Review: LIKE FATHER at the Alliance Theatre

My favorite thing to do as a theatre journalist and musical theatre superfan is to experience a brand-new musical fresh, uninformed, and uninitiated. There is something thrilling about sitting in a darkened theatre and watching the lights come up on a story that is, in many ways, newly born. You don't know where it is going. You don't know what the songs will sound like. And, if you're lucky, you get that rare feeling of discovering something truly special for the very first time.

That is exactly how I felt watching the world premiere of LIKE FATHER at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre. And the word "thrilling" feels especially appropriate here because this show is an absolute thriller, in more ways than one. The production, performances, creative choices, and execution are genuinely thrilling, while its dark subject matter fits that description to a T. It is a bold, surprising, emotionally complicated new musical that had me completely enraptured from beginning to end.

Created by Jacob Ryan Smith, with book, music, and lyrics by Smith and Caroline Pernick, LIKE FATHER is a coming-of-age story set against America's fascination with true crime. Seventeen-year-old Chris (Sophie Pollono) is forced to move in with her estranged mother, Michelle (Hannah Elless), and stepfather, Ben (Benjamin H. Moore), following her father's arrest. When popular true-crime podcaster Lillian Clark (Charity Angél Dawson) turns her attention toward Chris's family, long-buried questions about their past are suddenly thrust into public view.

What follows is much more complicated than its true-crime premise might suggest. Smith and Pernick have crafted a remarkably tight book that drops the audience directly into these characters' lives, then gradually peels away layer after layer. Just when you think you understand someone, or know how you feel about what has happened, another revelation forces you to reconsider. It creates a fascinating emotional tension that keeps shifting beneath your feet, and that uncertainty is one of the show's greatest strengths.

That emotional roller coaster is punctuated and amplified by Smith and Pernick's brilliantly fresh and electrifying score. Their songs can be poetic and exhilarating in one moment, then devastatingly raw in the next. The lyrics have a particular way of surprising you with a modern turn of phrase, only to land an emotional blow moments later. The result is music that feels utterly contemporary without sacrificing the emotional storytelling that makes a great musical theatre score work. The score is brought thrillingly to life under the music supervision of Alejandro Senior and music director and player/conductor Adam Beskindas, whose wonderful orchestra delivers its driving, explosive moments with tremendous energy while giving the quieter passages plenty of room to breathe.

In fact, it has been quite some time since I experienced this particular combination of welcome discomfort, emotional complexity, and musical brilliance in a theatre. The last time may very well have been seeing NEXT TO NORMAL on Broadway many years ago. LIKE FATHER gave me that same exhilarating feeling of watching the musical form tackle something profoundly uncomfortable and somehow finding humanity, humor, and beautiful music inside it.

Helping all of that come vividly to life is director Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, whose staging is every bit as exciting as the material itself. Kajese-Bolden uses every inch of the intimate Hertz Stage thoughtfully, creating images and tableaus that sometimes exist for only a moment but leave an indelible impression. More than once, a piece of staging caught me so completely by surprise that I audibly gasped.

Central to that is Luciana Stecconi's scenic design, including the extremely effective use of a small turntable at the center of the stage. Kajese-Bolden deploys that movement beautifully, sometimes creating an almost dizzying sense of panic or anxiety as the world seems to shift beneath these characters' feet. Yet the production also knows when to become still. Kajese-Bolden carefully manages the emotional ebb and flow, giving us quiet, thoughtful, sometimes heartbreaking moments alongside soaring musical climaxes.

And, perhaps most surprisingly for a musical involving a serial killer and true-crime podcasts, LIKE FATHER is frequently very funny. I found myself laughing out loud far more often than I expected. It is a delicate tonal balancing act, and one that is a testament both to the strength of the writing and to a cast that understands precisely when and how to let the humor break through without diminishing the gravity of the story.

That cast is, across the board, top-notch.

As Chris, Sophie Pollono is a tour de force, making Chris's swirling confusion, grief, anger, and desperate need for answers completely believable. Vocally, Pollono is also ideally suited to the material. Chris has songs that, in less-skilled hands, could become overly pointed or simply shouted, but Pollono finds the emotion underneath the power. Her performance makes Chris someone we want to understand, even when Chris herself isn't entirely sure what she understands about herself and the people around her.

As Michelle, Chris's mother, Hannah Elless is magnificent. Her rich, expressive voice is stunning, but it is the way she uses it to illuminate Michelle's conflict, guilt, and uncertainty that makes the performance so effective. Every one of her musical moments is a highlight, and Elless continually finds the emotional complexity of a woman trying to reckon with a past that refuses to remain there.

Benjamin H. Moore brings an earnest steadiness to Ben, Michelle's husband. In a story filled with shifting truths and complicated motivations, Moore's Ben comes across as refreshingly sincere and optimistic. His effortless, smooth vocal delivery only strengthens that sense of openness and warmth.

