This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, the podcast where we explore the latest shows we see, sharing our insights and opinions on the performances, storylines, and everything in between.

[0:10] Richie Grasso: In today's episode, we're discussing the off-Broadway production of Teeth, currently playing at New World Stages in New York City.

[0:16] Jeff Malone: Whether you cannot catch the show in person or you want to expand your thoughts after seeing it, this episode is free.

[0:21] Richie Grasso: And as always, we want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers.

[0:24] Jeff Malone: So if you're ready to dive into this production, stick around with us.

[0:27] Jeff Malone: I'm Jeff.

[0:28] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, and we're thrilled to be your host for today's episode.

[0:31] Jeff Malone: But before we start the conversation about Teeth, here are a few words from our advertisers.

[0:39] Jeff Malone: Half hour.

[1:00] Richie Grasso: And that's not a metaphor. From Bullet Surprise and Tony Award winner Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs, 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. Following its sold-out extended run at Player's Horizons, Teeth is still hungry for more. Beginning this fall and currently playing this fall, this brazen cackleworthy New Musical, says the Washington Post, is setting up permanent residence at New World Stages.

[1:34] Jeff Malone: So we are discussing the off-Broadway production of Teeth in today's episode, and we're gonna start with our hot take.

[1:42] Richie Grasso: Listen, my hot take on this is that Teeth is a wild, campy ride, and I loved this. I love seeing this just as much the second time as I did the first time, and it's easily one of the most daring and memorable shows in the off-Broadway space right now. It's great.

[2:01] Jeff Malone: I agree. I think this is fun and it's wild and it's so absurdist. And I think the more absurdist something can be, you kind of all just dive in head first and kind of go for the ride. I think this is hitting a lot of marks. I think this will play a long time off Broadway. And I'm kind of excited to dive in here of specifics because this is really breaking barriers for the absurdity of off-Broadway musical theater.

[2:25] Richie Grasso: Let's do it.

[2:26] Jeff Malone: Let's do it.

[2:27] Richie Grasso: All right. Yeah, well, you're talking about a cult movie that existed before. And here's a team of writers that said, let's kind of musicalize this and bring this to the light of modern day.

[2:43] Jeff Malone: Yeah. Um, and it's absurdist. I think when you look at the absurdity of O'Mary, the absurdity of Titanic, the absurdity of this, you say to yourself, absurdist pushing boundaries comedy in the off-Broadway space is working. I think this concept of just calling it Teeth, yeah, and seeing where that takes us and understanding that this is something that's not for the faint of heart, both with the vocal and the lyric, but also like what's actually happening on stage. I think it's fun and it's camp.

[3:19] Richie Grasso: It's such camp. And the concept of this totally works because the audience is just eating it up and loving it. No pun intended. But um, I think what's really interesting with this piece here is like we're balancing horror, comedy, and social commentary. And social commentary here, I think is a major factor, which is why I think the plot and concept really works here. You know, like we're talking about when you really think about it, like an evangelical girl with a toothed vagina that's fighting at the things that are doing bad to her. You know, so that's yeah, I mean, that's both shocking and intriguing at the same time.

[4:08] Jeff Malone: But there's also this like message of um feminine power, women's rights, uh, choice of body and being able to give this message as well that um there's a Christian religious element here, yeah, as well that kind of pushes that sense of um what is the church telling you versus what you're doing with your own body. And I think the dentata version of the song kind of pushes this, like, yeah, though female empowerment. Of course, at the end, it's this like wild, like, yeah, the gloves are off and we're gonna just gonna go wild here. But it should have a message to it and a meaning to it. Kind of like when you look at the absurdity of like Book of Mormon about the religious elements of that, but then you get to the end and the message is about like we all need to kind of come together as cultures, and you know, so I think there is like a message to even though that's such absurdist comedy too, you know, when it comes to religious elements.

[5:06] Richie Grasso: Right. And this does a really great job of exploring those things from the religious side of things on how there is sexual repression amongst teenagers thinking like it's a sin to do what they're doing, and then there's a ton of religious hypocrisy in a piece like this, which ultimately here kind of leads more into this female empowerment piece that we're watching her, we're watching her take back what's hers, how she was raped in this piece, and said like she didn't want that, and also the females around her and building her up, becoming part of this group, right? I mean, and there's such strength in that group because they are all in the same place at the beginning, and then they're all at the same place at the end. And there is such strength vocally, but also just with the characters and the development of this.

