uncomfortable — to simply say out loud. 

Aside from the Healy’s traditional home setting, the production unfolds inside an abandoned rock venue, where the family’s story plays out as if it’s being performed at a live concert.

Microphones are placed around the stage, and when emotions reach a breaking point, characters step forward and unleash them in song.

“The number one thing the audience is coming for is to hear Alanis Morissette’s music and this album,” Bello said. “I think we really wanted to create a space where this story could explode and could platform these songs. It allows audiences familiar with ‘Jagged Little Pill’ to experience the album in a new way and through a new lens. It also allows people who aren’t familiar with the album to experience a musical that’s truthful to the spirit and energy of the original album.”

In many moments, Bello said a single microphone becomes a scene’s focal point, proving that in some cases, “one small item tells all the story you need.”

At the storyline’s core is the disconnect between mother and daughter, MJ and Frankie, as they struggle to understand each other in the aftermath of trauma and identity. Around them is a family trying to hold itself together: a son navigating his own place, and a father attempting to keep pace with it all.

“Steve is a father trying to understand both his children while also trying to understand his wife, who is dealing with a lot of trauma and the ramifications of a car accident,” Bello said. “He’s learning to balance caring for her and being a good father, but also being a professional who provides for his family during a complicated moment in their journey.”

Steve’s role is brought to life by Josh Franklin, a local vocalist and co-owner of ICONS singing bar.

“It’s a very human story about how we present what’s happening under the surface and the many things that we as a society choose not to share or deal with until we are faced with it and it’s right in front of us,” Franklin said. “For me personally, there are things in the story that I had sort of forgotten resonated with me, and I think all of us in the room were surprised by the many issues our characters were facing that were relevant to us in our own sort of way.” 

Those issues are brought to the surface through Morissette’s “bizarre phrasing” that makes for “a complicated sound in really impactful ways,” Franklin said. 

“Through the music, there’s a realization that Steve was blind to all of these issues, like with his adopted Black daughter who’s struggling with things that they’re just not addressing as a family because it made them too uncomfortable to talk about,” Franklin said. “I think by the end of the play we have been forced to address these hard but really beautiful and dramatic realities and complexities of being a human being and being in a complicated family.”

As the story builds to its final moments, the musical chaos and confrontation begin to shift into something more reflective.

“The beauty of the finale is that it allows for life to be complicated,” Bello said. “Life is complicated and messy, but that is the joy of life, and if we communicate and have grace and patience with one another, all of our intricacies and complexities are actually what make life beautiful.” 

IF YOU GO

What: “Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill: The Musical” 

When: April 30 through May 24

Where: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, 30 W. Dale St. 

Price: $30-$70, fac.coloradocollege.edu