Susan Granger’s review of “Teeth” (MainStage/Playwrights Horizons)
Back in 2007, Mitchell Lichtenstein made a savage, low-budget, comedy/horror movie called “Teeth” about a woman with a carnivorous vagina. And now – believe it or not – it’s become a campy, off-Broadway musical about faith and shame, having its World Premiere at Playwrights Horizons.
Set in New Testament Village, a paternalistic, evangelical Christian community located in a town called Eden, somewhere in the Midwest, Dawn O’Keefe (Alyse Alan Louis) is the chaste leader of the Promise Keeper Girls, a group of high-school students who have – in the words of her abusive step-father Pastor (Steven Pasquale) – “committed themselves to female empowerment through sexual purity.”
Problem is: her brawny, basketball-star boyfriend Tobey (Jason Gotay) and their raging hormones. So one night at a lake – after Tobey proposes marriage – they have sex, only to discover that Dawn’s vagina has sharp teeth that cut off his penis, causing Tobey to bleed to death.
“I’ve got some really crazy stuff going on downstairs,” Dawn tells her doctor (Pasquale) in advance of her first gynecological exam. And that’s putting it mildly.
Meanwhile, there’s Dawn’s grudge-holding stepbrother Brad (Will Connolly), railing against “the feminocracy,” and Dawn’s closeted buddy Ryan (Jared Loftin), who is desperately trying not to be gay.
Apparently, Dawn suffers from a mythical condition known as ‘vagina dentate,’ descending from the voracious Goddess Dentata, who not only protects women but epitomizes a psychological extension of men’s anxiety about emasculation.
“The moon turns red and the lines all blur,” sings Dawn, “and inside by head I’m reborn as her.”
Transitioning from worry to vengeful fury, she is accompanied by a Greek chorus of six young women who mirror Dawn’s transformation, chanting “Fear, pain, power, death.”
Cleverly adapted by composer/co-librettist Anna K. Jacobs with pop/rock music by Michael R. Jackson, it’s a parable, broadly directed by Sarah Benson with lots of grisly, gory phalli props designed by Matt Carlin, plus Jeremy Chernick’s special effects, Adam Riggs’ set, Enver Chakartash’s costumes, Palmer Hefferan’s sound and lighting by Jane Cox and Stacey Derosier.
I cannot imagine this moving onto Broadway and appealing to a mainstream audience, but I’ve been surprised in the past.
Running 1 hour, 55 minutes with no intermission, “Teeth” is on the Main Stage at Playwright’s Horizons – its run is extended to April 28th.