New Musical “fuzzy” Is a Story of Children, Parents, Processing and Puppets

From the hearts and minds of the songwriting team of Will Van Dyke and Jeff Talbott comes a new musical — with puppets! — called fuzzy, a title so adorable you’d guess it might be Barrington Stage Company’s leap into children’s theater programming. But guess again. Seriously.

With music and lyrics by Van Dyke and book and lyrics by Talbott, the intimate new show running  July 8-27 at BSC’s St. Germain Stage in Pittsfield, MA, is about parents and grown children, the delicate art of caregiving, the turbulence of coming home, and the process of, well, processing a life that you left behind. It’s also a big embrace of the act of theatrical storytelling. Opening night is July 12.

In the frisky, highly theatrical fuzzy, a playwright called The Human (played by Tony Award nominee John Cariani) is seeking to share the story of the time they returned home to the Great Plains to focus on their mother’s health crisis. To lend some emotional distance from the sting of the story, The Human has hired The Actress (played by Broadway and Off-Broadway vet Cass Morgan), The Puppeteer (played by Teddy Yudain, recently of Off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors and The Apple Boys at Bucks County Playhouse) and a trio of musicians (Shraman Gosh as The Pianist, Ben Clark as The Guitarist and Carl Carter as The Bassist).

The Human’s idea is to tell the story through puppets, chiefly Fuzzy (an avatar of The Human, voiced by Cariani and performed by Yudain) and maternal Muzzy (voiced by Morgan and performed by Yudain). The Human — a dramatist — is building this theatrical creation in the moment, before our eyes. What could go wrong?

Librettist-lyricist Talbott told me, “The Human is blocked in a very particular emotional way that is probably a result of a kind of emotional PTSD, and this musical is the story of how that blockage gets unblocked. It feels, or I hope it feels, like it is happening in real time right in front of you. A magic trick with all the curtains removed.”

Composer-lyricist Van Dyke added, “I will openly admit that I am a huge advocate of therapy and talking about your feelings. I think The Human has a lot of conflicted feelings about something they went through, and the only way out is through. This story is about a person getting out by going through, and the best part about it is they can’t do that alone.”

Talbott explained, “The Human is deeply focused on both putting on a good show and also learning from that show. Which, it turns out, is probably not a great strategy for emotional clarity or success.”

The musical is directed by indie and Off-Broadway director Ellie Heyman (Space Dogs at MCC, the Drama League Award-winning digital experience The Great Work Begins: Scenes From Angels in America), with puppet design by Drama Desk nominee Amanda Villalobos and music direction by Patrick Sulken  (Off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors and Teeth).

Van Dyke and Talbott have written six musicals and a slew of songs that have appeared on streamable albums, in animated shorts on YouTube, and in performance spaces ranging from 54 Below to New York City’s Cooper Union. Their fuzzy is the first of two world-premiere musicals by them happening in the 2025-26 season. Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City will premiere their original musical Ten Brave Seconds, also directed by Ellie Heyman, in February 2026.

Van Dyke and Talbott answered a handful of my questions in between rehearsals for fuzzy.

What was the first glimmer of the idea for fuzzy? Was “puppets” the first thought?

Will Van Dyke: I’m not sure the very first, first idea was even puppets. I think there might have been a glimmer of an idea that we talked about that was a play with a song or two, but then puppets came in, and a lot of “yes, and…” and we created this magical thing that is a play, and a musical, and a performance piece, and soundscape, and, and, and…which, honestly, isn’t always the best idea, but in this case I think it served us pretty well! I feel like I’m always down to clown.

Jeff Talbott: I had gone through an experience with my mother that seemed like it might tip into some universals about adult children with aging parents, and it might be worth exploring. I thought it would be a play and I asked Will if we could write one song for it. And after we had explored that, we thought it all might feel kinda glum, so I said, “What about puppets?” We had done a song with a puppet not long before, so puppets were definitely on our minds. And we both thought it was at least interesting, because it’s such an out-of-left-field idea, so we just moved forward. And the more we wrote, the more it became a musical.

