Outstanding Talent Displayed In ‘Yankees’
“Damn Yankees” Tuesday, Oct. 15, Spokane Opera House
‘Damn Yankees” was destined to be a rousing success, with or without Jerry Lewis.
This national touring show is exuberantly directed by Jack O’Brien and loaded with talented people. You’d think it would be enough for the supporting players to have excellent voices, superb physical comedy timing and first-rate dancing skills. No, in this show, they also turn out to be remarkable gymnasts, too, doing floor-exercise flips like a bunch of musical-comedy Mitch Gaylords.
Remember, this 1994 revival of 1955’s “Damn Yankees” was a smash long before Jerry Lewis came into the show midrun.
Still, Jerry now dominates this show, for better or worse.
The big show-stopper is no longer any of the outstanding production numbers, but a scene in which Jerry steps out of character and holds the stage all by himself, with hat and red cane. He proceeds to do about a 10-minute Jerry-style vaudeville routine complete with ancient jokes about priests and rabbis. A recurring gag with the cane - he throws it high and fails to catch it - had the audience absolutely howling.
Still, when back in the role of Applegate the Devil, Jerry did a good job of playing it down the middle. About half the time, he played the character straight in the tradition of Ray Walston, who originated the role. The other half, he threw in trademark Jerry-isms, such as a screamed “Laaaady!” Not to mention his “funny” mugging, and his “hysterical” little-kid voices.
As you might be able to tell, I am almost totally immune to the appeal of Jerry.
The point is, however, that he played Applegate straight enough to serve the story and at the same time he gave the audience enough Jerry to send them home satisfied. You pay money for a star, you want to see him being a STAR.
To me, the high point of the show came in a remarkable three-song stretch of the first act. First, we had “Blooper Ballet,” a brilliantly choreographed piece in which the Washington Senators miss fly balls, chase errant grounders, tag each other out and whiff pitches. One player did a brilliant silent comedy routine in which he gets laboriously set up at the plate and then watches three strikes whiz by, rapid-fire. This number is as compact a depiction of a hapless ballclub as you’ll ever see.
Right after that was a fabulously athletic version of “You Gotta Have Heart,” followed by an even better and more energetic version of “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.”
Jerry, by the way, is not in any of these numbers. These numbers showed off the almost supernaturally talented gang of performers who make up the ballteam, as well as the delightful Ellen Grosso as the reporter Gloria Thorpe.
Speaking of delightful, Valerie Wright knocks ‘em dead as Lola, the devil’s temptress. She plays the role more for laughs than Gwen Verdon did in the original, but she is just as athletically sexy. She’s got dancer’s legs and she knows how to use them.
Other great performances come from Joy Franz, who was touching and believable as the abandoned wife, Meg Boyd; Dennis Kelly, as her husband, Joe, who sells his soul to the devil in order to lead the Washington Senators to victory over the damn Yankees; and John Michael-Flate, as Joe Hardy, the slugger that Joe Boyd becomes.
The sets, from the Broadway design by Douglas Schmidt, are ingenious ‘50s geometric patterns. You can almost feel the Formica. Especially impressive is the way the stage transforms into a ballpark in the final scene, complete with bleachers and dugout. The entire show sparkles with fireworks, flash-pots and other fiery special effects.
The 15-plus member orchestra is outstanding throughout.
This show is enjoyable to anyone, but I think it has a special appeal to men, who often go to musicals only against their will. It not only has a male-fantasy plot (becoming the greatest slugger who ever lived), but it also has a male-fantasy character, Lola. She’s enough to make any man yell, “Hey, aaaady!”
, DataTimes MEMO: “Damn Yankees” continues through Sunday.