review - DAMN YANKEES - Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre

Christina Robinson and K. Russell Adams
photo by by Renee Ashlock

by Julia Bashaw

The 1955 musical comedy Damn Yankees follows a time in our history when the New York Yankees baseball team was dominating the league and crushing the main character Joe Boyd’s beloved Washington Senators. Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre brings this show into the current century in a production that reminds audiences about the importance and power of community theatre. Amidst the struggles of some technical difficulties and a show that's somewhat outdated, this cast remembers they “gotta have heart” as a handful of actors and actresses really shine, which ultimately makes Damn Yankees into a fun, comical and musical evening. 

The plot incorporates the old Faust legend where a man makes a deal with the devil. Poor old Joe Boyd wishes he was a baseball star and in his weakest moment a man named Mr. Applegate appears in a blood-red suit telling Joe he could have everything he has ever wanted, for a price. Applegate says he can make Joe young again and into a great baseball player for the Senators. Joe takes the offer but asks for a possible way out if things don't go as planned. So, Joe Boyd becomes Joe Hardy and Applegate brings in the sexy and sultry homewrecker Lola to seduce Joe to ensure he will win the bet.

As Applegate, K. Russell Adams steals the show in a truly incredible performance as the suave, cool and collected version of the devil. He is simply brilliant. In the second act, his big solo performance, “Those Were the Good Old Days,” is engaging, amusing, and humorous. Adams also has one of the best believable evil laughs I have ever heard. He is on stage frequently and never breaks character. He provides wonderful chemistry with each character he interacts with.

Appearing after a sound cue of lighting, Joshua Hengst plays the young Joe Hardy. However, it's a slightly one-note performance as I never truly believed he was the character. It was noticeable when he relaxed or fell out of character on stage as he didn’t grab my attention with the same three reactions to every situation in a scene: big eyes, a shocked face, or a big goofy smile. While Hengst projects well, and I understand that becoming someone unfamiliar to yourself is a difficult task, but a more bolder and in-depth representation of Joe Hardy’s character would have been more engaging.

Lola is a servant of Applegate and who, like Joe Hardy, also made a deal with the devil. Applegate uses Lola to try and throw Joe off his game, so he will either miss his escape clause or fall for Lola and never want to leave. Lola wears provocative clothing, tries to seduce Joe, and is in a number of songs. With all of these obstacles, Christina Robinson does put on an amazing performance. Her chemistry with Adams is so natural you would think these two really had been working together for years. Her singing voice has multiple levels and she does a good job with the various accents that Lola uses in certain scenes. However, on opening night the chemistry between Robinson and Hengst was nonexistent and somewhat awkward. Perhaps after a few more performances they will become more comfortable with each other. Robinson has the most costume changes in the show and Mickey Courtney's costume designs for Lola's wardrobe are impressive, consisting of many containing blood-red dresses and black lace.

Dan Marburger plays the character of Joe Boyd. His interaction with Heather Riddle, who beautifully brings life to the character of Joe's wife Meg, is natural and he is comical during the opening number screaming at the television. Riddle has a sweet voice, is charming and quite natural in her role. Once Joe Hardy gains attention in the baseball world by joining the Washington Senators, a journalist named Gloria Thorpe is interested in his story and asks him questions about his past. As Gloria, Quinlyn Ashlock, who sings “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo,” is a real natural talent. She projects well, her voice is clear and on pitch, and she fits the role perfectly. Being a journalist back in the 1950s was not an easy task for a woman as they had to be forward in their questions and sometimes even demand respect and Ashlock portrays that challenging era for women quite righteously.

The ensemble cast has good harmonies and is often engaging. The actors who play the Washington Senators baseball team are a hoot and they get much laughter from the audience every time they are on stage, including two actors who really stand out in their performances - Rudy Bogojevich and William Rippenkroeger. Bogojevich plays Rocky #36 and Rippenkroeger plays Smokey #20. They provide great comedic relief with hilarious Washington accents that are humorously mixed with baseball lingo. These two interact with each other frequently and work off of each other’s energy very well. Both have beautiful voices that add to the depth and harmonies of the baseball team’s songs.

In the first act, director Dan Ashlock's staging is very clever and is easy to follow. The show opens with strong choreography by Madison MacDonald in a hilarious number called “Six Months out of Every Year.” The song describes baseball season as the time where husbands sit and scream in front of the television, forgetting about their wives. During Gloria Thorpe’s song about Joe Hardy, she is given personal choreography that is repeated by the ensemble around her. During this, kids are brought on stage to sing as well. The youth ensemble is very cute and appears throughout the show in small scenes. It's a nice touch adding the youth actors to this production. For the most part throughout the first act of the show, the choreography makes sense, and the direction is easy to follow scene to scene.

However, the second act is a different story as Ashlock's direction only does an adequate job since the second act of the musical is very choppy with many scene changes in the last 20 minutes of the show. The pace needs to be tightened as the show and scene changes aren't quick enough which makes the the musical lose some momentum when it should be racing along. Also, the choreography and staging in the second act feels too scripted and not natural and on opening night, there were a few tripped up lines from both Adams and Marburger. I'm assuming those tiny mistakes will be workshopped out quite easily after a few more performances. Unfortunately, there were several audio glitches, microphones not working or popping, sound cues being too early or too late, and the spotlights were excruciatingly late. I would encourage whoever is operating the spotlights to read slightly ahead in their script so they can be right on cue. With all of this being said, this is more evidence than ever that community theatre needs more funding. Tech equipment makes or breaks a show and if microphones are popping constantly it takes away from the magic on stage. Therefore, community theatre can’t get better unless audiences see their productions and support their needs.

And a final word, since this musical was written and based in the 1950s, some of the content is outdated or somewhat inappropriate. There are also a couple of lines throughout the show that might be offensive today, such as when Gloria is told to stop being a journalist and instead get married and have children. Another example is the language used, such as “gimp”. My recommendation is to just take it all with a grain of salt. Some lines that were meant to be comical went by unnoticed by the opening night audiences as well, and if they were the misogynistic comments, they are just not relatable or funny in this century.

CLICK HERE for more information on this production, which runs through March 15