Does the musical touch on the idea of the mystery of who our parents are and what they think and feel and why? Is The Human trying to solve a mystery?

Jeff Talbott: I think The Human is definitely trying to solve a mystery: What happened to me? There’s a weird disconnect when a person is under constant stress and problem-solving; high-functioning reasoning solves the problems in the moment but short circuits actual processing of the event. The Human is here to re-wire all those circuits and is completely changed by the end of the show.

Although fuzzy was sparked by an event in Jeff’s life, are you both processing something about your own relationships with your parents with this musical?

Jeff Talbott: It is both of our story and also not either of our story at all. The process of getting to know your parent as an adult is a lifelong pursuit, and also a universal one. The number of people working on this show who have come up to one of us and said “this is exactly what happened or is happening in my family” is wild, and I feel both the responsibility of that and the reward. The show itself is fiction that is filled with versions of fact.

Will Van Dyke: I think both of our families are represented in this show. And other people’s families, too. I think as we started to explore this particular relationship between an adult child and aging parent we learned that it’s a pretty universal relationship, so there was a lot to draw from. It’s also a deeply moving and profound relationship that we wanted to respect and honor in some way.

But I get the sense that this isn’t just about family conflict, but in some ways it’s a love letter to storytelling.

Jeff Talbott: A central topic of the show is the act of writing itself. Why write things? How does it happen? And what does it mean to both the writer and the audience? It’s never lost on me how moving and important it is that two of our central collaborators are world-class writers themselves. John wrote Almost, Maine and Cass is a Tony nominee for co-writing Pump Boys and Dinettes, and they both bring a well of knowledge and understanding to this show that bowls me over every day — not just how truly special they are as actors, but how intricately involved these two great writers are in telling a story about writing.

How does the show play with the “rules” of puppetry? Loose-limbed Teddy Yudain gave a hilarious performance as the dentist in Off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors this past year. He’s not a hidden puppeteer in your show.

Jeff Talbott: To be very clear, we made up a way that puppets work. In general terms, a puppeteer usually directly voices the puppet they are manipulating, but in our show all manipulation is by Teddy, while voicing comes from the other people onstage. From a writing perspective, this was done with a purposeful intent to create a tour de force for a puppeteer (when puppeteers are traditionally in the shadows). We are putting Teddy front and center — which is lucky for us, since Teddy is truly and effortlessly dazzling both as an actor and a puppeteer. He has been a true partner in making this from the first time a word of it was said out loud. Teddy embodies and John voices; so our hope was: two great performances would add up to one show-stopping creature center stage. And singly and together with John, that’s exactly what we got.

Will Van Dyke: Teddy is giving an athletic and tour de force performance, because we are actively pushing him to do something crazy!

What conversations did you and director Ellie Heyman have with the puppet designer Amanda Villalobos about the “look” of Fuzzy and Muzzy?

Will Van Dyke: We tried to really let them do the work they needed to do to find it for themselves. We were so inspired by their concepts and designs we didn’t want to get in the way!

Jeff Talbott: That process was largely one between Ellie and Amanda, who are both exceptional artists and have built a puppet world before. We definitely talked about how they needed to be able to be articulated (as we understood puppetry) and that since they are the centerpiece of the show they should be visually accessible — they call themselves monsters in the show, but it was important that their monstrousness was as much internal as anything. They couldn’t be cuter.

Will, what does a puppet realm inspire in you, as a composer? Is there a “puppet” sound and a “human” sound that you were conscious of in your music?

Will Van Dyke: I never really thought about it as a “puppet sound.” What was more unlocked for me was this concept of a score accompanying the action. So much of the show is text and music married to collectively ask emotional questions of the audience. Having the puppet as a centerpiece really just gave me permission to write and not worry about structure so much. It was an invitation to play, which was really freeing!

