The play takes place over one night when the band are scheduled to perform three sets in Cambridge as part of a spring ball, and on top of their usual issues with substance abuse, they get visits from songwriter Arthur (Michael Fox,) also Maggie's ex, and their manager Saraffian (Phil Daniels,) who's there to finally sack the singer per her musicans' request.
Hare's play has original songs by Nick Bicât (music) and Tony Bicât (lyrics,) with Taylor Also Known As Self Esteem supplying some additional ones for Daniel Raggett's revival. If the sound mix on some of these is a bit muddy that could probably be handwaved as accurate to the kind of 1960s student gig where it's set, and these energetic, grungy performances are a highlight of the evening, and certainly its most confident element. Elsewhere the play itself is consistently entertaining but doesn't quite hold together.
A lot of this may just be down to the passage of time: When Teeth'N'Smiles premiered we hadn't quite had punk yet so the fact that the play channels some of that anarchic attitude will have come across as more revolutionary than it now does. It also teases looking into the double standards around gender that have never really gone away in the music industry, where Maggie's drinking problem is everyone's problem but Peyote's (Macari) shooting up before every show and passing out for much of the evening is barely considered an issue. Similarly it's a given he'll sleep with a groupie (and on this night end up wearing her ballgown after she steals his clothes) but Maggie's sexual conquests, including student journalist Anson (Roman Asde) are always considered worthy of note.
Daniels' Saraffian is entertaining, but the amoral wide-boy manager is by this point a cliché that Hare doesn't really do anything different with, although the fact that he's so detached from caring about the band's fortunes that he's already brought his next big money-making hope Randolph (understudy Guy Amos) along is an extra dose of callousness. Meanwhile the reunion with Arthur, which really feels like it's meant to be the heart of the story, doesn't manage that effectively, while a suggestion that there's a love triangle with tour manager Laura (Aysha Kala) is so slight I'm still not sure if I imagined it or not.
But actual pop star Taylor Also Known As Self Esteem brings some of that authentic presence to the songs that break up the action, as well as being a strong enough actress to convince in the character's exhausted fury. Teeth'N'Smiles is damning of the music industry's business model of bleeding an act dry then abandoning them to their fate once the money stops coming in, but it also increasingly suggests that this self-destructive tendency is what attracts a certain kind of person in the first place. You can see the attraction as a showcase for its multi-talented lead, but the fact that this sort of point has been made several times, and better, in the last half-century, may explain why a play that's being sold as a revolutionary landmark is also one I'd never heard of before this revival was announced.
Teeth'N'Smiles by David Hare, Nick Bicât, Tony Bicât and Rebecca Lucy Taylor Also Known As Self Esteem is booking until the 6th of June at the Duke of York's Theatre.
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including interval.
Photo credit: Helen Murray.
No comments:
Post a Comment