Set in 1969, this play with songs is a surprisingly (at least to me) engrossing look at a part of the live entertainment industry that resonates decades after the show’s events, and indeed decades after it was first performed in London. Actions have consequences, and Maggie (Rebecca Lucy Taylor) has had quite enough of the touring life. After a gig in which she makes it abundantly clear to a paying public how fed up and frustrated she is, band manager Saraffian (Phil Daniels) tells her, “You’re fired!” in one evening about as often as Lord Sugar does in an entire series of The Apprentice. Has much changed since then? Or are bands still expected to tour almost relentlessly, come up with new material and therefore be in recording studios, without sufficient breaks, until they fizzle out and break up through exhaustion and not wanting to be in each other’s faces anymore? I’ve been told that one of the reasons for the longevity of The Rolling Stones is that time away from one another has nearly always been built into their schedules.
Taylor’s take on Maggie is, according to a note in the programme, rooted in her own experiences. For eleven years she was part of an indie pop and folk-rock duo called Slow Club, though they never achieved commercial success on anywhere near the scale Taylor would have liked. So it is with the band in this play, and the dialogue reveals much about how women were treated then, with impossible expectations placed on them. Maggie is judged, perhaps prejudged, by bandmates who don’t really know how to handle her volatile temperament. But her arguably melodramatic mood is shaped by both changing times, with hippie subculture on its way out but punk subculture not yet emerged, and by the pressure and willingness to succeed, except effort and achievement are not the same thing.
Of course, theatre has changed considerably since this play’s 1975 premiere at the Royal Court, especially with the arrival of jukebox musicals, of which there are too many to list. If there is the prospect of Maggie spending some time in jail, Jersey Boys tells the story of a band that was indeed incarcerated for a short time. But unlike that other show, an on-stage staircase is woefully underused, with characters by and large indeed accessing and leaving the stage instead via the stalls doors on both sides of the auditorium. It makes for a busy stage, sometimes for the sake of busyness, and there were moments when I felt like I was watching passing traffic.
Taylor’s Maggie, as fans of her (Taylor’s) actual stage persona, Self Esteem (yes, really), will already be aware, sings wonderfully. I can’t say I blame her Maggie for indulging in anarchic conduct, given that the script is frankly all over the place. There’s a long story about something that happened during the Second World War (to be honest I lost interest part-way through), and elsewhere there are retorts and insults hurled at university toffs of a different class to the band members. There are, predictably, sex and drugs to go with the rock and roll. Dialogues, or to be more precise, monologues, take the scenic route to uncertain destinations. The spoken dialogue could have done with some considerable trimming. Still, there are some intriguing insights into a chapter of modern British history delivered by an engaging and committed cast.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Before the New York Dolls. Before Debbie Harry. Before Kurt Cobain. There was Maggie Frisby. Once the roaring voice of 60s counterculture, now broke and disillusioned, a band’s youthful dreams of anarchic rebellion collapse into bitterness. Amidst the wreckage, lead singer Maggie tears through the night fuelled by booze, fury, and a voice that refuses to die. 50 years after David Hare’s trailblazing play set the Royal Court alight, Teeth ‘N’ Smiles is burning things down all over again. The ship is sinking but the music remains the same.
Rebecca Lucy Taylor – Maggie
Michael Fox – Arthur
Phil Daniels – Saraffian
Michael Abubakar – Wilson
Roman Asde – Anson
Bill Caple – Nash
Joseph Evans – Randolph
Samuel Jordan – Smegs
Aysha Kala – Laura
Jojo Macari – Peyote
Christopher Patrick Nolan – Snead
Noah Weatherby – Inch
Damien James, Gregor Milne – Ensemble
Guy Amos, Daniel Crespin, Levi Heaton – Understudies
Written by David Hare
Music by Nick Bicât
Lyrics by Tony Bicât
Additional new music and lyrics by Rebecca Lucy Taylor
Directed by Daniel Raggett
Set Design – Chloe Lamford
Costume Designer – Alex Mullins
Lighting Design – Matt Daw
Sound Design – Ben & Max Ringham
Music Supervisor – Liam Godwin
Casting Director – Bryony Jarvis-Taylor CDG
Associate Director – George Jibson
Movement Choreographer – Polly Bennett
Fight Director – Alex Payne
TEETH ‘N’ SMILES
Duke of York’s Theatre
13 March to 6 June 2026
Book Tickets for Teeth ‘n’ Smiles
