Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The audacious musical satire TEETH continues Michael R. Jackson’s obsession with the pitfalls of religion

• By drediman
• March 26, 2024
• No Comments

Michael R. Jackson has made a name for himself as a sort of disruptor of musical theater. Starting with his shattering semi-autobiographical musical A Strange Loop — which both the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama — Jackson has established himself as a creator of irreverent, unflinching musicals, a trend which continued with his follow-up White Girl in Danger. Now at Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons comes the audacious satire Teeth, which Jackson co-wrote with Anna K. Jacobs (Jackson wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book; Jacobs wrote the music and co-wrote the book).

Make no mistake, Teeth possesses all the subversive bearings of a Michael R. Jackson musical, particularly as it relates to his brazen critique of religion as it relates to sexuality and shame (the musical is based on Mitchell Lichtenstein’s 2007 cult horror flick of the same name). Jackson and Jacobs’ new musical has some surprises up its sleeve — indeed, what begins as a hilarious, pointed satire on the pitfalls of religion somehow ends up morphing into an apocalyptic revenge parable concerning one girl’s simultaneous realization of her “powers” and the abuses society has beset upon her (no further spoilers here). Suffice to say, Teeth gets increasingly outrageous, ultimately concluding on a downright biblical note. It’s a jarring shift in tone that I can see theater-goers either resisting or being totally invested in. In terms of the writing, Jacobs and Jackson’s score is approachable and often tonge-in-cheek — if not quite attaining classic status, at least upon first listening — and their book unfolds with the exuberance and two-dimensionality of a graphic novel.

On the whole, the show’s company of actors is game and hardworking, starting with the perfectly-cast Alyse Alan Louis in the central role of Dawn, whose progression from demure, by-the-books school girl to vengeful, rampaging feminist goddess is handled with as much nuance as is possible. Perhaps the production’s most delicious comedic turn comes from Steven Pasquale as an overzealous preacher (his late cameo as a perverted doctor also hits the sweet spot). Former Soho Rep artistic director Sarah Benson and acclaimed downtown choreographer Raja Feather Kelly have staged Teeth with intelligence and wicked, gleeful theatricality.

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TEETH
Off-Broadway, Musical
Playwrights Horizons
1 hour, 50 minutes (without an intermission)
Through April 28