(Above: From left, Kenady Conforth, Ward Fairbairn and Dylan Stasack lead the cast of Damn Yankees at The Shedd)
By Randi Bjornstad
Some people may not realize it, but the story line of Damn Yankees, the classic musical that opens at The Shedd on July 12 and runs for six performances, ending July 21, actually has its origins in a much more serious piece of work.
Indeed, the title alone — Damn Yankees — yields a strong clue to its homage to the 15th-century German legend of Faust, an oft-recast tale of a successful but never-satisfied man who sold his eternal soul to the devil in exchange for ever more wealth in his corporeal existence.
Two of the best-known literary renditions are the 16th-century English author Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus and the 18th-century German writer Johann von Goethe’s Faust and .
But there also have been many popular knockoffs through the centuries besides Damn Yankees, as varied as Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Stephen Vincent Benét’s story, The Devil and Daniel Webster, and another Goethe creation, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. A more recent legend out of the American South attributes the fame of early 20th-century blues musician Robert Johnson’s mastery of blues and guitar to his selling of his soul to the devil at a highway crossroads in rural Mississippi.
In Damn Yankees, though, the scene is set in the 1950s, where a fanatical baseball fan named Joe Boyd, a non-athletic middle-aged real estate agent, regularly laments the failure of his favorite team, the Washington Senators, to win games, especially against the dynastic New York Yankees.
In the middle of one such rant, a character named Mr. Applegate suddenly appears and offers Boyd the chance to become a young slugger named Joe Hardy who can lead the Senators to victory and the pennant. Boyd is smart enough as a businessman to insert an escape clause: If he plays in the Senators’ last game of the season, he stays Joe Hardy for life. If he reneges on the deal by 9 p.m. on the night before, he returns to his old life as Joe Boyd — which includes his wife, Meg, who doesn’t know what happened to him when he suddenly disappears.
Happy as Joe Hardy is to be the linchpin of his finally winning favorite baseball team, he misses Meg and finagles a way to rent a room in her house under his new persona. They begin to develop a relationship, which irks Applegate, who sees that Joe Hardy might well bail out on their deal in favor of his old life and spoil whatever stake Applegate has in the outcome. So Applegate dispatches his most seductive employee, Lola — remember the lyrics, “Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets” — to occupy Joe Hardy’s time and make sure he doesn’t make his bailout deadline.
As usually happens with musicals, this one also is headed for a happy ending, carried along by a dozen song-and-dance numbers created by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross to accompany the book by George Abbot.
In The Shedd’s show, the cast includes many of the company’s ensemble players, led by Ward Fairbairn and Dylan Stasack as Joe Boyd and Joe Hardy. Ron Daum plays Mr. Applegate, with Kenady Conforth as Lola. Other featured players are Lanny Mitchell, Cindy Kenny, Thomas Guastavino, Kara Churchill, Tate Foshay, Claude Offenbacher, Heidi Turnquist, and Matthew Leach.
The ensemble includes Jim Ballard, Cyra Conforth, Conner Crisswell, Phil Dempsey, Tessa Douangaphalvong, Hanna Foshay, Lucy Geller, Sheldon Hall, Ashley Mason, MacKenzie NesSmith, and Samuel Rose.
The creative and production team includes Richard Jessup as director and choreographer and Robert Ashens as music director and conductor, with costume design by Jamie Parker, scenic painting by Connie Huston, lighting and sound by Chris Lewis and Cosmo Cole. Kristin Combs is production manager, with Greg Hopper-Moore as stage manager, assisted by Amber Hagen, and Tabetha Crosely in charge properties. Emily Kidder assists the conductor, Mike Briley and Earindale are technical directors. Jim Ralph is executive producer.
Damn Yankees
When: Evenings at 7:30 p.m. on July 12-13 and 19-20; matinees at 3 p.m. on July 14 and 21
Where: Jaqua Concert Hall, Shedd Institute for the Arts, 868 High St., Eugene
Tickets: $29 to $39 (discount of 35 percent for students with valid ID); available at the ticket office, 541-434-7000, or online at theshedd.org/
Meals: Available at 6 p.m. before evening shows and after matinees, by advance reservation; set menu is $22.75 for adults and $17.75 for children 9 years and younger, extra for wine, beer, and soft drinks
