Musical Monday: Damn Yankees

(Originally posted on Minnesota Theater Love)

With the production of Damn Yankees coming up at the Ordway, I think now is the time to talk about the cast recordings. I have to say it is one of my favorite shows, though I have yet to see a professional production of it. It is the first show that starred Gwen Verdon, and probably one of the first movies that I saw Gwen Verdon in. In fact, if you want a good idea of what the original cast was like, you should watch the movie. There are quite a few actors who are in both, though the film does have the amazing Tab Hunter as the male romantic lead - Joe Hardy. The story is a retelling of the Faust story. Joe Hardy sells his soul to the Devil (disguised as Mr. Applegate) so that his favorite baseball team will beat the Yankees and win the pennant. To help out, Applegate has his best temptress, Lola, come up from hell to lead Joe astray.

So, with that in mind the original cast recording, and the film recording are very similar. They both have Gwen Verdon as Lola and Ray Walston as Applegate. Sadly, looking at my stacks of cast recordings I realized that I don't have a copy of the original cast (which, trust me, I find very bizarre). You can get a taste of the original cast here. There is a song "There's something about a chair" that is in the film but not in cast recording. The cast recording has the song "A man doesn't know." Both songs are similar in tone and theme.

The show was revived in 1994 with Bebe Neuwirth as Lola, and Victor Garber as Applegate. It also had Jarrod Emick as Joe Hardy. He had previously been in Miss Saigon as a replacement for Chris, but this is the role he is probably best known for. He won a Tony award for Best Featured Actor in a musical. This revival cast recording is very good with quite a bit of dance music, along with underscoring. This means that there is some dialogue on the recording, but mainly just to set the scene.

The show was written by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler. This team had previously written Pajama Game (another great score and show), along with a revue called John Murray Anderson's Almanac. The music they wrote has great catchy melodies, and really fine lyrics. Listen to the rhyme scheme of "Those were the good old days", or "A little brains, a little talent" to get an idea. Though my favorite rhyme is in the first number "Six months out of every year." The song sets the stage and discusses how the women of the town are only married six months out of every year because the other six months - their husbands are married to watching baseball. The line is:

Six months out of every year
When we cook for them,
It never pays.
Instead of praising our goulash,
they're appraising the plays
of Willie Mays

clever and fun - which can be said for this retelling of the Faust story as well. It is a clever, fun and heartwarming story that anyone can love. After all, it isn't often that you can combine a musical with sports...is it?

(ps: sorry for the delay in posting this - krl)

(Writers Note: I did find my original cast recording - it was exactly where I had set it so that I would remember to take a listen to it...but not with the other two recordings. oops)