NEW YORK — There’s trouble lurking in the New Testament Village church. What was once a holy ground shepherded by a rapturous man simply known as Pastor (Steven Pasquale), model evangelical teen Dawn O’Keefe (Alyse Alan Louis) and her angelic group of Promise Keeper Girls morphs into a breeding ground for sin.

In their new musical “Teeth,” making its world premiere at off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons, writers Anna K. Jacobs and Michael R. Jackson plunge right into this dark world, especially the shame and insidious secrets that preside over it. The show explicitly presents acts of rape and assault that may be difficult to watch (or even read about) for some. But “Teeth” is a brazen, unique, cackle-worthy slice of musical theater, even if, at times, it stumbles from grace.

According to the Pastor’s teachings, virginity is the fastest way to salvation, so young women in this quaint, fictional town of Eden must remain steadfast in the preservation of their “precious gift.” But as the Promise Keeper teens’ carnal urges begin to rise, that pledge of piety becomes harder to uphold. Especially when Dawn’s boyfriend — a basketball star named Tobey (Jason Gotay) — looks that good rocking the jersey number 7 (the Bible’s number of completion) on his chest.

Jacobs and Jackson, as co-authors of the book, cheekily weave such biblical allusions and popular Christian rhetoric into their satirical romp. Jackson — who earned the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for his breakout meta musical “A Strange Loop” — intrepidly pens lyrics rife with shocking rhymes (“My panties are wet / but it’s not blood or sweat”) that director Sarah Benson encourages her ensemble to sing with zealous conviction.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2024/03/19/teeth-musical-review-playwrights-horizons/