Damn Yankees

GIVE 'EM HELL Hayes and Krakowski plot a seduction.

Photograph: Joan Marcus

Efforts to recapture the vigor of youth often lead to disappointment. Consider the case of Damn Yankees’ Joe Boyd (P.J. Benjamin), a middle-aged schlub who trades his soul to the Devil (Hayes) to become a strapping slugger named Joe Hardy (Jackson), but finds baseball stardom less satisfying than his old wife, Meg (Randy Graff). Or consider the Encores! Summer Stars staging of Damn Yankees itself. Intent on reliving the musical’s 1955 glory, the production uses the show’s original book, and reproduces Bob Fosse’s original choreography. But this Golden Age trophy, carefully dusted off, proves less shiny than one might have imagined.

The charm of the 1955 cast—especially Gwen Verdon as Lola, the comic succubus deployed by the Devil to tempt Joe Hardy—must have gone a long way toward disguising Damn Yankees’ shambling storytelling and general silliness. But John Rando’s lurching, stiff-jointed direction draws little magic from the current company. Kathy Fitzgerald, Veanne Cox and Megan Lawrence are amusing in small roles, but the stars shine less brightly. Hayes mugs with skillful campiness, but lacks musical-theater confidence; the appealing Jane Krakowski, as Lola, rarely goes beyond hitting her marks when executing Fosse’s patented moves; and Jackson drifts through his central role in one long, blank stare. Despite Damn Yankees’ enjoyably familiar, lightweight score, something is missing. It has “Those Were the Good Old Days,” but not the good old ways; it has “Heart,” but the beats are all off.