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March 14, 1994

Damn Yankees' Steals Home

A soul-selling musical is back

by JACK KROLL
Newsweek -- Volume 123 Issue 11 Page 74

SOME MUSICALS TRANSCEND THEIR period: from the '50s, "Guys and Dolls" Sand "Gypsy." But the 1955 Damn Yankees is very much a period piece. It's about how the New York Yankees always win the pennant, which makes it as up-to-date as "Beowulf." And the Washington Senators, perennial stumblebums, are long gone (the baseball stumblebums, not the political ones). So why revive it? Well, it's fun, and it was pedigree Broadway, as staged by George Abbott, cocomposed by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, choreographed by Bob Fosse, with Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston. That roster comprised a Broadway Yankees, but the current Broadway revival is more like today's Bronx Bombers: spirited, eager, and a second-place finisher.

Baseball always inspires mythic parallels ("The Natural," "Field of Dreams") and "Damn Yankees" is an engaging spin on the Faust legend. The book by Douglass Wallop and Abbott (still active at the age of 106) gives us a long-suffering Senator fan, Joe Boyd, who swears he'd sell his soul to the Devil if his hapless hall club would beat the Yanks. Enter Mephistopheles in the persona of Mr. Applegate (nice name for the Supreme Tempter), who transforms Boyd into rookie Joe Hardy, who hits 600-foot home runs and makes the Nats contenders. So will Hardy/Boyd beat the Yanks and go to hell? Maybe yes, if Stephen Sondheim wrote the show. But this is Satan Comix, with music.

The music is good Broadway professional; it sounds like Frank Loesser just short of his top form. That's pretty good, and songs like "[You Gotta Have] Heart" and "Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)" have become standards. "Heart" epitomizes the spirit of this production: the chorus of ballplayers is so eager to please that it numbs you with heartiness, an effect reinforced by the show's overamplified sound system. Jack O'Brien, the artistic director of San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, is a gifted artist, but with this Broadway material he's like some European jazzmen-he gives you zing but not swing. Victor Garber starts off as an amusingly suburban Satan but starts chewing scenery instead of consuming souls. Bebe Neuwirth as his first-string seductress Lola has legs for the ages but is short-changed by Rob Marshall's choreography, which is more Disney than Dante. In a weirdly prophetic scene Applegate angrily forbids Joe Hardy (jarred Emick) to take part in charity affairs. That's just what George Steinbrenner, the Yankees' own Old Nick, has done with his star pitcher Jim Abbott. Hey, maybe the Boss could pump up the box office by playing some matinees. This friendly show just misses the playoffs.

PHOTO: Lola's getting what she wants: Emick, Neuwirth