Michael R. Jackson & Anna K. Jacobs' TEETH Musical at Playwrights Horizons (Winter 2024)- Page 4

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 3/7/24 at 10:08am

More likely they are refunding the tickets, and those that want to rebook can do so - at the rate those tickets are currently being sold for.  It sucks, but doesn't seem illegal.

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 3/7/24 at 10:18am

"There was a performance cancelled yesterday and people on Twitter are saying the box office is refusing to acknowledge ticket exchanges, making everyone who still wants to see the show pay an up charge of $50-$100 to see it a different day after it was cancelled today."

That makes no sense at all, since ticket prices are only $10-20 more for the extension. It must people who bought the cheapest seats referring to having to go up a price tier or even up to premium tickets, since the lowest-priced seats are pretty much sold out for rest of the run and Playwrights literally has no equally-priced seats left, but there's no scenario where they'd have to pay $100 more.

Edit: I guess the $100 more has to do with the young/student membership seats, which offer $10-20 tickets.

It would be nice, but Playwrights is under no obligation to move you into a premium seat at a later performance just because your show is cancelled.

What a shock, people on Twitter exaggerating things.

Updated On: 3/7/24 at 10:18 AM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 3/7/24 at 10:41am

As long as they did an automatic refund, they have the right to charge whatever they like for future performances and treat "rebooking" the same as a new ticket sale.

The bigger issue is what we saw 4 years ago when COVID burst onto the scene: nonprofits that wouldn't give people automatic refunds and instead tried to turn those purchased tickets into credits for future shows or donations towards the company, because in reality the company probably wasn't holding the money in escrow and had spent it as soon as they got it.

[Det95]

Posted: 3/7/24 at 1:15pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "As long as they did an automatic refund, they have the right to charge whatever they like for future performances and treat "rebooking" the same as a new ticket sale.

The bigger issue is what we saw 4 years ago when COVID burst onto the scene: nonprofits that wouldn't give people automatic refunds and instead tried to turn those purchased tickets into credits for future shows or donations towards the company, because in reality the company probably wasn't holding the money in escrow and had spent it as soon as they got it."

Roundabout put a time limit on it too. I planned to use the credit to see C,oC but the new dates weren't when I was traveling and the stuff they had while I was in the city wasn't interesting to me. I ended up losing that money.

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 3/7/24 at 5:19pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "As long as they did an automatic refund, they have the right to charge whatever they like for future performances and treat "rebooking" the same as a new ticket sale."

I love your belief is Playwrights Horizon’s to do the right thing, but they didn’t. I’m a student who lost their $10-20 ticket due to the Teeth cancellations and was not automatically refunded- I had to request a refund or list a few dates I’ll go via email. When I sent these dates, I was told they’re all sold out despite being in the time window, and I’d need to upgrade to a premium seat. It’s ridiculous all things considered, because I really wanted to see the show. The hassle was too much, so I just requested the refund and they basically said “join the rush or cancellation line.” Seriously? That’s not at all how you keep customers, and it’s one of the worst client experiences I’ve had off/on broadway. Hopefully they do better in the future.

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 3/7/24 at 5:28pm

The show will probably extend one more time, through April 28, and I'd expect it to happen upon opening at the beginning of next week.

Updated On: 3/7/24 at 05:28 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 3/7/24 at 5:33pm

That is a deeply antiquated process, dearalanaaaa, with lots of unnecessary legwork for their staff.

Would have been so much easier on you and them to merely refund you automatically and then let you tough it out from there (whether you chose to buy tickets at the higher price or not).

[yyys]

Posted: 3/7/24 at 5:46pm

Show tonight canceled. I believe third day in a row.

[Miss10036]

Posted: 3/8/24 at 10:00pm

I was at tonight’s performance and the full cast was in as far as I could tell - no understudy slips or anything.  If the cancellations were due to illness, everyone’s back up and running now.

[Miss10036]

Posted: 3/9/24 at 1:36am

Well, that was wild!  This one's chaotic, fun, and gross, and I enjoyed it more and more as the plot took off and it leaned into its culty horror aspects.  I couldn't think of a better place to spend International Women's Day.

