A puppet musical about a mermaid outsider searching for belonging in a dystopian Brooklyn.
The story follows Gooey, an orphaned, part-mermaid living in the polluted waters of Newtown Creek. In a near-apocalyptic Brooklyn dominated by the entertainment and tech conglomerate G’wond’rLand Inc., Gooey copes with isolation by retreating into an imagined world where she is adored and complete. When a radio transmission draws her toward G’wond’rLand Theme Park, her journey exposes her to a series of unsettling encounters that challenge her understanding of identity, origin, and desire.
Blending puppetry and musical theatre, the production moves through a surreal landscape populated by anthropomorphic waste, fractured bodies, and streetwise figures. Drawing stylistic influence from musical comedy, crime drama, children’s television, and 1980s body horror, the work situates its narrative within a rapidly gentrifying New York City, examining fantasy, self-invention, and the search for genuine belonging amid environmental and social decay.