Damn Yankees

Damn Yankees is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The musical is based on Wallop’s novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. Hit songs included “Whatever Lola Wants” and “Heart”.

Damn Yankees ran for 1,019 performances in its original 1955 Broadway production. Adler and Ross’s success with The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees seemed to point to a bright future for them, but Ross died of chronic bronchiectasis, at the age of twenty-nine, a few months after the opening.

A revival was produced by the City Center Encores! Summer Stars series from July 5 to July 27, 2008. It starred Jane Krakowski as Lola, Sean Hayes as Applegate, Randy Graff as Meg, Megan Lawrence as Gloria Thorpe

(replacing an injured Ana Gasteyer during rehearsal), PJ Benjamin as Joe Boyd, and Cheyenne Jackson as Joe Hardy. John Rando directed and the original Fosse choreography was reproduced by Mary MacLeod.

The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League Baseball. A fanatical baseball fan, Joe Boyd, agrees to sell his soul to the devil to save his favorite team, the Senators. When the time comes for Joe to pay the price of his success he manages to outwit the devil and reclaim his life.