‘Teeth: The Musical’ Star Talks Shame and Body Horror On Stage
A blasphemous, bloody musical was harmonizing beneath the holy eyes of Jesus Christ. That’s right, last month, Teeth: The Musical hosted its First Bite press event in a Manhattan, New York City church to commence its second off-Broadway run at the New World Stages theatre starting October 18. The event served apples (biblically appropriate) and hot dogs (phallically fitting). The cast sang four songs, one of them being “Precious Gift,” where the pro-purity Promise Keeper Girls pledge their virginity to God. I noticed that the star of the show, Alyse Alan Louis as Dawn, glanced at the church’s Jesus art looming over the choir.
In the production itself, Adam Rigg’s scenic design confines the stage within church walls. When I attended the world premiere run of Teeth: The Musical back in March, roars of laughter and cheers quaked the Playwrights Horizons theatre. I also won’t spoil the context that compelled an audience member to screech at the stage, “GET HIM!” Raja Feather Kelly’s choreography can get hump-heavy horny and director Sarah Benson escalates the events into an armageddon.
The musical takes inspiration from the 2007 horror black comedy film Teeth, directed and written by Mitchell Lichtenstein, steeped in the misogynist folk tale of vagina dentata. Lichtenstein flipped the myth into the tale of a woman, Dawn (Jess Weixler), who weaponizes her anomalous vaginal fangs to bite back at sexual predators.
When I spoke to Lichtenstein at the press event, he described the surreality of seeing his movie musicalized for the stage (his favorite songs range from “Shame in My Body” and “Modest is Hottest,” the latter performed at press). He was involved in the musical’s early development but supported book writer-composer Anna K. Jacobs (Pop) and book writer-lyricist Michael R. Jackson’s (A Strange Loop) own spin. “I saw that it was in good hands with them, and I didn’t need to interfere or add my two cents to it,” he told me. “In the movie, it kind of boils down to men who mistreat women will get what they deserve. But I think what they’ve done is created [a theme] where power corrupts, or you have to beware of ideology from any side.”
Lichtenstein admires that Jackson and Jacobs morphed Dawn’s coming-of-rage into a different beast, where the allure of mythos drives the characters into extreme ideologies and violence. Set in the cloistered New Testament Village in the present day, Dawn (Louis) is a pious Promise Keeper Girl raised by her fire-and-brimstone preacher stepfather (Groundhog Day: The Musical’s Andy Karl in the New World Stages run; Steven Pasquale originated the Playwrights Horizons role). Her stepbrother Brad (Will Connolly) stokes his resentment of her as he finds his immersion into the online incel “Truthseekers”. After a violating encounter, Dawn discovers that her vaginal teeth—vagina dentata—can snap a manhood in an obscene crunch sound effect. As she detangles herself from shame, Dawn eventually blooms into her own mythical power against the patriarchy.
Louis’s aforementioned glance at the Jesus Christ imagery was very much in character for Dawn. I subsequently realized it might have been inspired by Louis’s Catholic upbringing, which she told me about when I interviewed her for Dread Central.
Dread Central: Talk about your relationship with the movie Teeth.
Alyse Alan Louis: I’ve actually never seen the movie, and now I’m waiting to see it. I started working on this musical version in 2011 so it’s been a long journey with the show, and I think I’m gonna wait to watch the movie.
DC: I read the New York Times article on the work of intimacy coordinator Crista Marie Jackson. Talk about working with Crista.
AAL: Crista Marie Jackson has been a game changer in this process. Having her in the room for intimacy has made me and everyone in my cast feel so safe. I love the way she works too. She starts out with exercises to be able to say “yes” and “no” to each other and to know the parts of the body that we don’t touch—the “yellow,” “red,” and “green” areas. We all do check-ins with each other, and then we make a map of the physical points of “Hey, we’re going here. We’re going to maybe touch here.” We use placeholders so that maybe the first couple of times you do an intimacy scene, for example, you’re not going to kiss on the lips. Maybe you’ll just touch cheeks, and you’ll know that that’s a placeholder for kissing.
And then in the show, something that’s been wonderful for me as Dawn and working with Crista is that I have a silicone piece in my costume, which means that when I am doing any type of sexual simulation in the show, I’m not making contact with my actual body to another body. The silicone is actually between me and that other body. It’s given me that level of safety that allows me to feel like Dawn and then take her off at the end of the piece. Because it’s true, this character gets assaulted [and] this character has a very tough relationship with sex for a lot of the show.
And then there are other moments where Crista has scored excitement [that conveys] arousal for Dawn, where she can actually take that moment and feel those feelings in a physical way. And I’ve just loved the way that she has worked with us in our room.
DC: How do you relate to your character Dawn?
AAL: Well, I grew up going to Catholic school, an all-girls school for high school. I think definitely anytime you are going to school in a religious environment, you are molding religion and rules. Shame is a part of it, especially with how we talk or don’t talk about sex in those environments. So I definitely relate to that, and I also relate to the fact that Dawn’s most important relationship in the show is her relationship with her body. Especially for this show, we’re looking into feminine identity and the discovery of that through the physical.
DC: While you didn’t see the Teeth movie, did you use any other horror film performances as a reference for your own performance?
AAL: I’m sure they’re in there. I love a lot of horror movies. I love Poltergeist, I love The Exorcist, and I love Rocky Horror Picture Show, I love a camp sort of horror film like that. I’m sure they’re all in here [in my performance]. I’m sure they all show in my face, all these movies that I love. So yeah, I totally pull from the tropes, if you will, of those characters.
DC: You’ve been part of Teeth’s musical development for 11 years. Did you make any other self-discoveries? In yourself or Dawn?
AAL: Wonderfully, it’s been cool to age as I’ve been a part of the project. Because, yes, I am playing a teen. I am not a teenager. But that’s the beautiful thing about it. Because at the time [in the musical’s development] I was a teenager I don’t know if I would have been able to delve into the depth of the material. Because at that age we’re still [in] our inhibitions. We’re still learning; Our brains are still forming. So I feel like what’s great is to be able to do this show at exactly the age I am now, even though I am not a teen, to be able to bring that depth to it.
DC: In the press script [from the Playwrights Horizons version], a note states that the musical is about the horror of ideology, the horror of myth, how we believe it, and how we get driven into the extremes. And what is the takeaway you wish people would get about myth and ideology?
AAL: I think there’s a way to study ideology and take it literally. And I think there’s a way to actually study ideology and take it the way it means to you.
DC: Heavy question, yes.
AAL: And I think that’s maybe where the rub is. I think [with] ideology, [there] can be too much of it and taking too much of it literally could go in one direction. Being able to take what you want from it can go in another. What’s the balance? I’m interested in that.
Teeth: The Musical began previews at the New World Stages Theater on October 18 with an opening night on October 31 for an open-ended run. The album with the Playwrights Horizons cast is currently available.
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