“Every Opening Has Its Closing”: Why You Need to Run to See “Teeth” Before Jan 5th
My favorite musical of the year has announced its closing date.
The more I talk about how much I love “Teeth,” the more my mother will gasp in horror. “I’m worried you have some trauma,” she told me gently at Thanksgiving, when I was making nice conversation about how the latest version of the Off-Broadway musical had penises fly down from the ceiling.
“Teeth,” the musical from the movie of the same name, follows Dawn, a devout Christian teen who discovers she has teeth in her vagina — teeth that will bite when there’s something unwanted inside of them. I’ve now seen the show three times, twice in its original run at Playwrights Horizons, and once at its new run at New World Stages. I’m trying to figure out when to go again before it closes early next year.
But don’t worry, Mom, this obsession with “Teeth” doesn’t come from some dark personal place. Instead, I love the show’s head-first dive into both uncomfortable and cultural conversations — in hilarious, bold, and resonant style.
There is so much to laugh at at “Teeth.” From the moment the blood-stained curtain comes down, we’re laughing at an incredibly dramatic, high-energy church scene. A group of “Promise Keeper Girls,” led by Dawn (Alyse Alan Louis) aggressively share why they’ve sworn to save themselves — and their “precious gift” — for marriage. In an upbeat, folky tune from Anna K. Jacobs (book and music), there are one liners that shock the audience with laughter. “A precious gift is not like sushi a la carte,” the girls sing in passionate unison. And, because we’re in a church — and this group is very much steeped in religious morals — some of the laughter comes from just dramatizing religious stereotypes: “His word is very clear, He gave us two choices, take your pick: are you a virgin or a whore?”
There are no throwaway lines, no details left unturned. The humor in “Teeth” is so quick and punchy that you’re laughing at one line or action just to almost miss the next. When Dawn’s boyfriend, Toby (the lovely Jason Gotay), walks on to have a discussion with her, they greet each other with synchronized self hugs, then sit a laughable distance away from each other — leaving tons of room for Jesus. He sings about how Dawn’s chastity turns him on with a tune “Modest is Hottest” while wearing a basketball jersey that says The Eden Crossbearers.
Yet the strength of “Teeth” isn’t just that it’s shockingly, clutch-your-pearls good humor; it’s that the humor comes from a much darker place, one the show mostly explores with tact and respect.
When Dawn’s friends discover her and Toby almost kissing, they berate her and she sings a gripping, hypnotic melody called “Shame in my Body.” The song starts with a cheeky line — “My panties are wet and it’s not blood or sweat, and it’s Tobey’s doing” — but continues with raw, vulnerable lyrics and Louis doing some of the most gripping floor work I’ve seen. (I watch this video of Louis singing it at least once a week). Dawn is singing about how she needs the religious sting of shame in her body to drown out the desire she feels for her boyfriend, and it’s heartbreaking to see and hear her beat herself up for it.
And when Dawn rips Tobey’s bloody penis from her body, it gets a big laugh, and the blood, quite literally, goes everywhere (the first few rows of the theater are a designated “splash zone”). But Dawn’s teeth only bite when she’s not consenting. The aftermath, as Dawn understands why she bit Tobey’s penis, is chilling.
It’s a hard balance, to go from making fun of religious stereotypes to delicately handling the deeper effects they have on this community. When “Teeth” stays close to the characters going through it — particularly Dawn — it’s strongest. Seeing Dawn sing “Always a Woman” and trying to blame what happened to Tobey on being a woman is effective and devastating.
Yet when it tries too hard to make cultural opinions known, telling us what to feel instead of letting us feel for these characters, it feels removed. Dawn’s transformation later in the show doesn’t need to have a feminist tirade attached; we can see it in how she and the Promise Keeper Girls change and treat the men in their lives.
The show builds up to such a high point of humor and cultural tension that it has a hard place figuring out where to go — while I’ve seen three different endings, they all attempt to make a large statement on all the “isms” the show has explored. The one I like best sticks closest to what is at the heart of this musical: the journey of a girl finding out her power, overcoming morals she learned in church, and discovering what she believes as truth instead. Yeah, she may have teeth in her vagina that are hungry to kill some men. But showing the journey from sexually repressed and shameful to liberated and powerful is something I’ve seen no female character on stage in this way — and no actress like Louis either.
In my original review of “Teeth”, I said I wouldn’t recommend it to my grandparents, but as it closes in less than a month, my recommendation is for everyone. It’s able tackle some of the dark issues of the current world through funny and emotional storytelling. As long as you can tolerate some severed penises, “Teeth” is well worth the horror.
“Teeth” closes its second Off-Broadway run on January 5th.
How I found out about it: Originally, a mix of emails from Playwrights Horizons. I followed the “Teeth” social media after it closed its run there and they said they had “more” in store.
Why I went (again): This was one of my favorite musicals of the year, and maybe of all time. When I heard it had a new run, I wanted to see how they’d revamped it for the new theater.
How I got tickets: Theatre Development Fund! But there are tons of ways to get cheaper tickets for this. General tickets start at $39. They also have $34 in-person and online rush tickets, as well as online lottery tickets. There’s (almost) no excuse!
