Oh it’s fine to be a genius, of course,
But keep that old horse
Before the cart.
In 1954 the American writer Douglass Wallop, who considered himself a serious novelist, published a comic novel about a real estate agent who makes a Faustian bargain. To his great surprise that novel was picked up by the Book of the Month Club and did better than he ever expected.
Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, who had written the words and music for a successful musical about labor unrest at a pajama factory, decided the novel would form the basis for a musical, so they enlisted the legendary George Abbott to write the book and direct it. A choreographer was hired and a relatively unknown singer and dancer was enlisted for the important role of Lola. Thus began the personal and artistic partnership of Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse. Ray Walston played Mr. Applegate, the character who was handy with fire.
Damn Yankees, with a score that featured songs such as “Heart”, “Whatever Lola Wants”, and “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.”, played for over a thousand performances on Broadway when it opened in 1955, and then most of the original cast recreated their roles in the 1958 film.
Sadly, although Adler and Ross seemed to be well on their way to a long career on Broadway with two unconventional hits in a row, Ross suddenly died of chronic bronchiectasis at age 29, several months after Damn Yankees opened, and Adler decided not to write any more without his partner.
I’ve been a fan of the show ever since I saw the movie at the Neptune Theatre in Richland, probably in late 1958 or early 1959. In fact, it’s another one of the musicals on my short list of favorites not by Sondheim or Rodgers and Hammerstein.
What brought it to my attention just now is a cheesy musical podcast that I listened to where the hosts were idiots and seemingly got practically everything wrong [Editor’s Note: When JT describes someone as an idiot that means he disagrees with their opinions.] No link, as I don’t want to promote them.
What annoyed me (among many other things) is that the female podcaster, Juliet Antonio, complained about the opening number, which she claimed painted all women as hating sports. What she neglected to mention is that later on in the show there are women characters who form the fan club for the baseball star, so the show doesn’t paint “all women” as hating sports. I hate when someone intentionally suppresses facts that disprove their case. The opening number, “Six Months Out of Every Year”, merely serves to set up the situation in that household with the chorus joining in to show that yes, there are other households that have a similar situation, but by no means is it universal.
And I don’t want to leave the menfolk off the hook. They are Jesse McAnally [sic!] and Andrew DeWolf and one of them claims that when Joe Hardy makes the big catch at the end, that wouldn’t have won the game for his team. Say what?! The score was four to three in his team’s favor and that was the final out, so by my reckoning, that won the game. Or at least it prevented the other team from scoring.
Oh, and they mention that Jean Stapleton was in the movie but they only refer to her as Archie Bunker’s wife. [Editor’s Note: Hmmm. Maybe JT has a point.]
Alas, YouTube only has the audio of the reprise of “Heart” that features Stapleton, but you’ll recognize her voice.
Those male podcasters also mention that they had trouble following the story. Huh? Even as a nine year old, I had no trouble following it. Joe Boyd, a middle-aged, overweight married man, is frustrated that the Washington Senators are always losing to the New York Yankees, so he makes a deal with Mr. Applegate to become the greatest ball player of all time, Joe Hardy, but with the proviso that he can change his mind by September 24. Meanwhile, Applegate doesn’t really want Joe to turn the Senators into a winning team but to get millions of fans hopes up and then snatch defeat at the last minute, so that there will be mass suicides just like the good old days. His secret weapon is Lola. But Lola fails to seduce Joe, who remains faithful to his wife even in his new 24-year-old body. Lola becomes a Joe Hardy fan, and the two of them together work to defeat Applegate’s plans.
Meanwhile, there are three versions of Damn Yankees that are available for viewing. The movie version is basically a filmed version of the play. The main difference is they substituted the song “There’s Something About an Empty Chair” for “A Man Doesn’t Know”. Why? Possibly in the hope that it might win an Oscar. Only original songs can win Oscars. If that was the reason, it didn’t work, and the original song was better in my opinion. I suspect that the substituted song was one that was dropped during previews of the show, since Ross was no longer around to help write it, but I don’t know. Some of the other songs were either truncated or had lyric changes for the movie, a fairly standard Hollywood practice.
The big advantage of the movie is seeing Gwen Verdon’s performance as Lola, and as a bonus, Bob Fosse joins her in the “Who’s Got the Pain?” dance number. A further bonus is seeing Ray Walston and Jean Stapleton. The studio demanded a star, so Tab Hunter was cast as Joe Hardy; he doesn’t do a bad job.
Some people find the movie much too faithful to the stage version, apparently because that’s what George Abbott wanted. For example, this number is staged pretty much exactly like it was on Broadway, there’s no attempt to expand it in any way to make it more cinematic. I don’t really mind that, but it drives some folks up the wall. I suspect that co-director Stanley Donen, if left to himself, would have directed it very differently, based on his other musicals.
The movie is available on several streaming platforms:
https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/damn-yankees
Then there is the 2008 Encores production with Sean Hayes as Applegate, Jane Krakowski as Lola, and Cheyenne Jackson as Joe Hardy. It’s a very good production and happily reverts to the original script, ditching the misbegotten revisions added in the 90s revival. It was never filmed for broadcast but there’s a decent bootleg version available on YouTube that is quite watchable, its chief annoyance being that it zooms in too often for closeups and thus misses some stage action or a sight gag, such as when Applegate reveals his bright red socks. It can be found at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5MAauWvT6w
And finally there’s a 1967 TV adaptation with Phil Silvers, Lee Remick, Jerry Lanning, Jim Backus, Fran Allison and Linda Lavin. I’m sure I must have watched it when it was broadcast, but I have no memory of it. I haven’t watched it, but it looks like a very cheap production, but it has a great cast. It had to be cut quite a bit to fit into the TV slot, and it’s not a very good quality picture, but if you like the cast, it’s probably worth a look.