[6:01] Jeff Malone: I also think that this just from a plot perspective flows nicely and works in the, you know, we're moving from song to song. The horrific moments don't really come until about an hour in. I kind of wish some of that came a little bit earlier, but I think that we need to be set up for the men in the piece, the women in the piece, how they're acting together. And you could almost kind of analyze this and look at this from a serious lens too. Like, what is the men being told by the religious organization and how they're supposed to act or not act? How the women are working with the men, and it's this very odd, like it's crazy because these religious church camps in Texas, whenever we could really be existing and do really exist, and what things are being told to teens in these environments is there's a whole commentary on that too.

[6:48] Richie Grasso: Right. Well, I would be very intrigued to see what the adaptation from film to the stage is like. I've never seen the film, I know plenty of people that have seen it, and they've always said it's kind of one of those like wild pieces of theater. Um, I would be curious to see when the whole teeth thing is actually introduced in the film as well. Because, like you're saying, it is kind of introduced a little bit later in the piece, other than we know early on that she has um teeth from her brother because he says that in the beginning.

[7:21] Jeff Malone: So it's always kind of building. And I do think we have to do a little bit of building before the actual horror kind of sets in. And that's traditionally done in a film as well.

[7:30] Richie Grasso: True. It's not really off the bat, like, this is not a slasher film where you know, scream starts right away and the killing happens. This is more just like um a horror piece rather than it just being a slasher piece. And I was curious to kind of see what did you think about the show and how it handled some of the controversial elements.

[7:52] Jeff Malone: I thought it handled it well because it was wrapped up in the absurdist comedy lens and in the musical theater lens. So everything seems to be not safe, pushing boundaries, but it always went back to this rooted like sometimes absurdist things can be so absurd that you're like, what's going on? Like, I lost it. I don't understand what's going on here. But instead of like, no, no, there's a message here, there's a meaning, there's a plot, and there's a finale, and it all wraps together. There's a reason why so-and-so says this to so-and-so. There's a reason why this song is placed where it needs to be placed, plot development and character development. So it's a very smart writing in that way.

[8:31] Richie Grasso: And I think in the writing, they knew how to include enough shock value that it lent itself to the meaningful commentary that they're kind of really trying to get across in a piece like this, which kind of leads me to I want to get into the production, the actor performances and the design. But before we do that, here are a few messages from our advertisers.

[9:00] Jeff Malone: Okay, so let's get into the production because we actually saw the production at Playwrights Horizons.

[9:06] Richie Grasso: We did not do a full podcast on that episode, so you cannot go back, but we did get the transit interview with Anna Kaye Jacobs.

[9:13] Jeff Malone: So you should definitely go check that out and see her talk a little bit more about how she wrote the piece with Michael R. Jackson.

[9:20] Richie Grasso: So we now can compare a little bit of what it was like to see the show off Broadway at Playwrights and now off Broadway at New World Stages. I kind of want to start first on the design here because I was super intrigued by the design when it was at Playwrights. It was more of like a sunken living room style, like meeting group space where the teens would go.

[9:48] Jeff Malone: The lake was sunken more and that opened up and the lake you were able to see the lake where we were sitting, which I thought was super cool.

[9:57] Richie Grasso: Um I find New World, and now that we've been seeing a couple of different things, it's a little hard that we're learning to really have a more massive, adaptable set um in a space like New World because it's so limited when it comes to the stage.

[10:14] Jeff Malone: And we know that the stage is deep because we did just see um, what was it, Empire there?

[10:20] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[10:21] Jeff Malone: But we do know that that set that there's no wing space because when we talked to Katie Huffman, she said, um, you know, there's nothing over there. You have to just use what's on that stage.

[10:32] Richie Grasso: So for me, I'm looking at this, and they had to bring a lot of the special effects into a piece like Teeth. So it was more forward um the overall set that rather than it being deeper and sunken, which I thought was kind of cooler at Playwrights.

[10:47] Jeff Malone: Yes, I will agree with you on that.

[10:49] Richie Grasso: I also think that what is cool about this set is that um at the end it breaks apart and you see through it, and then there's the fire flames built into the piping of the plot platforms and yeah, the rain at the very end, and then the phallic objects that fall above you in the theater, and there's all these um they and then the the the I thought the more immersion of the audience worked in New World when they were putting the confetti out and then it was dark and they were blowing the confetti in your face. You're like, whoa, I feel like I'm in like Universal Studios or Disney World or something with all the effects in that house that they were trying to submerse us into, and then it became this thing at the end where it's like, yeah, water, fire, like these elemental things that are submersing you into this when she's having her like moment.