Reading through earlier posts on here, it sounds like they've tweaked this a good deal over previews.  I presume that they've cut some songs because the balance of songs versus book scenes felt right and the placement of the songs seemed appropriate.  I'm excited to hear the score again and it's not overloaded by any means.  I've already listened to the title song video that they've released a bunch of times, and it'll be stuck in my head for a while!  However, a few songs slowed the momentum.  They're highly enjoyable and get good reactions but either go on too long or don't feel like they're moving the plot forward as much as they could.  There's room to improve the pacing, in my view.  The plot takes its time to get going, and the fact that the set stays pretty stagnant early on exacerbates this - the earlier scenes feel like a lot of setup and the momentum doesn't pick up until the teeth come out.  I agree with others that they could easily make this two acts.  Alternatively, they could streamline the first half of the show before it goes full horror and get to the chomping faster.

Everyone was on tonight and the casting is top-notch.  Alyse Alan Louis hits both the pure and unhinged beats, Steven Pasquale is spot-on in each of his roles, Jason Gotay's song about modesty is a hoot, and Jared Loftin just about walks away with each number and one-liner he's given.  The audience, which was HIGHLY enthusiastic tonight, was especially into Loftin's performance.  Each of the PKGs brought distinct personalities to their parts.

Will Connolly's acting is excellent and I found myself watching him a good amount, but I feel like the show isn't sure what it wants Brad's role to be.  They set him up like he's going to be more of a foil than he is - they give him his backstory and Truthseeker scenes - but he doesn't feel like a true adversary to Dawn, and the time we spend with him doesn't feel completely justified as a result.

The ending sounds like it's indeed changed since earlier previews, based on the posts on here.  In the current ending:

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

After Dawn offs Ryan, the PKGs start using their teeth, and Dawn/the PKGs defeat the Pastor, Dawn/Dentata faces off with Brad.  It's a relatively brief, verbal face-off between the feminocracy and masculinity, they charge at each other, blackout.  Then, Dawn, who won, speechifies for a bit and calls out the infidels in the audience, rallies the PKGs and her manservants, and they all sing together while coming toward the audience (something like "there is a monster..." if I remember correctly).  I don't remember anyone chomping on an apple unless I missed it.  We don't hear from Brad after the blackout.

The ending's tone worked for me, though I wasn't fully on board with the execution.  As things went off the rails more I was hoping for a "Don't Feed the Plants" or "Carrie on a staircase covered in blood after killing everyone" type of mythical horror ending, and this hit the tone I wanted.  But Dawn's speech went on a tad longer than it needed to, and the Brad vs. Dawn payoff felt somewhat anticlimactic because I wasn't sold on Brad as a character.  I'd also have appreciated a more substantial confrontation between the Pastor and Dawn/the PKGs too.  He's such a presence in the show but they just wordlessly kill him off and move on.

I'm curious to read the reviews and more reports as the run goes on to see if they continue to make changes, since it sounds like they're actively working to make improvements.

God, I love off-Broadway.  It's weird, offbeat stuff like this that keeps theatregoing fun.

[raddersons]

Posted: 3/9/24 at 8:56pm

Not only is this show an absolute riot, but can I just say the music is truly fantastic. I cannot WAIT for a cast recording. It’ll be on repeat for a month. 

Also not seeing enough praise here for Jared Loftin who plays Ryan / the “not-gay” character. Absolutely hysterical performance.  His two songs bring the house DOWN. 

[gretamusical1930]

Posted: 3/11/24 at 1:29pm

Has anybody tried the rush line? What's it like and how early should I get there?

[thatdarnzach]

Posted: 3/11/24 at 3:31pm

Another "too bad, so sad for you lolololol on your Young Membership" here - the only option I was given was to spend $100 more for a premium ticket or a refund.

It would be nice if they kept a list of YM tickets that were cancelled so that we could maybe be moved into one of the next extension performances, but the customer service rep laughed at me when I made that suggestion... which is... yikes?

[bellelinus]

Posted: 3/11/24 at 9:56pm

gretamusical1930 said: "Has anybody tried the rush line? What'sit like and how early should I get there?"

