“Damn Yankees”

Posted by Gail M. Burns - July 2010

I don’t often write my reviews with an eye towards marquee quotes but the one for this production came to mind immediately:

“I had a ball at Damn Yankees” – GailSez.org

And I did, for a whole lot of reasons. For one thing this is a rare beast – a Tony Award-winning musical from the 1950’s that I don’t know by heart. (I guess my parents thought the scantily clad photo of Gwen Verdon on the album cover was too racy to have around the house because we didn’t own the record.) In fact, I had never seen it on stage or screen before. So it was a treat to be introduced to a fun show and to put the songs I did know from the score – (You Gotta Have) Heart and Whatever Lola Wants – into context and character, while making the acquaintance of the rest of the score.

By this point in the season, the 2010 Mac-Haydn company has gelled and it is fun to watch your “old friends” display new talents in different roles. Here I enjoyed seeing a more mature side to Kevin Gardner and a goofier one to Kellyn Uhl. David Bondrow and Jon Reinhold made welcome returns to the Mac-Haydn stage, and Mark “Monk” Schane-Lydon made an auspicious debut. Ryan VanDenBoom not only continued to impress me with his dancing skills but proved himself an exciting and talented choreographer.

But the bottom line is, what 50-something long-married matron like myself doesn’t love a show where the radiant and curvaceous Monica M. Wemitt gets the guy and that little minx Andrea Doto leaves empty-handed? A show where marital love and fidelity literally triumphs over evil to win the day? And a show where you get to trade in your old, worn-out husband for the latest, hunkiest model? Finally, a show that is very 1950’s and very me at the same time!

All that being said, Damn Yankees is a very typical mid-20th century musical comedy. The original 1995 Broadway production was notable for introducing Gwen Verdon to Bob Fosse, and the 1994 revival for Jerry Lewis’ Broadway debut at the age of 68. The show was the third of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross’s triumvirate of Broadway hits between 1953 and 1955, following hard on the heels of Pajama Game.

Based on a popular novel The Year The Yankees Lost the Pennant by Douglass Wallop, the plot centers on a middle-aged nebbish who is so enamored of his favorite baseball team, the Washington Senators*, that he trades his soul to the Devil for a chance to be reborn as a star player and lead them to victory. Wallop’s name appeared in the second spot as the writer of the musical’s book, with the legendary show doctor and director George Abbott taking the top spot.

At the Mac-Haydn Schane-Lydon plays the middle-aged Joe Boyle and Reinhold plays the 6’ 4” hunk he becomes after Mr. Applegate (Bondrow) has worked his black magic. All three of these gentlemen are perfectly cast and the scene where Schane-Lydon exits and is replaced by Reinhold is a wow – not only did Joe drop 30 years and 30 pounds and grow six inches taller, but he developed an operatically trained baritone voice as well! This is not to belittle Schane-Lydon, who makes the middle-aged Joe a guy to root for as well. After watching Renhold’s Joe agonize over the love he had lost with his wife Meg (Wemitt), the final scene where the two actors switched back again was equally stirring, and everyone’s hearts melted as Joe and Meg were reunited to continue their happy, humdrum lives.

Bondrow makes a good greasy little weasel, and here he is so greasy that he bursts into flames at the drop of a match. Eric Franzen has designed some dashing, humorous, and presumably flame resistant costumes for the character.

While I think Doto is cute as a button and a talented and appealing performer, I would not have cast her as the sexiest woman in the universe. I am, of course, using the 1955 Marilyn Monroe va-va-va-voom standard of sexiness here, and that is not how God built Ms. Doto. However sex appeal is not an external attribute. As an example I hold up the late, great Mae West who was short, fat, cross-eyed, and flat-chested but who exuded so much allure that no one ever noticed! Doto never lets her inner animal loose, which is a major draw-back in this role.

While Doto wriggles and shimmies and vamps all over the stage, Reinhold, like a good 1950’s suburban married man, is immune to her charms. I hadn’t realized that the story ended so sadly for poor Lola.