[11:31] Jeff Malone: Yeah. I thought those which could be tied to like Mother Nature and how Mother Nature can bring things and how like the divine feminine is a major factor in a piece like this.

[11:41] Richie Grasso: Um, I did think some of the special effects did get a little bit cooler here. So it's like a balance.

[11:48] Jeff Malone: Um, it definitely got a little more bloody.

[11:50] Richie Grasso: Um in this.

[11:52] Jeff Malone: Oh, yeah.

[11:53] Richie Grasso: And especially putting blood into the crowd, um, they have what they called the splash zone in the beginning, which they're super highlighting, which I don't think was as big of a thing in Playwrights.

[12:06] Jeff Malone: No, and they give you a poncho if you're sitting in the first two rows.

[12:08] Richie Grasso: Right. More of the blood was happening on the stage at Playwrights. Now it's like really happening everywhere.

[12:15] Jeff Malone: Um, I know a lot of people that want to go just for that alone.

[12:19] Richie Grasso: I mean, I even said to you, I was like, should we sit in one of the front rows?

[12:23] Jeff Malone: Um, and you saw people after they were like covered, covered.

[12:27] Richie Grasso: We even we were in like the fifth or sixth row, and we even got a couple splatters on this.

[12:31] Jeff Malone: Uh, just a couple a little bit.

[12:32] Richie Grasso: But um it does come out of your clothes, so don't worry, peeps.

[12:35] Jeff Malone: But uh I think and I think overall, like the you know, the sound design is very good here.

[12:40] Richie Grasso: I like the sound effects and the music scoring and all the balancing of the sound.

[12:44] Jeff Malone: The costumes are working fine here.

[12:45] Richie Grasso: I thought the costumes were great.

[12:47] Jeff Malone: Um, I found some of the lighting to be a little messy.

[12:51] Richie Grasso: I found some of the light cues could have been tightened up a little bit.

[12:53] Jeff Malone: That's just a really specific thing.

[12:54] Richie Grasso: I thought, you know, you're putting a lot of light imagery on these big walls on the stage, and so like that moving lights on big walls can skew lighting a little bit.

[13:05] Jeff Malone: So it wasn't horrible, but little things like that, it's just being nitpicky.

[13:08] Richie Grasso: Um I also think when we talk about some of these actor performances.

[13:12] Jeff Malone: I mean, to me, the standouts are Alyse Alan Louis.

[13:17] Richie Grasso: Yeah, we have now seen her do this role twice. This woman is captivating to me.

[13:23] Jeff Malone: And she plays Dawn.

[13:24] Richie Grasso: She plays Dawn. I am blown away from the beginning, middle, and end transformation that this woman is making in this piece. She's singing it so well. Her facial reactions, her body movements, her crazy demonic sense of acting at the end. This woman is so talented. And I think she is this is gonna be the first of many that we're gonna see big things like this of hers because I think she needs to keep going. I mean, this role she can stay in for a while, but wow, she's very talented.

[13:51] Jeff Malone: Well, a big thing I want to say is first of all, she's grown so much since Playwrights. I found she's really understood this role now.

[14:02] Richie Grasso: She has made this role hers.

[14:05] Jeff Malone: Um, and like you said, she becomes this demonic creature at the end.

[14:13] Richie Grasso: And you are like the transformation from her. She's one of the very few that I've been able to look at in off Broadway and Broadway that has learned how to develop a real character arc there because she did not start at a 1000.

[14:28] Richie Grasso: She starts low. She starts at a zero. Yeah. And she slowly, slowly gets you all the way up to a hundred. And by the end, and when the show ends, you say that girl just gave some of the best acting.

[14:43] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[14:44] Richie Grasso: Um, that we've seen in a very, very, very long time. And she was a um Lortel and Outer Circle Critics Award nominee for Teeth at Playwrights Horizon. So she totally deserved those nominations for that, which was wonderful. Um, loved, loved, love her in this. I also really, really enjoyed the performance by Jared Lofton.

[15:00] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[15:07] Richie Grasso: I think he's doing some really cool stuff with the role. The whole moment with his character arc, you know, his character might be gay, but then he has sex with her at the end to break this curse, whatever that whole and his song, and he's a great character in this. I think he's doing some really, really great stuff. And I think him and Dawn Elise are just standing out for me. I think Jason Gautier is great too. He really stands out as a strong presence here. Um, it's great to see Andy Carl again. I haven't seen him in anything in a while. I I do I did really enjoy Stephen Pasquale in this at Playwrights, and I think if I had to choose, I would say I liked Steven just a little bit more than Andy.

