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Horror Comedy ‘Teeth’ is Getting a Stage Musical Adaptation?!
Here’s something we didn’t have on our horror bingo card this week: a stage musical adaptation for 2007’s cult horror comedy Teeth is in the works.
Deadline reports that Michael R. Jackson, the Pulitzer and Tony award-winning playwright of A Strange Loop, is working on an adaptation set for an Off Broadway debut next year.
The musical was announced as part of Playwrights Horizons’ 2023-24 season. Teeth, the musical, will feature lyrics by Jackson, music by Anna K. Jacobs and a book co-written by both. Previews are slated to begin in February 2024.
Here’s Playwright Horizons’ official synopsis for Teeth: “Dawn O’Keefe is an evangelical Christian teen with a powerful secret not even she understands – when men violate her, her body bites back. Literally. From Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) and Anna K. Jacobs (POP!), Teeth, based on the cult classic film of the same name, 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.”
For those unfamiliar with the 2007 cult favorite written and directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein, it centered around teen Dawn O’Keefe (Jess Weixler) realizing her vagina dentata gives her the upper hand with sexually aggressive men. When men violate her, her body bites back.
“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 told Deadline, 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).
Keeping our fingers crossed that Teeth begins a trend of stage musical adaptations of unexpected horror films!
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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