Cori Cable Kidder and Brittany Weir do a better job than most young actresses at channeling their inner middle-aged matrons to make the minor roles of Sister (originally played on Broadway by Jean Stapleton who memorably sang Heart in her Edith Bunker voice) and Doris highly entertaining.

Like a typical woman (and, I confess, a Yankees fan) I am ignoring the fact that this is a show about BASEBALL. Yes it is. And most of the action is set at the ball park – in the stands, in the locker room, in the front office. Director Jim Kidd has done a great job staging scenes in which you feel like you are right at the game when in fact you can’t throw a ball inside the Mac-Haydn without braining an audience member. Actually, Kidd and VanDenBoom do allow the boys to exchange some light plastic balls with extreme accuracy in one number, but all of Joe’s over the fence home runs are created by sheer stage magic.

The most exciting number in the show is Heart during which VanDenBoom, who also appears as one of the team, turns into 15 minutes of non-stop dance action during which the Mac-Haydn men really strut their stuff. Joe Cardenas, Max Pallman, Andy Geary, Bob Bonhage, Ben Jacoby, Seth Eliser, Aaron Komo, Christopher Herr, Brett Figel and Kevin Kelly play leap-frog standing up and while doing push-ups, turn cartwheels on their baseball bats, and generally prove why men are known as the stronger sex.

There is just a tad of a conflict between coming off looking like professional dancers versus coming off looking like professional ball players. It’s the same conflict that clouds your mind when those Puerto Rican gang members start turning pirouettes in West Side Story, but it is a momentary confusion, quickly resolved by the major league athleticism of VanDenBoom’s choreography.

Wemitt is at her very best as the plain, not too bright, loyal and loving Meg. She is a heartbreaker, and of course she is anything but plain.

Early in the show girl reporter Gloria (Colleen Gallagher) strolls in to the Senators’ locker room and expresses disappointment at not catching a glimpse of any naked men. I have to say that there is a photo in the Mac-Haydn lobby of a rather racy shower scene from an earlier production of Damn Yankees that I was hoping to see replicated. While I had no illusion that there would ever be ANY real nudity at the Mac, I thought the set looked…interesting, and was waiting to see how they would do it. Well, you can’t have everything. I had to settle for great singing and dancing and costumes and laughs.

This is my second favorite Mac-Haydn production this season, and it only takes second place because there is no tap dancing. Anything Goes takes first place for that and for its fabulous Cole Porter score (Adler and Ross may have won a couple of Tonys, but they are no Cole Porter!) I can’t think of a happier family outing than going to see the Boys of Summer knock one out of the park, er, theatre.

I cannot conclude this review without a shout-out to Musical Director Josh D. Smith, his Assistant MD Christopher Blasting, and percussionist Joey Ulmer for FINALLY getting the synthesizers at the Mac-Haydn out of roller-rink.funeral parlor/soap opera mode and sounding like musical instruments again. Back when I started reviewing at the Mac in 1997, I used to write little hymns of praise to the musical director and his musicians for making such a great sound with so few instruments. And then, suddenly, at the start of the 2002 season, something awful happened. I won’t ask what it was or why it took eight years to fix, I will just offer prayers of thanksgiving to St. Cecelia for this blessed miracle – which will surprise her greatly since I’m not Catholic!

Damn Yankees runs through August 1 at the fully air-conditioned Mac-Haydn Theatre on Rt. 203 in Chatham, NY. The show runs two and a half hours with one intermission and is suitable for all ages Performances are: first week: Thursday at 2 and 8, Friday at 8, Saturday at 4 and 8 and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.; second week: Wednesday at 2 and 8, Thursday and Friday at 8, Saturday at 4 and 8 and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.

Tickets are $28 and $27; $26 for all matinee seats; children under 12, $12.00. Discounts are available for groups and senior citizens and Mac-Haydn tickets are available at the ½ TIX Booths. Master Card and Visa accepted. No cancellations or refunds. Call 518-392-9292 for information and reservations. See more Mac-Haydn news and information at www.machaydntheatre.org.

* There have been three major league baseball teams representing the District of Columbia called the Washington Senators. The one referred to here existed from 1901-1960 and became the Minnesota Twins. They were known colloquially as the Nats, although that moniker is never used in the show.

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