[15:42] Jeff Malone: Right.

[15:42] Richie Grasso: I did really like Andy in this, but Steve. Well, there was a different moment that I felt that we were getting with Steven in Playwrights. I felt that you believed that he was really the leader, the pastor of this Christian group, and I didn't fully 100% get that from Andy.

[16:01] Jeff Malone: Right.

[16:02] Richie Grasso: And it was it worked at times. I actually thought Andy was great as the doctor. I thought he was so And that's where he brought like the theater into it. And it was great.

[16:11] Jeff Malone: Right.

[16:12] Richie Grasso: Um, but I will say the Promise Keeper Girls. Oh, are next level. They're carrying the whole show. They're a Greek chorus of sorts. They're a great Greek chorus uh for this Greek goddess, I guess we would call her, right? I mean they say this is like loosely potentially based on some sort of old mythical Greek myth legend of sorts, right? So they add that element of that into this too.

[16:34] Jeff Malone: Right.

[16:37] Richie Grasso: But you have this this Greek chorus, and they are echoing what Dawn is doing. They are giving the same of like, let's start at a zero, and by the end they're showing like they have transformed into the um what is it called? Dentata. That song's great. Oh, and watching them, it it even goes with the design choices here. You have like these good Christian girls that turn into these like flesh-eating monsters at the end and designed beautifully in these costumes of like ripped apart and they're breaking the mold, and they're this feminine empowerment, and I love it.

[17:25] Jeff Malone: Totally.

[17:26] Richie Grasso: And their vocals, what the vocal orchestra and orchestrations and the vocal arrangements are doing at that dentata ending with those tight harmonies like that. I'm like, oh like it's and you knew it was coming too. Uh they they do this like harmony that is like next level. It is a belting, it is like um 30 belting bonnies up on the stage all at once, and it's like it's it's great, and and and to talk about a little bit of Sarah Benson's direction here, I think she you really uses that stage to the ability that it can be used.

[18:02] Jeff Malone: Yes, agreed, agreed.

[18:02] Richie Grasso: You know, and when to bring people on, directing these young performers too in the space, you can tell, you know, they're not just standing singing, they're really like moving, they're they're reacting to stuff that's happening on the stage, they're bringing the harm the humor, um, and balancing it into the uh thriller-ness of this, and that that's great direction. And this is one of those pieces though, where you kind of look at it and you say, the director, the design team, the cast, everyone's working together to make this piece.

[18:36] Jeff Malone: Right.

[18:36] Richie Grasso: And yes, granted, they came from playwrights, but when we saw it at playwrights, it was tight, it was great, and they brought it here and they molded into this new work here. And I will say something, and I've been saying this a lot about Off Probably lately. A lot of things do transfer to Broadway from off-road lately. I don't know if this needs to, it doesn't, it's already in midtown, it's at a theater that works in the size that it does, and you don't have to go downtown for it.

[18:58] Jeff Malone: Right.

[18:58] Richie Grasso: It's in midtown Manhattan in the theater district. It's an enjoyable evening out for people who like the camp comedy horror. Uh, it needs to be in a huge space. No, this doesn't work in the Broadway space, it doesn't need to be, you know, because it's so niche in a way that when you're in that that theater and everyone there is experiencing the same thing as you, and you're saying to yourself, oh, okay, they all get it. Why go commercial to the next level of Broadway where like half the audience is gonna love it and then half of it's gonna hate it?

[19:32] Jeff Malone: Right, you know, I I don't think it needs to do that. This is a production that knows where it needs to be and where it's going to be successful, and that's off Broadway at New World Stages, and having that cultiness kind of leads it to like the the Heathers style or like the cruel intentions where it never needed to go to Broadway, it just lived, you know. Like if me and Girls never went to Broadway and it just went off Broadway, would it just be living there? Maybe.

[19:58] Richie Grasso: And it's it's nice that New World Stages is where it is because you have downtown, you have a lot of off Broadway spaces, but in midtown, you're really dealing with like old churches or old building. This is like a modern, newer space with a lot of spaces in it. It's right in midtown. And I and I think this show works perfectly there.

[20:16] Jeff Malone: Yeah, um, and it was really, really enjoyable.

[20:19] Richie Grasso: All right, so now let's get into our own experience at the show. And before we're gonna do that, here are a few messages from our sponsors.

[20:29] Jeff Malone: Okay, we're back. What was your experience like at this show?

