Michael R. Jackson & Anna K. Jacobs' TEETH Musical at Playwrights Horizons + New World Stages

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/15/23 at 2:21pm

Casting announcement for Michael R. Jackson's next musical! 

Playwrights Horizons announces the cast of Teeth, a new musical with book and music by Anna K. Jacobs, book and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson, and choreography by Raja Feather Kelly, in a world premiere production directed by Sarah Benson (February 21 - March 31, 2024; opening March 12).

Teeth features Alyse Alan Louis (Broadway: Amelie; Off-Broadway: White Girl in Danger) in the central role of Dawn O'Keefe, Courtney Bassett (Broadway: Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812; Off Broadway: Titanique) as Promise Keeper Girl Becky, Phoenix Best (Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen, The Color Purple) as Promise Keeper Girl Fiona, Will Connolly (Broadway: Once; Off-Broadway: After the Blast) as Brad O'Keefe, Jason Gotay (TV: “Gossip Girl,” Peter Pan Live!) as Tobey/Truthseeker, Jenna Rose Husli (Off-Broadway: A Tiny Bit of Sky) as Promise Keeper Girl Trisha, Jared Loftin (Gigantic, A.D. 16) as Ryan/Truthseeker, Lexi Rhoades (Off-Broadway: Sugar, Sistas: The Musical) as Promise Keeper Girl Rachael, Wren Rivera (Broadway: Jagged Little Pill; Regional: Bye Bye Birdie) as Promise Keeper Girl Stephanie, Helen J Shen (Regional: Mamma Mia!, The Wedding Singer) as Promise Keeper Girl Keke. The creative team includes Adam Rigg (Scenic Design), Enver Chakartash (Costume Designer), Jane Cox and Stacey Derosier (Lighting Designers), Kris Kukul (Orchestrations), Jeremy Chernick (Special Effects Designer), Julie McBride (Music Supervisor).

Based on the 2007 cult classic comedy horror film of the same name, Teeth follows Dawn O'Keefe (Alyse Alan Louis), an evangelical Christian teen struggling to be an exemplar of purity amongst her community of fellow Promise Keeper Girls. Her stepbrother, Brad (Will Connolly)—alienated by his repressive upbringing in the community led by his fanatical Pastor father and intrigued by the online camaraderie of the Truthseeker men's support group—is haunted by an indelible incident from his and Dawn's past. As Dawn's desires become tested and twisted by the men in her life, she discovers a deadly secret not even she understands: when men violate her, her body bites back—literally. Crackling with irrepressible desire and ancient rage, Teeth is a dark comedy conjuring the legend of one girl whose sexual curse may also be her salvation.

 

Of note, the commercial producer behind it is Mark Gordon (Saving Private Ryan, Criminal Minds, Steve Jobs), who has been trying to make a name for himself in theatre. So we can safely assume this has Broadway aspirations if it goes well at PH.

Updated On: 6/28/24 at 02:21 PM

[JoeW4]

Posted: 12/15/23 at 2:44pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Of note, the commercial producer behind it is Mark Gordon (Saving Private Ryan, Criminal Minds, Steve Jobs), who has been trying to make a name for himself in theatre. So we can safely assume this has Broadway aspirations if it goes well at PH."

 

Given the subject matter, trying to sell this to tourist audiences on Broadway would certainly be....a choice. If they have commercial aspirations, feels like New Worlds would be a much better fit. 

 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/15/23 at 2:53pm

It amuses me how for every smaller show that does well, everyone is just like "just move it to New World Stages", though I'm definitely guilty of doing that as well--I suppose there aren't that many off-Broadway commercial theaters.

But anyway I'm really excited for this!  I haven't watched the movie but the premise just seems bonkers enough that I feel like I'd enjoy this brand of humor, and I'm really interested in seeing Alyse Alan Louis on stage again after Soft Power.

[JoeW4]

Posted: 12/15/23 at 3:09pm

^As I said, it's more the subject matter for me, not the size of the show (obviously we haven't seen it yet). 