Will, when you’re working on a new musical, how much does the geographical setting of the show influence your work? Were you musically mindful of the Heartland when writing “Squirrel in the Wind,” the song for Muzzy, which expresses her plaintive, homespun view of life?

Will Van Dyke: [Geography] influences my work a lot! I really tried to capture the sound of western Nebraska with this whole score. When you listen to “Squirrel in the Wind,” even though it’s only three instruments, my hope is you can feel the openness of the sky. I was really inspired by Gustavo Santaolalla’s score to “Brokeback Mountain” for this show. I think the way he was able to capture the feeling of that kind of space with such simplicity is incredible. I hope that the score to fuzzy is able to do that through a musical theater lens.

How is director Ellie Heyman a fit for the show? What does she bring to the table?

Jeff Talbott: We were introduced to Ellie by commercial producer Erica Schwartz, who has been working with us on our new musical Ten Brave Seconds. But I had seen Ellie’s work on Space Dogs at MCC and was blown away by what she did on that show, so when her name was mentioned I lit up like all the Christmas trees in Christmastown. She is an immensely collaborative artist, always in pursuit of the best possible answer, but with an openness that in lesser hands would feel undisciplined. She also has discipline and rigor and loves what we do. I spend every day in a perpetual state of awe of her, as well as our music director Patrick Sulken, who is a quiet wisdom stealth bomber. We are so lucky to have found ourselves in a team that gets to make two musicals at the same time, and still like each other at the end of every single day. Go figure.

Will Van Dyke: Ellie is a fierce artist, who really sinks her teeth into each story by trying to understand every element of why it exists. She has pushed us and challenged us, but also celebrates us and what we are trying to do. It feels amazing to be in a room with such a wonderful collaborator and someone who believes so wholeheartedly in theater as an art form. Erica Schwartz thought she might be a good fit for Jeff and I as writers. Erica was not wrong.

How is fuzzy different from or similar to another show of yours?

Will Van Dyke: I think the obvious thing to talk about here is our musical Ten Brave Seconds, about a momentous day in the life of a high school kid. From a score perspective, fuzzy is a musical about wide open spaces and really big feelings that can fill those spaces. I wanted to capture all of those things in the small container of what fuzzy is. Ten Brave Seconds is a much more traditional show in terms of structure, but like fuzzy focuses on intimate parts of a family. I have a lot more landscape to play with in Ten Brave Seconds, because of the size of the company — 14 actors — but there’s also a youthful quality to that show that brings a different energy. It’s always about marrying the emotion with the sound and the people, so while both scores are my voice, the fuzzy sound is much different.

Jeff Talbott: We’re in the incredibly fortunate (and very, very rare) position of having two musicals having world premieres within months of each other. Once fuzzy is open, we will turn our attention to Ten Brave Seconds in advance of a premiere in early 2026, and since they were written kind of back-to-back, it’s wild how different they are, but recognizably by the same authors. We tend to invite people in with pure entertainment and then sneak up in the back half with full-hearted vulnerability and feeling. And even though one is a story told by puppets and one by young humans, they both traffic in an earnest exploration of how hard and painful life can be while at the same time being so full of love. It all depends on how you are looking at your life in any given moment. And both shows really dive into parenting in a deep and questioning way. Whether you’re 16 or 60, your folks are your folks, and there is a lot to untangle if you’re going to ever understand them or yourself.

Is fuzzy your most mixed-up, bonkers, experimental piece in form and structure?

Will Van Dyke: We’ve written a bunch of stuff together and they all play with the form a bit. We’re really interested in telling deeply vulnerable human stories in a form that can be used in so many amazing ways. I think because we are trying to explore all of those ways through an emotionally intimate lens, sometimes we are messing with traditional form, but it always comes down to how we can best tell the story.

