Michael R. Jackson, the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning playwright of A Strange Loop, is sinking his choppers into a stage musical adaptation of the 2007 cult horror-comedy film Teeth, set for an Off Broadway debut next year.
The musical, announced today as part of Playwrights Horizons’ 2023-24 season, will feature lyrics by Jackson, music by Anna K. Jacobs and a book co-written by both. Previews will begin in February 2024.
The 2007 film is a very dark horror-comedy concerning “vagina dentata,” written and directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein. As described by Playwrights Horizons, the musical, like the film, will follow Dawn O’Keefe, “an evangelical Christian teen with a powerful secret not even she understands – when men violate her, her body bites back. Literally.”
“In Teeth, the tethered yet battling forces of sexuality and religion push each other towards wild theatricality, and Jackson’s and Jacobs’s sharp tale of revenge and transformation tears through a culture of shame one song at a time,” the theater company describes, adding that the stage production is “a fierce, rapturous, and savagely entertaining new musical crackling with irrepressible desire and ancient rage – a dark comedy conjuring the legend of one girl whose sexual curse is also her salvation.”
The musical will be directed by Sarah Benson (Fairview, An Octoroon) and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly (A Strange Loop, Fairview). Playwrights Horizons produces by special arrangement with Mark Gordon Pictures.
A Strange Loop was first produced Off Broadway by Playwrights Horizons in 2019, premiering on Broadway in 2022. The musical won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and 2022 Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical.
The Playwrights Horizons 2023-24 season will also include:
- Stereophonic, written by David Adjmi with song’s by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler; directed by Daniel Aukin. Previews start October 2023;
- Sad Boys in Harpy Land, written and performed by Alexandra Tatarsky; Previews start November 20, 2023 (in repertory);
- School Pictures, written and performed by Milo Cramer, directed by Morgan Green. Previews start November 2023 (in repertory);
- Amusements, written and performed by Ikechukwu Ufomadu. Previews start November 2023 (in repertory);
- Staff Meal, written by Abe Koogler, directed by Morgan Green. Previews start April 2024.