And, to borrow a little of the show's own vernacular, I am obsessed with Frankie Rodriguez's Trevor. Rodriguez lights up the stage every time he appears. His effervescence is contagious, and his friendship with Pollono's Chris feels wonderfully natural and lived-in. What I particularly loved about Rodriguez's performance is how unique and vibrant he makes Trevor without ever allowing him to become a caricature. There is a specificity to the character that makes him wonderfully funny but also entirely real. Many of the evening's biggest comic moments belong to Trevor, and Rodriguez delivers them with seemingly effortless timing, providing exactly the kind of release the story needs without ever feeling disconnected from it.

Charity Angél Dawson, meanwhile, is brash, bold, and enormous fun to watch as Lillian Clark. Her Lillian is equal parts ringmaster and puppet master, sporting a devilish grin and an uncanny understanding of exactly what her audience craves. Some of Kajese-Bolden's most creative staging accompanies Lillian's appearances, and Dawson seizes every one of those moments.

Billy Harrigan Tighe brings an entirely different energy to John Grady. His looming presence is never far from the action, always there in Chris's memory and ready to surface. Tighe is entirely believable as the loving father Chris knew, which makes him equally terrifying as the truth of his horrific crimes is gradually brought to light. The tension between those two versions of the same person is deeply unsettling and critical to understanding the impossible questions Chris is trying to answer.

Dell Howlett's choreography wisely avoids overwhelming the story. Instead, the movement is simple, purposeful, and highly effective, complementing the increasingly unsettled world around the characters. Lex Liang's costume design is similarly well matched to the production, with the costumes in "Family Business" proving an especially memorable highlight, bringing flash and creative flair to one of the evening's most theatrically playful sequences.

Thom Weaver's lighting design deserves special recognition. It transforms the relatively small Hertz Stage from terrifying nightmare to beautiful landscape seemingly in an instant, often functioning almost as another storyteller. Combined with Caite Hevner's projection design, which uses the moving scenic elements to add just the right amount of context and visual depth, the production can change its entire theatrical vocabulary in seconds. A projection sequence late in the show featuring scenes from Chris's childhood is particularly effective and poignant, briefly giving tangible form to the memories that have shaped so much of her understanding of her father and herself.

The sound design by Melanie Chen Cole and Hidenori Nakajo is equally effective, supporting both the show's explosive musical moments and its quieter exchanges with clarity.

There has already been considerable buzz around LIKE FATHER, fueled by viral social media and an EP of music available on streaming services. Sometimes a new musical arrives carrying so much advance excitement that the finished product can't possibly live up to the hype. LIKE FATHER absolutely does.

This is the kind of bold and original new musical that makes experiencing a world premiere so exciting. It is thrilling, disturbing, funny, moving, and musically exhilarating, with a first-rate cast and creative team bringing Smith and Pernick's complicated story vividly to life. I have a feeling this is only the beginning for LIKE FATHER, and that a very bright future lies ahead.

LIKE FATHER plays the Hertz Stage at Alliance Theatre through November 15, 2026. Performances are on the Hertz Stage at  the Alliance Theatre, 1280 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, GA 30309. For performance times, ticket prices, availability, and tickets, visit https://www.alliancetheatre.org/production/2026-27/like-father/.

Lead Photo: Sophie Pollono and Billy Tighe in the Alliance Theatre’s 2026-2027 season production of LIKE FATHER. Photo by Greg Mooney.

Top Photo: Charity Angél Dawson and Sophie Pollono in the Alliance Theatre’s 2026-2027 season production of LIKE FATHER. Photo by Greg Mooney.

Mid Photo 1: Frankie Rodriguez and Sophie Pollono in the Alliance Theatre’s 2026-2027 season production of LIKE FATHER. Photo by Greg Mooney

Mid Photo 2: Hannah Elless and Benjamin H. Moore in the Alliance Theatre’s 2026-2027 season production of LIKE FATHER. Photo by Greg Mooney.

Mid Photo 3: Hannah Elless and Sophie Pollono in the Alliance Theatre’s 2026-2027 season production of LIKE FATHER. Photo by Greg Mooney

Mid Photo 4:  Charity Angél Dawson in the Alliance Theatre’s 2026-2027 season production of LIKE FATHER. Photo by Greg Mooney.

Mid Photo 5: Sophie Pollono and Frankie Rodriguez in the Alliance Theatre’s 2026-2027 season production of LIKE FATHER. Photo by Greg Mooney.

Mid Photo 6: Billy Tighe, Sophie Pollono and Frankie Rodriguez in the Alliance Theatre’s 2026-2027 season production of LIKE FATHER. Photo by Greg Mooney.

Mid Photo 7: Charity Angél Dawson and Sophie Pollono in the Alliance Theatre’s 2026-2027 season production of LIKE FATHER. Photo by Greg Mooney.

Mid Photo 8: Sophie Pollono in the Alliance Theatre’s 2026-2027 season production of LIKE FATHER. Photo by Greg Mooney.

Reader Reviews

To post a comment, you must register and login.