Last Tuesday I got to the box office at 3 (it would open at 4 for rush) and was second in line. By 3;30 there were two others behind me, but then we were told that the performance that night was canceled so i don't know how many of us (if any) would have gotten tickets. But just a data point in terms of when people might show up on a weekday.

[gretamusical1930]

Posted: 3/12/24 at 10:44am

bellelinus said: "gretamusical1930 said: "Has anybody tried the rush line? What'sit like and how early should I get there?"

Last Tuesday I got to the box office at 3 (it would open at 4 for rush) and was second in line. By 3;30 there were two others behind me, but then we were told that the performance that night was canceled so i don't know how many of us (if any) would have gotten tickets. But just a data point in terms of when people might show up on a weekday."

Thank you so much!

[changingmymajor2]

Posted: 3/13/24 at 1:31pm

Does anyone know why no media outlets have posted any reviews? Opening night was two days ago and despite my constant searching, I can't find a single review for the show posted anywhere. Playbill also hasn't posted their usual "Review Roundup" as they do for most shows. 

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 3/13/24 at 4:01pm

Pure speculation here, but given they cancelled multiple performances last week, they may have pushed back the press opening without formally announcing it. Similar to Doubt, where they still had the opening night festivities on the originally scheduled date, but pushed back the official press opening a week.

[idioteque...]

Posted: 3/14/24 at 2:20am

We expecting an extension? Most of the run sold out and the discount tickets they sold them pretty quickly so hoping to catch this

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 3/14/24 at 11:19am

 

[mlledir]

Posted: 3/14/24 at 11:37am

The audition notice seemed to indicate that this could extend to max 4/28, so my guess we get 2 more weeks after reviews come out (3/19 now).

Updated On: 3/14/24 at 11:37 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 3/14/24 at 4:13pm

I know of at least one prominent critic going this weekend, so it does seem they pushed the press performances back.

[raddersons]

Posted: 3/14/24 at 4:21pm

Considering they changed the ending as recently as a week ago, I imagine it wasn’t enough time to get reviewers in before opening night proper. 

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 3/15/24 at 10:11pm

Oh my goodness this was AMAZING!!! Michael Jackson’s best work yet!!!  Crazy campy feminist fever dream of a musical!!  Alyse Alan Louis has such a beautiful distinct voice, completely possessed at the end of feminist power, she was literally shaking and eyes buldging with badassness.  Her big song in the beginning about her  suppressing her sexual desires, stunning.   Gorgeous performance from her. This MUST come to Broadway!!  Absolutely fabulous!  Bravo!!  Playwrights Horizons again showing why it is the BEST. 

[Kad]

Posted: 3/16/24 at 11:47am

The show is wild. The tone is somewhere between a  more serious Little Shop and a more self-aware Carrie with a late turn toward, of all things, The Bacchae, and it smartly lets the audience’s anticipation for what we know is coming build tension and momentum. 

It’s at its best when it focuses on Dawn- the men’s rights stuff with Brad feels a little confused much of the time and his misogyny never really is coherent. And the ending kind of goes off the rails and feels suddenly way too expansive and mythic, with a muddled message that felt a bit like everyone just trying to wrap it up quickly.  
 

But even if they don’t stick the landing, it’s very thrilling to see how far a musical can go. Michael R. Jackson’s proven that he’s willing to push the medium more than nearly any other composer working right now. And unlike White Girl in Danger, this production is well-staged, tight, and focused. And his score is extremely strong and one I would immediately revisit if I could. 

 

[Navin Johnson]

Posted: 3/16/24 at 8:45pm

Because this is happening a lot all over the internet and beyond -- important to note that the SCORE is Anna K. Jacobs. She and MRJ collaborated on the book, but the credit breakdown is Anna for score/book, Michael for book/lyrics. Michael is the larger name and has been the sole credited writer on his previous theatrical outings so I understand where the confusion comes from, but it's unfortunate when that confusion leads to a woman getting repeatedly erased from a work that is just as much hers.

Updated On: 3/16/24 at 08:45 PM