The first is Susan (Margo Seibert), recently separated from her husband, who winds up at her deceased grandmother’s empty farmhouse in Latvia – then Sadie (Mia Pak), who’s just split from her longtime girlfriend, Jasmine, and finally Beckett (J. D. Mollison), newly divorced, who let his ex-wife have all the furniture and is in a nearly bare basement apartment in Brooklyn.

Where Sadie has as her only companion Zippy the badger (represented by a puppet operated and voiced by Mollison), Susan has Pookie, a dragon figurine collected by her grandmother (puppet voiced by Pak), and Beckett has Shelob, a marionette spider taking over his apartment (voiced by Seibert). They all battle substance abuse, or at least the temptation to overindulge because substances are more available than companionship. And they all notice their worst latent mental tendencies—obsessiveness, depression and rage, agoraphobia—spiraling. 

It was so WONDERFUL to see a new ORIGINAL musical.  Especially in a time of so many adaptations of movies and books it was nice to see something tailor-made for the live stage!  This musical really pulled me into the action.  From its very intimate setting of a cocktail bar to the ruse of an open mic night I felt included and a part of the evening.  The production brought me back to my feelings of COVID and how intense those days would have been especially for those without family who were living alone.  How much Netflix could you watch?  How many hours could you spend in front of your laptop?  How much of your life could you pour into your cell phone?  How were you expected to keep your demons at bay?

Written by Dave Mallow, the show felt and sounded very similar to his most popular piece, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.  The music was rich and dissonant and uncomfortable and just plan hypnotic. It was the perfect thought-provoking emotional evening in the theatre that you so often do NOT find in traditional musical theatre.