There are so many wonderful things about this new production, but first a little background, Damn Yankees, is based on the novel The Year The Yankees Lost the Pennant, a Faustian tale of a die-hard baseball fanatic Joe Boyd who will do anything to see his beloved Washington Senators walk away with the Pennant. His pleas happen to be overheard by the devil aka Mr. Applegate, who is willing to make Joe a strapping 24 year old phenom and get him on the team to help lead them to the Pennant. Joe being the salesman that he is, says he won't make the deal unless there is an easy-out clause, something that Applegate doesn't normally do, but concedes this one small rider for Joe.
I would go into more plot detail but I think you should go see the show to see how it ends. Now onto the performances, Randy Graff was perfectly cast as Meg Boyd, Joe's ever strong wife who has some of the most touching moments in the show, I am familiar with her name, but not her work, and this being the first time I have seen her perform I was entranced by her stage presence and her lovely voice especially in her higher register.
I was sad to hear that Ana Gasteyer hurt herself prior to rehearsals because I was looking forward to her take on Gloria, but they did manage to find a replacement in Megan Lawrence, whom I found to be a little weak during the normally powerhouse number "Shoeless Joe" the song required more of a powerful voice and Ms. Lawrence managed to too small to fill out the role the way that Gasteyer could have. The one positive thing I must say about Ms. Lawrence is that she has great comic timing and her dry delivery and amazing comic ability fleshed out the part of Gloria and made up for her lack of a powerhouse voice.
Cheyenne Jackson as Joe Hardy was amazing, he brought a naivete to the role that I don't think previous Joe's have brought to the role. I have only heard Jackson sing in his legit voice once when I saw him go on as Trevor Graydon in Thoroughly Modern Millie, so to hear him sing in his amazing Baritenor was something that I won't soon forget. It also seemed that Jackson was as excited to be performing on stage as Joe was playing for his beloved Senators, which made him amazing to watch.
Jane Krakowski I felt would have been a better Lola had there been more rehearsal time. She had as Lola sings "All her aces, in all the right places" but there seemed to be something else lacking in her performance. It could just be that part is so iconically associated with Gwen Verdon who preserved her performance on film that it is hard to see anyone else tackle the role, or it could have been that Ms. Krakowski has to have some more time to get her stage legs back in proper shape. But she was still outstanding. For only three weeks rehearsal she managed to have most of the dances down(original Fosse choreography and all) and her singing was good, but like I stated before, for such a huge role with so much dancing I feel she would have succeed if she had a longer period of rehearsal, so if the show does transfer to Broadway, they would be wise to use the same cast and drill the hell out of the choreography.
Sean Hayes, Sean Hayes, Sean Hayes, he was perfection as Applegate, he brought the best comic timing to the role that I have seen so far. So he doesn't have the best singing voice, but he makes up for it everytime he has a line on stage. The best moment of the show is "Those Were The Good Ole Days" where Hayes accompanies himself on the piano(yes it was him playing, he majored in piano performance in college). I don't want to ruin anything, because it has to be seen to be believed. He would surely get a Tony nomination if the show transferred to Broadway.A lot of the show is very dated, the choreography, some of the jokes, and some of the numbers. You can tell when watching it that Lola was created for one person the way that they structured the songs around Gwen Verdon's talents, and having a number that is not necessary("Who's Got The Pain"), it is just put in to show that Verdon was an amazing dancer. I am not sure that if this show were written today it would have survived amongst the Wicked's and Legally Blonde's of this world. But overall the show was fantastic and I hope it makes a commercial transfer to Broadway later this season.
(Photos copyright Broadwayworld.com 2008)
