In the Springs, FAC production delivers Alanis Morissette’s anthems with power but stumbles between the songs.

The FAC’s musical Jagged Little Pill is hard to swallow. But that bitter pill is intentional: Its very title is a metaphor of the raw rage of the 1995 Alanis Morissette alternative rock soundtrack.

Playing through May 24 at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the angst-driven musical is packed with talented voices who sadly underdeliver the needed synergy and credibility to make it work. While the music brightens a dark tale, it seems jarring as characters burst into song amid themes of addiction, sexual assault and LGBTQ+ issues.

Jagged Little Pill explores the lives of the fictional Healy family in 1990s suburban Connecticut. Musically inspired by Morissette’s iconic album, the story’s characters radiate a picture-perfect family with a shiny veneer cracking in every painful way possible.

Mom, MJ (Monet Sabel) is addicted to painkillers after a car accident. Family patriarch Steve Healy (Josh Franklin) is predictably distant, finding refuge in pornography to further strain the marriage. Vera Brown portrays daughter Frankie as a biracial 16-year-old adoptee struggling with her sexual identity while navigating a relationship with her friend Jo (Laura Leo Kelly). The oldest son Nick (Mark Autry) shoulders the weight of lofty expectations with his Harvard acceptance while hiding a looming crisis of social injustice. The foursome is a perfect storm of crisis and confrontation.

Jagged Little Pill leans heavily on its music — as well it should. The 1995 Grammy Award-winning album captured the cynical, emotional and upending drama of the era. Unforgiving and unrelenting, no character is without an undercurrent of trauma. And with most of the characters teenagers, it’s time travel back to what might be high school hell for some.

The story cleverly starts in the Healy home with mom MJ dutifully scribing the family’s annual holiday letter. True, but not the truth, it is the positive spin she wants others (and herself) to believe. When its contents are revealed, MJ gets pushback from the family. Belting out memorable tracks from the album, Steve balks and retreats while Nick rants about the pressure to be perfect and Frankie’s militant activism is on verbal overdrive.

Photo still: Ray Bailey TV/FAC

There are strong vocal performances, but the spaces between the poetic tracks are weak. One exception is Laura Leo Kelly, an FAC newcomer, who embodies Jo completely. She is a loyal friend and support to Frankie, consoling and commiserating, only to be discarded and replaced later. Jo sings the quirky “Hand in My Pocket” with passion. Every emotion and gesture is poured into the whimsical song.

Vera Brown’s version of Frankie resonates as both vulnerable and angry. She sings the album’s signature track, “Ironic” in a classroom of her peers where a new love interest emerges.

The accompanying ensemble brings lively vocals and energetic choreography to the multi-tiered set. They portray a gaggle of teenagers with relatable issues. Yet their breaking into song distracts, as do clumsy microphones and stands trotted on and off stage. The action and storyline are well-paced as their stories merge into a single trajectory toward growth and resolution.

Director Michael Bello and his creative team shape the lighting and sound design on a stark set that enable a swift shift of scenes from the Healy home to the school and even on the street. The set is minimalistic, allowing the music and the storyline to take center stage.

Everyone in this talented troupe can sing, but the acting is inconsistent. Movement is robotic and staging is awkward.

Act Two brings a surge of heightened troubles. Frankie, Nick and their friends become embroiled in serious social issues. Steve and MJ launch into counseling, only to have MJ overdose. No more excuses: everyone must confront their truths to make it to the other side.

Jagged Little Pill is a thoughtful and intriguing dive into dysfunction and its resulting rage. The music eclipses the story, but it is still a show worth seeing/hearing.