The new musical My Pet Dragon was performed in concert last July 12 at Joe's Pub in New York.
Directed by Joe Barros and Meg Zervoulis, the concert featured cast members Meredith Inglesby, Arielle Jacobs, Pierre Marais, Carrie St. Louis, Santina Umbach, Teal Wicks, William Boyajian, Lynn Craig, Ashley D. Kelley, Harrison Meloeny, Curtis Wiley, and Alyssa Wray. With the singers were guitarist Will Shishmanian, drummer Brooke Trumm, and double bassist Matt Aronoff.
The new musical was written by Maggie Moe and Joshua Vranas, and tells the story of Georgia, a teenager who is prescribed a pet dragon to cure her chronic migraines. Her dragon grows and grows, taking over Georgia's entire life, and she finds she must learn to tame her dragon.
The dragon is, in fact, a metaphor for addiction, and Moe and Vranas, both passionate about giving "voices to the voiceless," wrote My Pet Dragon as "a tale of hope for all the 23 million Americans out there struggling with addiction."
The two met in 2019, at NYU TISCH Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and drew from their own experiences with addiction, recovery and chronic migraine to write My Pet Dragon.
The musical's lead producer is Patti Maurer, who has worked on Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, A Chorus Line, and The Crystal Room. She has also directed Shrek, Clicquot in Concert, Beauty and the Beast, Evita, Big Fish, Sound Of Music, and SeaWorld. The executive producer is Tony Award winner Rashad V. Chambers, who has worked on Little Girl Blue: The Nina Simone Musical, American Son, The Inheritance, Caroline, or Change, The Music Man and Topdog/Underdog.
A video recording of My Pet Dragon in concert is available on the My Pet Dragon website.
