I'm just home from the 'Encores Summer Stars' production of "Damn Yankees," and I'm guessing the joyous production hasn't quite worn off yet, because I'm still smiling and humming, happy as can be. At the moment, the song stuck in my head is "Whatever Lola Wants," though earlier it was "Heart" and at intermission it was "Shoeless Joe From Hannibal, MO." Let's face it, practically every song in that show is an instantly hummable classic. I've always been a sucker for Golden Age musical comedy (like last week's "She Loves Me," for example), but I'll always hold a special place in my heart for "Damn Yankees," thanks to the revival with Victor Garber and Bebe Neuwirth that I saw in the 90's. I remember liking it so much that I made my parents take me a second time (along with a couple elementary school friends, as a birthday party), and not only was that my first (and I believe only) Broadway birthday party, I'm pretty sure it was the first Broadway show I ever liked so much that I had to see it again. I can't say I remember that revival all that much (the one memory that really sticks out was that they had shined pink lights on the curtain during the section of the overture that include "Heart"), though the soft spot it created is still alive and well. And so perhaps it's said soft spot, or perhaps it's just a damn fine show, but I really loved the new Encores production. There's a full orchestra, original Fosse choreography (as opposed to the lousy ripoffs attempted in the recent revivals of "The Pajama Game" and "Sweet Charity"), and what is at least on paper an A-list cast. I will say that while the supporting cast is uniformly fantastic (why is Randy Graff not a household name?), the three leads were not the perfection they should have been. Sean Hayes does a fine job as Applegate, but I don't think he quite milked the role for all of it's humorous possibilities. Jane Krakowski, while sexy as can be as Lola, seemed to lack a bit in the personality department - I don't know... she seemed slightly on the bland side, and didn't really capture the quirky goofiness that I think the role could use a bit of. When I got home, I immediately ran to my dvd of "Broadway: The Golden Age" (that's not true... actually I immediately ran to that "Broadway: The American Musical" documentary from PBS which didn't have what I was looking for...) to watch the clip of Gwen Verdon doing "Whatever Lola Wants," and while it's obviously not fair to compare, well... really you just can't. That said, when she was dancing, she absolutely commanded the audience's attention, as she also made the air conditioning system work extra hard to keep the theatre cool with all her sizzling sexuality. Cheyenne Jackson was probably the biggest disappointment for me. I've seen him four times (I think) now - All Shook Up, It's A Bird... It's A Plane... It's Superman, Xanadu, and this - and I think he just works better in the campier shows (Superman and Xanadu), where his stiff acting seems on purpose. As Joe Hardy, while his singing is really quite lovely, his acting was a bit too wooden (there's a bad pun to be made there about the reaction of many of the men in the audience to his performance, but I won't stoop so low). While in Superman and Xanadu being stiff was part of the fun, I think Joe Hardy was a bit out of his grasp. I mean, he's got the looks (overlooking the fact that the charcter *is* supposed to be 24, which he certainly is not), and he's got the voice (though it did have a sort of odd country twang every now and then that seemed a bit odd), but especially when next to the brilliantly Randy Graff, I felt like perhaps something was missing. Thankfully, this is a show that gives lot's of attention to it's supporting players, and the goofy trio of baseball players, the kooky housewives, and (Megan Lawrence as) the nosey reporter, all absolutely perk up the proceedings when they walk on stage - which is often.
All in all, the show remains - to me anyway - an irresistible gem. There's just nothing quite like a first rate production of an old fashioned musical comedy to lift your spirits.
Last night, I went to see "Around the World in 80 Days" at the Irish Rep. It's one of those ultra-low-budget versions, featuring five actors (plus two sound effects people at the back of the stage). I had rather low hopes, considering my dislike of "The 39 Steps," which was sort of the same concept. It turns out though, that I really had a lot of fun at "Around the World...." Probably most in the show's favor is that instead of parodying it's source material, this follows the story pretty faithfully, and the parts that made me laugh were all pretty much inherently part of the story. There were attempts at humor based on character doubling, and physical humor that didn't make me laugh, but really it's a good yarn despite, and the actors all do fine work. I've also always been intrigued by old fashioned sounds effects (the kind they used to use in live radio dramas... before computers), so in all honesty if they had just had the two folks doing their sound effects downstage center for two hours, I probably would have been happy. The way they do the sounds for the elephant ride, and for the big shootout, were two particularly amusing segments, that both deserve shoutouts (and not to be spoiled). I think the audience overall was more blown away by the production than I was. I found it to be a cute diversion for a summer's evening - and certainly a very pleasant surprise, considering I just went out of some vague curiosity and because I had nothing better to do. Nothing better for a show than low expectations.
And now I'm going to sit back, relax, and continue listening to the revival cast recording of "Damn Yankees" that I put on just before I started typing. Right now Bebe Neuwirth is singing about how "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets." Ah, bliss.
