TDF Stages

The three-time Tony nominee on playing two disturbed characters in the outrageous musical satire

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Last time Andy Karl performed at Off Broadway's New World Stages, he was in Altar Boyz, a pop musical satirizing Christian boy bands spreading the gospel of chastity. Two decades later, after becoming a bona fide Broadway star and racking up Tony nominations for his acclaimed turns in Groundhog Day, On the Twentieth Century and Rocky, he's back at the same theatre preaching purity in another musical satire… though this show has a bit more bite. Karl is starring as Pastor Bill O'Keefe in Teeth, Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs' stage adaptation of the 2007 cult horror film of the same name about Dawn (Alyse Alan Louis), an evangelical Christian teen who discovers her vagina has a set of chompers hell-bent on protecting her. Following a smash run at Playwrights Horizons last spring, the production has transferred to New World Stages for an open-ended engagement. Most of the cast has returned but Karl is a bloody fine new addition.

On top of being a clergyman, Karl's character is Dawn's abusive and controlling stepfather, favoring her over his own troubled biological son Brad (Will Connolly). Pastor Bill is gripped with a religious fervor that blinds him to reality and makes him dangerous to everyone around him—particularly Dawn.

TDF Stages chatted with Karl about his Off-Broadway return, finding his own demented take on Pastor Bill and how much blood is too much.

Joey Sims: You're new to Teeth. Did you have any trepidation about signing on?

Andy Karl: Joining the show, my first question was, "Where's the tone?" Teeth is a horror cult classic/feminist examination/patriarchal identity exploration/humorous yet bloody insane thing—how do I ride the line of all that stuff? Everyone who was already involved with the show had the opportunity to explore that, and I'm coming into it like, what is going on?! But I'm along for the ride, just like everybody else.

Sims: I thought about the question of tone when Pastor Bill essentially tells his son Brad to burn in hell… and my audience laughed uproariously. When a line that's so cruel and horrible gets that big a laugh, do you think, yes, we nailed it?

Karl: I always find the best humor comes out of the most tension. Certainly, with the Pastor, he is this zealot who speaks in this rhetoric of irrational, radical religious ideology. He's completely gone off the deep end at that point in the show. And yes, he does say to his son, "To hell with you, demon spawn. Go join your mother in the lake of fire!"

That's what is really fun about the show: the audiences are laughing at the most horrific things. It's not because we're playing it for laughs—it's just a reaction of: Oh my God, I can't help but laugh at this insanity that I'm seeing on stage! That's what this show has in spades.

Sims: By the end, Pastor Bill has completely lost it, but he starts out as a complex figure. He's deeply protective of Dawn, even loving in his way, but he is also domineering. How did you approach playing such a brutal character?

Karl: In trying to identify with this guy, I had to think about his background. You imagine that the Pastor has come from a family that has been abusive and controlling, and that he is caught up in the continuation of this patriarchy, beating down on the small and the weak to make them "strong." Because the "strong will survive." Once you find that, it's easy to lock into because you realize there's nothing the Pastor won't do to protect the religious sanctity that he lives by.

Sims: You also play a second character, Dr. Godfrey, the out-of-town gynecologist Dawn seeks out for help. He's got a very different vibe from Pastor Bill. How did you find it?

Karl: Playing Dr. Godfrey is trying to find the reality within his zany song, "Girls Like You." He goes into a whole number about why he became a gynecologist, and he's not afraid to describe the smells and the sights and the feelings of things. Because he is very into what he does, in a very twisted way.

With Dr. Godfrey, I wanted to add some physicality. I thought about what he does when he gets home. He probably turns on some Liza Minnelli and dances around, trying to copy her moves. He's a funny cat, that guy. "Girls Like You" is his big Broadway moment, with a bit of tango in it and a bit of playfulness to it, and I'm all around the stage, jumping up on the gurney and doing all sorts of things with props. You could compare it to the Dentist from Little Shop of Horrors but even more twisted.

Sims: There's an intense physicality to both of your characters. As Pastor Bill, you put your whole body into his preaching.

Karl: With the Pastor, he's sort of a showman, and he's so impassioned by what he's saying. So, he's gonna do cartwheels across the stage, and he's gonna get down on his knees, and he's gonna raise his hands to Father God. I've seen Alyse actually copying some of my big performative moves because Dawn wants to emulate her father, which I thought was really smart. The whole show has a pace and a physicality about it that all of us really get into. I mean, the end of the show is the most insane thing I've ever seen in my life. And we have to live up to that.

Sims: I did wonder, was that cartwheel your idea? Because I don't recall Steven Pasquale, who played the part at Playwrights Horizons, doing a cartwheel.

Karl: I have no idea, but they asked me, "Can you do a tumbling pass or a back handspring?" And I was like, "No man, I'm way too old for that—but I'll give you a nice fancy cartwheel."

Sims: The prosthetics and the blood have also been amped up for New World Stages. There's a reason the theatregoers in the first two rows are given ponchos.

Karl: We're getting to the how-much-blood-is-too-much-blood? conversation. What I thought was going to be maybe too much has turned out to be way not enough. I want to douse those two rows. I mean, they're wearing ponchos! I wanna get them with all the blood. That should be the tagline for our show: "Teeth, now with more blood!"

Sims: This is your first time working Off Broadway since 2005, the year you did Altar Boyz at this very same theatre. How does it feel?

Karl: Like walking back into a home! Altar Boyz was about religious boy bands and now I'm playing another religious character. Maybe Luke, my character from Altar Boyz, has grown into the Pastor. Maybe he found Father God in a very insane way. That's a little Easter egg for people.

Also, right next to us is Drag: The Musical, which I saw last week. It is so fun. Right now, New World Stages has these two productions that are so massive in their ideas, they're big shows with lots of energy and the caliber is astounding. These are Broadway-caliber shows.

As for our show, there is horror, there is humor, there are some deeply disturbing moments around family and idealism and patriarchy. The songs are bangers. The staging is incredible. The choreography is amazing. It's one of those shows where you have to see it to believe it.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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TDF MEMBERS: At press time, discount tickets were available for Teeth. Go here to browse our latest discounts for dance, theatre and concerts.

Teeth is also frequently available at our TKTS Discount Booths.