Review: TEETH ‘N’ SMILES at Duke of York’s

Neither strictly a play nor a musical, the hybrid production concerns a group of musicians who have been hired to perform at the Jesus College Cambridge May Ball, one evening in early June 1969. The disparate collective of drug taking, smoking and drinking anarchic hippies, seem in high spirits and disinclined to start their set until a plug is rewired and their comatose lead singer Maggie (Rebecca Lucy Taylor) has been bathed and has sobered-up. Nervously prompted by the officious young student organiser Anson (Roman Asde) and harried by the long-retainer and snidely obsequious college bursar Snead (Christopher Patrick Nolan) the gaggle of gig-players pass the time taking it in turns to spout the least interesting fact they can muster. When this pastime palls and 'phone directory reading' doesn't have any takers, they play. The instant energy which this imbues to proceedings is profound, with each of the eight songs serving as a lightening rod, delivering energy to the stage and wider auditorium.

There are suggestions that Mirren based her portrayal of Maggie on Janis Joplin. Here, Taylor — who as a singer performs under the stage name Self Esteem — succeeds in being a hot mess on the mic, but is far more effective (and audible) when in reflective mood singing along to her own acoustic guitar accompaniment. The man who sits with her during that scene, is Arthur (Michael Fox) the band's songwriter and Maggie's former lover. He still feels the intense weight of her self absorption but is determined to permanently break free of her toxic influence with the aid of the band's wily and unprincipled manager Saraffian (Phil Daniels) who has arrived to sack her, having already cancelled the bands remaining tour gigs.

This is a far rawer and unpolished effort than say the refined pressure-cooker of Stereophonic which occupied the same theatre last summer. The dialogue is typically British and idiosyncratic, populated with references to the jaded music scene and death of the revolution. Everyone seems exhausted by Maggie's incessant need for the spotlight and her bad behaviour. Little does she know that they've collectively determined she must go and have inadvertently presaged her demise by using her tour bag as the place to stash their hash which is discovered by police dogs when the gig is raided.

Each band and crew member contributes to the musical numbers with aplomb, but there is little time to develop their individual personas in the scenes between songs, resulting in mere outlandish and laddish stereotypes and a lack of depth to their characters. They are Wilson (Michael Abubakar), Smegs (Samuel Jordan - great voice and lead guitar playing), Peyote (Jojo Macari - because every band from this era needs a tripping junkie, and no-one does weird better), Inch (Noah Weatherby), Nash (Bill Caple), Laura (Aysha Kala) and the manager's dim new rockabilly protégé Randolph (Joseph Evans).

Great to see an early David Hare resurrected for a new generation of theatregoers, but it's not going to set the world on fire — that feat is left to Maggie at the tail end of the show.

TEETH 'N' SMILES continues at Duke of York's until the 6th June and runs 2hrs 20mins including an interval.

Teeth'n'Smiles Tickets