[20:35] Richie Grasso: I see people around me laughing, having a great time. It was packed, it was a mix of local New Yorkers and tourists. You people were immersed, it was it was almost two hours with no intermission, but people were in it the whole time. They were like, you know, there's a shock element in the beginning with the singing and what we're doing with this piece. And like you said earlier, Sarah Benson's direction keeps this piece moving and flowing, and I think that that's really nice. And I think people are enjoying it and they're having fun, and and this is just absurd as comedy.

[21:06] Jeff Malone: That is clearly working right now.

[21:08] Richie Grasso: Like I said earlier with O'Mary, the audience is loving it. Titanic, the audience is loving it. I haven't seen Big Age Amberee, but I know that's another like out there kind of comedy. Um Teeth now, drag the musical, these big fun shows that people are enjoying. Um I just like when you're yeah, I like when you're in the theater and the audience you're in a uh in a New York City Broadway type audience that is seeing a piece like Teeth. They're getting it, people are having fun with it.

[21:35] Jeff Malone: Right.

[21:38] Richie Grasso: And I think we're also learning something from a piece like this, which is kind of great. But you know, no one's walking out of the theater in this, no one's bored in a piece like this. You're captivated from start to finish in this. You know, Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs did wonders to uh a film like this, and it was interesting. Well, like when we first heard about this, we were like, what? But like, why is that on Broadway?

[22:04] Jeff Malone: Right.

[22:06] Richie Grasso: And I think that's the the thought of many people at first when they hear something like, oh, what's Teeth? And this is something that gets horror done right.

[22:15] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[22:15] Richie Grasso: I mean, like also granted, we were on a Friday night, um, the night after uh Halloween, and everyone's in that moment, so it's like perfect timing. Um, they came out to great reviews, I believe, um, from the night before, because they opened um up on October 31st on Halloween, which was great. And you know, uh just seeing the reaction of the audience and like leaving the theater, and everyone's like, oh my god, that was amazing. It this will become uh a cult classic, I believe.

[22:45] Jeff Malone: Totally.

[22:45] Richie Grasso: And like I said, there is a message here. There is a heart to it, and there is this um own your body, own your own what you're doing in your life with yourself, and don't let other people control you and what you're doing, and and be respectful of others and respect yourself. And there's a whole message here. And I think that that's what if we if this was just a silly campy thing of blood and gore, and then we went home, I'd be like, uh, but I think there's a uh a deep-rooted messaging and comedy element to it.

[23:13] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[23:14] Richie Grasso: I think they just nailed it on the head. I think it's gonna get I think it's getting good reviews. I think people are really enjoying it. I think it's gonna run a long time. I think it should stay right where it is in New World Stage, it's a great spot for it.

[23:25] Jeff Malone: Well, word of mouth is really gonna help a show like this because I think people are gonna see this and they're immediately gonna say, oh my god, you need to go see it.

[23:31] Richie Grasso: But also, this has a great score of boppy kind of songs with really good lyrics on some of them because you and I listen to the music, and like, listen, modest is hottest stands out for me.

[23:45] Jeff Malone: Right.

[23:45] Richie Grasso: It's like one of those things where I'm like, oh my god, it's stuck in my head all the time. But there are other pieces in here. Um shame in my body. Uh you would feel like that song's coming straight out of spring awakening or something.

[24:01] Jeff Malone: Right.

[24:01] Richie Grasso: Like it and when you're watching Elise in that song, she really that's where she pulls you in. But that's what I'm saying. Like, she's so taking the song seriously, what she's saying, similar to maybe if you wanted to compare it to like um Salt Lake City, the song in Book of More, when she's so serious singing about Salt Like when you're dedicated to what you're singing, yeah, it comes across.

[24:25] Jeff Malone: Right.

[24:25] Richie Grasso: And and then you have big you have big chorus numbers here too, with like D and Dentata. And those things really bring the Promise Keeper girls into here where they're they're really belting, they're enhancing the story, they're catchy numbers. It's music that I'll like I'll highlight here is I'm your guy. That's the moment that Jared Lofton really gets to shine in.

[24:50] Jeff Malone: Right.

[24:57] Richie Grasso: It gives a male in this piece a belting number, um, where you're you're feeling for him, where the plot really changes after that moment.

[25:06] Jeff Malone: Well, and you also think like, oh, is he helping her? Is she helping him? And then he turns on her.

[25:12] Richie Grasso: Right.

[25:12] Jeff Malone: And then she wish it becomes self-serving.

