Jacob Ryan Smith and & Caroline Pernick's LIKE FATHER to Have World Premiere at Alliance Theatre
Like Father is a coming-of-age musical set against America’s true-crime obsession.
Alliance Theatre will produce the world premiere musical LIKE FATHER as part of its 2026/27 season. A bold new musical created by Jacob Ryan Smith, with book, music, and lyrics by Smith and Caroline Pernick, and direction by Alliance’s Jennings Hertz Artistic Director Tinashe Kajese-Bolden (The Preacher’s Wife), Like Father will run on the Hertz Stage beginning in October.
Like Father is a coming-of-age musical set against America’s true-crime obsession. After her father’s arrest, seventeen-year-old Chris moves in with her estranged mother, Michelle, and stepfather, Ben. When a hit true-crime podcast exposes their family's disturbing past to the world, they are forced to face the truth of what brought them together, or risk being undone by its consequences.
Driven by a bold, innovative folk-pop score, Like Father explores legacy, identity, and the cost of obsession, inspired by the loved ones left in the wake of infamous serial killers—and by the true-crime industry’s meteoric rise to over 250 million listeners worldwide.
The show was a semi-finalist at the Eugene O’Neill New Music Theater Festival and emerged as the winner of the inaugural Open Jar Musical Shark Tank.
The creative team for the Alliance Theatre production includes director Tinashe Kajese-Bolden (The Preacher’s Wife); book, music, and lyrics by Jacob Ryan Smith and Caroline Pernick; choreographer Dell Howlett; music director Alejandro Senior; assistant director Rachel Sabo-Hedges; associate music director Adam Beskind; dramaturg Amanda Watkins; and casting by Kevin Metzger-Timson, CSA, and Frankie Ramirez, CSA, of TRC Company.
Casting details and specific performance dates will be announced in the coming months. The musical’s commercial producers are Howard Alter, Zachary Hausman, and Madison Thompson. Co-producers include Caryl & Kendrick Smith, City Cowboy Productions, Fahs Productions, Happy Recap Productions, Jonathan & Rae Corr, Kerri Mandelbaum, and Steven N. Lerner.
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