Editorial Reviews

Despite a run of over 1,000 performances in its initial 1955 production, Damn Yankees was not revived on Broadway for nearly 40 years, until a new version appeared at the Marquis Theater on March 3, 1994, starring Bebe Neuwirth as the seductive Lola and Victor Garber as the devilish Mr. Applegate. Perhaps it was thought that the libretto written by original director George Abbott and Douglass Wallop (based on Wallop's novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant) was old-fashioned, since new director Jack O'Brien also got credit for "book revisions." But the story remained essentially the same: Joe Boyd (Dennis Kelly), a middle-aged baseball fan, agrees to sell his soul to the Devil in order to be transformed into the young slugger Joe Hardy (Jarrod Emick) and help his beloved Washington Senators beat the New York Yankees. Another reason why no one attempted a revival for so long may have been that it was hard to find a singer/dancer/actress to step into Gwen Verdon's shoes as Lola, who tries to use her feminine wiles to keep Joe from returning home. If so, Neuwirth was a worthy successor, bringing charm and humor to the part, while Garber proved a smooth Applegate. Thomas Z. Shepard, producer of the cast album, may have worried about matching the original one, or maybe he just wanted to exploit the expanded possibilities of the CD, since the disc runs 77-and-a-half minutes, with extensive sections of dialogue included. Some of O'Brien's revisions are apparent. Notably, the song "Two Lost Souls," once a duet for Lola and Joe, is now sung by Lola and Applegate, which seems less likely in terms of the plot, but gives the two stars a big number together near the end of the show. This album won't make anyone forget the first recording of Damn Yankees, but it is performed by a talented cast and gives a good sense of the overall form of the revival. William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

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