Jeff Talbott: So, fuzzy is our sixth full-length musical, plus many, many songs, albums, etc. This is, I guess, formally, the biggest departure, but the truth is we are kind of drawn to inventing our own form every single time. Our shows are different from each other in the sense that they each have some challenging approach that maybe isn’t a straight shot up the middle, but also alike in that they all have our writing voices as a base — both our individual voices and the one we have when we make a song together.

You both share lyric credit and Will writes the music. Which comes first?

Jeff Talbott: Literally every song happens in its own, unique, organic way. We have gone fully from a melody to start (the emotional climax of fuzzy was fully a melody without a home until we realized it was perfect for this show) and fully from a lyric to start, and everywhere in between. We just start a song and go back and forth until we both agree it’s done. It’s one of the most exciting things about our collaboration — we live in each other’s heads just enough to always be talking to each other through the work itself.

Will Van Dyke: Every piece of writing is different. Mostly, it just happens organically. I can say we never really talk about how it’s going to happen, we just let it…happen.

Tell me how John Cariani and Cass Morgan are fits for your work. He’s a 2004 Tony nominee for playing Motel in Fiddler on the Roof. She’s a veteran New York City actress who has appeared in iconic shows.

Jeff Talbott: It is possible I write every show with John in mind. Don’t tell him. He’ll get so cocky. He is an incredible writer, too, but when he is acting, he asks only questions that an actor asks. He is intensely curious and always probing to make sure the words are exactly what they need to be, nothing more and nothing less. And then he is a craftsperson at a level that is hard to match.

Same with Cass Morgan, who I met when we did a reading together years ago, and then she asked me to appear with her in her beautiful folk musical True Home, later retitled The Road to Where. She’s a walking icon, known for her work in the original Violet and Floyd Collins, as well as Broadway’s Memphis, Mary Poppins and more. She’s an inquisitive and deeply focused craftsperson. I’m telling you, whatever one might make of this show, you cannot deny that these three actors are showcased in ways that are astonishing. They surely astonish me every day.

What do you hope an audience walks away with? What feeling or what call to action?

Jeff Talbott: I never know how to answer this. I hope people walk away and don’t delete what they just saw from their hard drive immediately. I write things that I hope stick to the ribs a bit, and force a conversation. Because I truly believe that once a performance is over, I am giving it over to an audience member to turn to whoever is sitting next to them and say, “Can we talk about that?” Theater can be a cure for loneliness. I certainly want it to be.

Will Van Dyke: I think the call to action is to feel! So much of what this show is about is recognizing the everyday gifts in life. We hope that the show inspires people to recognize those and feel something about them, be it gratitude or however they respond to that.

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The fuzzy design team includes Raphael Mishler  (scenic design), Johanna Pan (costume design), David Lander (lighting design) and Jason Crystal (sound design). Leslie Sears serves as the production stage manager and Aurora Courcy is assistant stage manager.

I previously interviewed composer, music director/supervisor, arranger/orchestrator and a Grammy-nominated record producer Will Van Dyke  about his musical with Josh Halloway, Writing Kevin Taylor.

Jeff Talbott was the recipient of the inaugural Laurents/Hatcher Award for his John Gassner Award-winning play The Submission. I previously interviewed him about his plays The Gravedigger’s Lullaby, published and licensed by Dramatic Publishing; The Messenger; Civics and Humanities for Non-Majors; and the four-character drama i.

Concurrent with Barrington Stage Company’s world premiere production of fuzzy, Joy Machine Records released a two-song EP called “fuzzy (Barrington Stage Sessions)” on all streaming platforms. It features performances by John Cariani (Broadway’s Something Rotten!, The Band’s Visit and Fiddler on the Roof) and Cass Morgan (Broadway’s Pump Boys and Dinettes, Memphis, The Bridges of Madison County), singing the show’s “Write What You Know” and “Squirrel in the Wind,” respectively. The EP is mixed by Derik Lee and mastered by Oscar Zambrano.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC) is under the leadership of artistic director Alan Paul. Branden Huldeen is BSC artistic producer and associate artistic director.