Here is the first problem that I had with the show: I was casting it literally during the tech week for The Color Purple. How do you come off of a show with so much emotion and go directly into another show without bonding with it first? I was so tired, worn out and so emotionally drained that I just wanted to burrow myself under my comforter and not think about anything. You always go through a grieving process when a show is over and I knew The Color Purple was going to take me a while to get over, so maybe it was better than I had an immediate distraction to take my mind off it.
I have always loved Damn Yankees ever since I saw it in 1994 with Bebe Newirth and Victor Garber. It was so much fun and I loved the music! Who doesn't! I, like I am sure other Directors, was completely disheartened when you realize that the revival version is not available through MTI.
SO, like I do, I put on my Nancy Drew hat and start investigating. Doug Besterman, who did the arrangements for the '94 revival was my key, or so I thought. After much digging, I found his email. I asked if there is any way one can get the revival version. His answer: No. The bottom line is that once he is hired to re-orchestrate the show, it becomes the intellectual property of the producers, not the authors or the royalty house. Dammit.
There are a few inherent problems with the original show licensed through MTI.
1. The first act is at least 95 minutes on a good day.
2. It has a very old time structure, especially in Act II with tons of scene changes. Some of these scenes are literally 30 seconds long with NO songs.
3. After "Lola Wants" the team puts on a variety show?!? Which includes the great number, "Who's Got The Pain". But why? It doesn't really do anything. At the last minute Applegate pulls a fast one on Joe and starts a rumor that he isn't who he says he is. Um. Okay.
4. Joe's transformation back to Old Joe happens offstage.
5. Its just plain creaky.
No shade to the original show, it still works! Trust me. BUT, I had contacted MTI to ask if I could change the end of Act I to right after 'Whatever Lola Wants" as there is still 30 minutes of the Act left after that. Answer: NO! Another thing I asked, for marketing purposes if we could slightly change the name of the team from the Washington Senators to the Washington Nationals. Why? The Washington Nationals do their spring training in town and as luck would have it, they were playing the Yankees the week we opened. MTI: NO! Again, you can't blame me for trying: Is the revival available for rental, is there anyone I could talk to? MTI: NO! Ugh.
I have seen the show several times in its original form. And my main problem with the show was that they all seemed to concentrate solely on the players of the team. Here is the deal: You KNOW the players and their shtick works! They have some of the best songs in the show. My idea, and the only way I could find an "in" was with the couple. You have one song and around 30 seconds with Meg and Old Joe at the beginning of the show to set up their relationship. You have to make it count! If you don't, why would the audience root for them to get back together?
Now, for clarification, when I talk about my "in", I mean that it is my emotional key to the show. As a Director, I have to find the one through line that I can concentrate on and build the show around that. It is like a lifeline to the audience. I wish I could explain it clearer, but an audience has to have someone to root for. Someone they identify with. Sure it could be Smokey, one of the bumbling players, but its NOT Smokey's story. It is Joe and Meg's. I spent more time in rehearsal with Meg and the old and young Joe. Especially the scene where young Joe and Meg sing "Near To You". Joe knows what is going on, Meg has no idea and they both miss each other terribly. He comes close to telling her who he is in that scene, but if he does he will lose her forever. It is an incredibly touching moment and it had to play right or the show wouldn't work! Luckily it did.
Another issue, is that many productions bump up the sexual tension between Lola and young Joe during "Two Lost Souls". Yes, they may be banished to hell for all eternity, but I had Joe still play it like he had a chance of being back with Meg. If you play it the other way it makes Joe look like there is a seed of doubt. I didn't even want it to seem like there was one iota of him possibly even thinking of cheating on Meg. I felt that if I did that, the audience would look at Joe differently and he is NOT a quitter. He has to get back to Meg. So the way I did it was a fun and playful way for them to both blow off steam, have fun and in the end, it gives him the boost he needs to fight Applegate, the Devil, and put a plan in action to get back home. It is also a tranformational moment for Lola, she gets her fight back too. She doesn't want Applegate have all the power over her. So the number becomes about two lost souls who decide to fight back!
My choreographer, Christine and I had an idea for the opening number. Usually it is performed by disgruntled wives and their baseball obsessed husbands. The idea was, what if the team themselves came out of the TV and interacted with Meg and she took her anger out on them? Then the other wives could come in and do the same. First, it introduces the entire team earlier and second, it gives Joe and Meg a more tangible frustration. So the wives were literally manhandling the players of the Washington Senators and telling them how they are ruining their relationships with their husbands. It worked incredibly well and really set up the struggle and why Joe would even think about selling his soul to the Devil to help his underdog team win. Again, it went back to my original struggle with the show. Why would Joe Boyd chance his whole entire life to help the Senators win the Pennant?
Anyway, the casting went well. We had a very strong cast. Our baseball players were some of the most diverse men I had ever seen in the show. But I have to admit, they had more accidents than any cast I have ever worked with. Sprained ankles. Torn ligaments. Running into walls. Two of them had to drop due to injuries. Life was mirroring the art. I called them the Washinton Kellers. They needed a Miracle Worker. I loved them all and so did the audience. But that struggle was real.
The tech: Since I wanted the show to move as fast as possible, we went with a unit set made to look like a baseball field with bleachers and stadium seating above. It gave me several levels to play with. The rest of the set was on wagons or fly pieces. That way I could move those transitions as fast as I could. A tip for the costumes, RENT THOSE UNIFORMS! In the long run it saved us tons of time and money.
I put the show in March as I wanted to see if an older, more recognizable show is something that the "snow birds" would want to see. WRONG! The show had not been done in the county for a while and I thought it would also bring in a male demo. WRONG! It sold okay. Certainly not what we were used to for the March (our peak time of the season) time slot. About a week after the show closed, I was mailing the scripts back to MTI at the post office. This little old lady, she must have been 80, with a walker motions me over to her. I looked around thinking she was motioning to someone else. Nope, she was looking at me. "Hey. You are that guy at the Henegar right? The Director with the funny curtain speeches?" "Yes, ma'am." "Well, we all come to the Henegar because we get to see something new. I liked "Damn Yankees" but it isn't new. I have seen it before!" "Thank you for your input." There it was, right there. Out of the mouth of an audience member. We were gaining a reputation for doing shows that no one had seen before. And that is a good thing!
The reviews:
http://www.brevardculture.com/2015/03/review-damn-yankees-at-the-henegar-center/
http://www.floridatoday.com/story/entertainment/2015/03/16/review-henegar-scores-homerun-damn-yankees/24855763/
Go see more at Pam Harbaugh's awesome site, Brevard Culture, www.brevardculture.com
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