[25:14] Richie Grasso: Right. And the and the right, and I think that was like her last straw here in like, okay, yes, I'm gonna get my road. And not to mention that there's this is this is it shows the complexity of sexuality about identity, about finding comfort in yourself and your own as you're coming of age, teenage years until adulthood.

[25:34] Jeff Malone: Right.

[25:36] Richie Grasso: There's so much commentary on all this. Um, but you can look at this in so many ways. If you're gonna go in with like blinders on, like, oh, this is I don't really know what this all you might leave there feeling the same way. But if you kind of go in with an open mind, okay, take me on a journey, tell me a story, dive in, you know.

[25:50] Jeff Malone: Right.

[25:52] Richie Grasso: I think there's some there's some good stuff happening here. And I think people should go see this. I think this is fun.

[25:53] Jeff Malone: Oh, yeah, I tell I'm it's great.

[25:56] Richie Grasso: I tell everyone to go see this one. Uh it's so great. But right, you know.

[26:00] Jeff Malone: Yeah, it's good.

[26:01] Richie Grasso: So oh my gosh, just about out of time. We are talking all day about teeth. And and uh I know this is not eligible for Tony Awards, you know, we had said earlier um awards, but it you know, I I know their playwrights Horizons had some nominations for um Portel and Obi's and things.

[26:16] Jeff Malone: Right.

[26:16] Richie Grasso: So I don't know if it'll be eligible again, because it's just doing a transfer in this in the same year to the off another off party space, but whatever. But I wonder if it was um c a contender for drama league or if that would uh I'm not sure.

[26:29] Jeff Malone: Right.

[26:30] Richie Grasso: So we'll we'll say this here. If this time, yeah.

[26:32] Jeff Malone: Because drama league is off Broadway too, right?

[26:35] Richie Grasso: I think so. Am I speaking wrong?

[26:38] Jeff Malone: Right.

[26:38] Richie Grasso: Drama Desk and Drama League, I always get them mixed up.

[26:40] Jeff Malone: Right.

[26:42] Richie Grasso: Oh my gosh, we're having a brain fart. What so what are your final thoughts on teeth in general?

[26:49] Jeff Malone: Go see teeth, teeth, teeth.

[26:52] Richie Grasso: Um, yeah, I think it's fun. It's campy, it's a great time. Uh see it in the evening. I would probably not want to see this um in the Madine A. Um, but go go with friends, have a good time, go into the splash zone if you're um feeling adventurous. Um, but yeah, that's my my feelings. You're gonna get good talent on the stage.

[27:15] Jeff Malone: Right.

[27:15] Richie Grasso: You're getting good singing, good music, good dancing and acting, and a good plot. I just think it's a good experience. As long as you're willing to kind of open your mind and go in and be open to this absurdist piece.

[27:25] Jeff Malone: Right.

[27:25] Richie Grasso: And I think as long as you and while I said sometimes it is absurdist, there's also not absurdity to it because like I said, there is this deep rooted serious element to it of yeah, of the messaging of it.

[27:37] Jeff Malone: Right, and social commentary, especially like when we're talking about this, we're seeing pre-the-election.

[27:43] Richie Grasso: Um, when this comes out, it's gonna be post the election. So we have no idea what what is uh gonna happen there. But like when you think about it and making that social commentary, so much of that's in here about men wanting to control women and women needing to have a voice.

[27:58] Jeff Malone: Right.

[27:58] Richie Grasso: And I think that's where like when it gets political, not to get too political right now. Something like this shines.

[28:04] Jeff Malone: Yeah, you know.

[28:05] Richie Grasso: And when you're talking about this church camp town in Texas, you know, it's just a different setting than the midtown New York, you know.

[28:13] Jeff Malone: Right.

[28:14] Richie Grasso: All right. Well.

[28:15] Jeff Malone: That does wrap up our discussion of this episode.

[28:17] Richie Grasso: We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into Teeth off Broadway. We will share the link with ticket information in our description. Remember, we want to hear from you. So continue the conversation with us on Instagram at Half Hour Podcast and let us know your thoughts on Teeth.

[28:30] Jeff Malone: And if you enjoyed our show, please leave us a review. Your feedback helps us bring more theater to you. And remember, you can listen to past episodes and stay tuned for upcoming ones as well.

[28:38] Richie Grasso: Until next time, I'm Jeff.

[28:39] Jeff Malone: And I'm Richie saying ta-ta for now.

[28:42] Richie Grasso: Bye.