Damn Yankees is a 1955 musical with a great premise and two spectacular roles, but, let's face it, the show has flaws. It is slow-moving, and the minor players are stick figures with corny dialogue. The most interesting character, Lola, appears to have been an afterthought. This quintessential Bad Girl doesn't show up until the latter half of Act One, at which time Gwen Verdon, in the original production, stole the show. Damn Yankees' first producer, Hal Prince, has admitted the show had tough going until Verdon's belated entrance, and it didn't do well at the box office until Prince started using a leggy photo of Verdon in newspaper ads. Even today, the story of a middle-aged man who sells his soul to the devil for a chance to be young again and to lead the Washington Senators to a pennant isn't quite enough to carry the show. We need break-out performances by a sexy Lola and by a razzmatazz devil (originally Ray Walston; most recently Jerry Lewis.)
This production stresses nostalgia and has much charm, featuring touching performances by old Joe and his wife, Dan Schiff and Alma Cuervo. But young Joe Hardy, Erik Lautier, is wooden and Darcie Roberts as Lola and Jamie Torcellini as the devil aren't spectacular enough.
Director Malcolm Black presents Damn Yankees as a period piece with scenery redolent of the 1950s, sticking closer to the original script than did the Broadway revival, but the production is short on high-tech effects. Old Joe, for example, is transformed into a youth by walking off and then back onstage.
Damn Yankees improves as it goes along, one of the rare musicals with a stronger second act than first. Joe's indecision Joe about whether to fulfill his dreams or return to his wife, and the ambivalence of a conscience-stricken Lola combine for a strong, dramatic ending. This, and the tuneful music by the team of Adler and Ross (who died unexpectedly at age 29 the year that this show premiered), give pleasure despite the flaws. The score consists of only 12 songs, but four are classics: "Heart," "Whatever Lola Wants,""Those Were the Good Old Days" and "Two Lost Souls." A lesser-known tune, "Near to You," is memorably beautiful too. Sherman Frank reorchestrated the score and brings out the best from his orchestra.
