Interview: Andy Karl Cuts His Teeth in Villainous Roles Off-Broadway

Andy Karl has played a boxer, a reporter, and a UPS deliveryman (in Rocky, Groundhog’s Day, and Legally Blonde, respectively), but until now the multi-faceted actor has never taken a stab at a villainous role.

In off-Broadway’s musical Teeth, based on the 2007 cult-classic horror comedy, Karl makes his cutting mark as Pastor Bill O’Keefe, a larger-than-life, maniacal leader in a town enmeshed in a culture of shame and repressed desire. The story follows Dawn (Alyse Alan Louis), a Christian teenager struggling with her sexuality and desire to remain pure in a community that cherishes its church-faring abstinence group, the Promise Keeper Girls. Then she discovers a shocking secret about herself.

As Karl performs his darkest role yet at New World Stages, he spoke with TheaterMania about the fun in working with gore, his characters’ hidden darkness, and why audiences will “laugh their wieners off.”

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Pastor O’Keefe is so different from other characters you’ve played. What drew you to such a dark role?

It’s because it was not like anything I’ve ever played before. I had seen a reading of Teeth years ago, and I thought it was zany back then, but the level of zany has been upped. Getting the opportunity to play this has been an exploration into something I haven’t done before, and I’m enjoying the hell out of it. Pastor is a zealot who tries to control his town and the young women in it by keeping all the young people pure because he needs to live his life through purity for Father God. What lies underneath is a lot of shame, so pushing this down on this town causes a beast to arise from within. Pastor is only a villain because he truly believes everything he says. I think he believes that his town, Eden, is the salvation town. He’s making Eden great again… The show kept getting darker with a more twisted approach, and I was like, “Yes, bring it on!” It’s a funny, horrific, wonderful, ideological beast of a show, and it’s pure entertainment from beginning to end.

Because of the splash zone in which members of the audience are given ponchos, it’s no secret that there will be gore. What has it been like to rehearse and explore the gorier scenes?

During rehearsals we didn’t have the actual blood. I had two weeks to learn the show. I knew that I had to be as open and playful as possible. I didn’t know how far we were going to go. I now want to go further with blood! I want everyone with a poncho to be covered. I try my best. Right now it’s just the first two rows. It’s good to have that participation with the audience. I thought I’d be grossed out by the blood, but it has actually become much more fun…which says a lot about me. [Laughs]

What have you learned about yourself through playing Pastor O’Keefe?

There’s a sort of release when you can play someone who is on the wrong path but is so righteous. I’ve had little tastes of that in roles. I don’t truly believe anything the pastor says, I just know the character believes everything he says. In a way, that’s how I approach all of the characters I play. I’m having fun with it because I like leaning into the harshness of his being that villain. I’m certainly not trying to make it comical. There’s so much tension between characters that people laugh at lines that are so absurd. I yell-growl at my son, “To hell with you demon spawn, go join your mother in the lake of fire!” I truly believe Pastor believes this. If you play something so truthful, it looks absurd, but people can laugh because they can’t believe the character is doing it. I’ve learned that it’s fun to hear that reaction to something where I’m being so horrible.

How do you get inside the head of your other character in Teeth, a loony, horrible gynecologist? You’re certainly giving off Little Shop dentist vibes.

He loves his job in gynecology to the point of it actually being creepy. I think he goes home and listens to show tunes and Liza Minnelli. I imagine he dances around in his apartment. He enjoys what he says and how he thinks about his job so much that he needs to dance. He has that showmanship in him. Ever since watching Little Shop when I was a teenager I’ve thought about doing it.

You recently finished playing Groundhog Day’s Phil Connors in Melbourne, after taking on your Tony-nominated role a number of times. How would Phil Connors react to Pastor O’Keefe?

If it was before Phil Connors had lived through Groundhog Day, he would have gone on a date to see the show; if he got blood on him, he would have been really pissed and sued everybody involved!

You’re always working on a multitude of projects. What’s coming up next?

I am writing with a friend of mine, Dominic Scaglione Jr. We have some funding for an indie film called Just the Hits. It was a short film and now we’re expanding the idea about club singers whose day job is being hitmen. I love dark comedy! I also just sold an idea to Hallmark, so that will probably come out around next Christmas [2025].

What would you like to do onstage next?

Anything that’s interesting and challenging. What I love about my job is I get to explore new things. There’s a lot of shows I’ve always wanted to play, like Into the Woods in 2022 with the late great Gavin Creel which was on my bucket list. Gavin was such a light for me and showed me that you can do something original. May more of those opportunities come. The stranger the characters, the better!

It doesn’t get stranger than Teeth!

Teeth is a real opportunity for people to be amazed in something. They can go home and try to describe it to their friends, but ultimately tell them, “You just gotta go see it!” Everyone will be entertained and laughing their wieners off.