Damn Yankees at NY City Center

Continuing a "new" tradition, City Center has mounted a fully stage musical revival for a short run this summer.  Last summer it was Gypsy, and the result was a Broadway transfer that has proved to be a hit.  This summer it is Damn Yankees, and somehow I doubt that a Broadway transfer is in the cards, probably because Damn Yankees is a fine show, but not a classic of the stature of Gypsy, and as good as most of the cast for this revival is, there is not quite the potential that was exhibited by last year's cast - at least when it comes to the possibility of a successful Broadway run.

On the other hand, this was a wonderfully entertaining evening.  The 1950s words and music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (in their last collaboration before Ross's unfortunate early death) and book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop (author of the novel on which the show is based) hold up quite well, and remain very affecting.  The tale, for anybody who doesn't know, concerns a rabid middle-aged Washington Senators baseball fan in the 1950s.  The Senators were perpetual cellar-dwellers then, while the Yankees reigned supreme through most of that decade.  In this fantasy, old Joe Boyd would sell his soul just to give the Senators a power hitter who make them a pennant contender.  Voila!  The devil appears, in the guise of the charming Mr. Applegate, to strike the deal, and Boyd is transformed into young Joe Hardy, slugger supreme, who joins the Senators and propels them towards the top, but is plagued by the pull on his heartstrings of the wife he left behind.  Against Applegate's orders, he rents a room in his old house.  To divert him, Applegate (whose plot is to bring the Senators to the brink of success, then destroy them and Joe in the bargain) summons his most seductive female acolyte, Lola, but Joe proves largely immune to her charms until late in the second act.  I won't give away the ending for any who don't know....

Cheyenne Jackson proved very strong in the key role of Joe Hardy, P.J. Benjamin effective in the shorter role of Joe Boyd.  Sean Hayes made a dashing and humorous Applegate, and Randy Graff a wonderfully touching Meg Boyd.  The weak link, if there be on in this cast, was probably Jane Krakowski as Lola.  Lola must be sinful, seductive, insinuating, etc.  Krakowski was obviously working very hard, but came across as just too wholesome and nice to be a convincing Lola.  Perhaps if she had a long run to settle into the part, she would find the key, but in the performance I saw last night, I was not convinced.  The rest of the cast was fine, although a few of those Washington Senators were just too far out of physical shape to be convincing as professional baseball players, even on a losing team.  With all the athletic chorus boys running around NYC, I would have thought it would be a snap to put together a totally convincing complement.  Once again, everybody seemed to be working very hard, but to portrary professional athletes, you need folks who can convincingly portray the role from a physical point of view.  (This is not to take away from the majority of the actors playing ballplayers, who were up to the role for sure.)

Finally, I must say that this was a wonderfully inventive production, with sets by John Lee Beatty, costumes by William Ivey Long, lighting (including marvelous strobe effects) by Peter Kaczorowski, sound by Scott Lehrer (very important here, since the actual baseball games had to be depicted entirely through sound effects, which were very effectively done).   They reconstructed the original choreography by Bob Fosse with flair, John Rando directed the whole shebang, also with flair, and Rob Berman's musical leadership was totally impeccable.  In other words, this was a terrific production of a very fine show, worth the effort.  It was a nice coincidental touch that I was taking it in on the night of major league baseball's annual All-Star Game.

Comments

[Richard Pearson]

I am planning on attending this show, but I must say I am shocked to hear that Krakowski might be too "wholesome." I figured she would be perfect after seeing her descend from a ceiling wearing basically nothing but a sheet, during her "A Call from the Vatican" when she was in "Nine."

[Art Leonard]

You may disagree with me once you've seen her performance. I never saw the hot fire there, just lots of exuberant sparkle. Maybe her costumes were inadequately revealing!!