Teeth Off-Broadway Reviews

The first iteration of Teeth, in the higher-brow context of Playwrights Horizons, tied itself in ideological knots as it barreled into its back half. Jackson and Jacobs have Dawn, here endowed with eldritch powers that infect the rest of Teeth’s female ensemble, become all too powerful. Teeth builds to a big, bloody, apocalyptic climax — again, very much in the mode of Carrie and especially Little Shop — and as it gets there, suddenly inserts a reminder that revenge taken to any extreme is bad. Beware a feminocracy, it says, as much as a patriarchy. It’s a fair conclusion, if also the sort of thing that can read as a cop-out. In this go-round, Benson has placed a heavier emphasis on the thrill of Dawn’s rise to power, and she floors it, coherence be damned. During Dawn’s tense falling-out with Loftin’s character, she’s wearing a Taylor Swift T-shirt that reads “A LOT GOING ON AT THE MOMENT.” Then there’s all that blood and the hail of severed genitalia. All contribute to a feeling that we’re all sailing Thelma & Louise–style over the cliff of bad taste and reveling in it as we go down. The momentum gets the audience to the place where the recrimination may sting more pointedly. You wore the poncho. You cheered for the blood. You’ve got teeth in you too.

The show boldly posits the notion that musical theatre can be impactful, without being didactic. Its points about sexuality and consent, shame and religion are all well made and crystal clear – yet Jacobs and Jackson never baldly declare them outright. It’s a tricky task – and they’ve nailed it.