As for NWS specifically, I agree that part of it is more arbitrary. It could be another rental venue, but obviously NWS has the infrastructure and history of housing Broadway-style productions, more frequently than say, Theatre Row or the Lortel.  In any case, my point was that commercial Off-way seems like a better fit, where they can cater to a local cult-classic crowd. 

For the record, I'm not opposed to producers taking risks with subject matter on Broadway. Happy to see shows disrupt the safe homogeny. I was just speaking to what I think would serve the show better, but if they want to take it to Broadway, more power to them. It's not my money!

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/16/23 at 12:32am

"New World" seems to have become a colloquialism for "commercial Off-Broadway, 250+ seats, a stage larger than a postage stamp." The issue is that those Shubert venues (New World and Stage 42) are quite expensive.

[inception]

Posted: 12/16/23 at 10:51am

Hi Grandma & Grandpa,

Merry Christmas!  Please find enclosed your present! Daddy got tickets for the whole family to see a new musical!  It's the show the with the biggest buzz(saw) in the city!  It's all about a girl with razor sharp teeth in her c₩nt who bites off the d$cks of all the men who r€p¥ her!  It's supposed to be hilarious!

Happy holiday,

Little Suzy

[Joey Ledenio]

Posted: 12/16/23 at 12:37pm

I feel like this could go either the route of Carrie the Musical (yet another horror flop) or Book of Mormon since MRJ talks a lot about leaning into the religiousness of it all. I wanna be excited for it as A Strange Loop and White Girl in Danger fan but there’s been pretty bad industry talk about how problematic the producer Mark Gordon is (both with this and other theater projects) and I’ve heard he has a heavy hand in steering this creative process

[whatever2]

Posted: 12/16/23 at 12:48pm

> how problematic the producer ... is

Problematic artistically or as a human being?

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 12/16/23 at 1:59pm

There was that N-word incident years ago, and apparently he thinks of himself as quite the comedian (others disagree).  

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 12/16/23 at 5:15pm

https://x.com/thelivingmj/status/1736066950265266591

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/18/23 at 12:07pm

Steven Pasquale is also in this! Two Off-Bway musicals in one season for him!

[raddersons]

Posted: 1/9/24 at 3:26pm

Tickets to this went on sale earlier today. Looks like some days are already pretty well sold (>50%). I think this could be an absolute riot.

[yyys]

Posted: 1/9/24 at 3:29pm

The $10 ones went on sale midnight last night!

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 1/9/24 at 3:46pm

Updated On: 2/16/24 at 03:46 PM

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 1/23/24 at 3:49pm

[Kad]

Posted: 1/23/24 at 4:05pm

That's some really cool key art, and very surprising for an off-bway nonprofit production. Some of the best I've seen in a while.

Updated On: 1/23/24 at 04:05 PM

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 1/23/24 at 6:43pm

https://youtu.be/wwUVGXEuVW0?feature=shared

 

There's been songs from this floating around on YouTube for a while. I heard about this show after falling in love with A Strange Loop, and I have been really excited to see it come to fruition. The sound is really interesting, as much as I like Michael R Jackson's music, he also does really well when collaborating with a composer.

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 2/8/24 at 9:11am

 

[whatever2]

Posted: 2/8/24 at 2:41pm

curious whether anyone knows the expected run-time here?

(nothing on website yet.)

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 2/11/24 at 12:21am

Updated On: 2/16/24 at 12:21 AM

[Robbie2]

Posted: 2/11/24 at 12:27am

TaffyDavenport said: "

Thanks but no thanks. I guess we won't be seeing this. lol

"

 

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 2/16/24 at 4:39pm

Updated On: 2/18/24 at 04:39 PM

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 2/16/24 at 4:49pm

this is the last show in their season on the main stage, this is likely to run well into the summer 

[BOM]

Posted: 2/16/24 at 4:56pm

whatever2 said: "curious whether anyone knows the expected run-time here?

(nothing on website yet.)"

In a recent AMA on Reddit, Jackson said that the show was a one-act. He also mentioned that the White Girl In Danger cast recording should be coming out soon. 

 

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 2/16/24 at 4:59pm

According to the audition notice, the final possible extension date is April 28.

Updated On: 2/16/24 at 04:59 PM