The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre opened its doors for the very first time in 1995, seventeen years later, the theatre is preparing to open its 18th Season on January 13th, with the musical comedy Damn Yankees.
The show will kick off a new season of entertainment for the theatre which, over the years, has produced productions of A Funny Thing . . . Forum, Guys & Dolls, Steel Magnolias, Oklahoma!, Grease, Fiddler on the Roof, The Odd Couple, A Chorus Line, Lend Me a Tenor, The Sound of Music, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Evita, Cats, The Full Monty, South Pacific, Hairspray, and Chicago, as well as the regional and/or area premieres of Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl - The Musical, Jerry Herman’s La Cage aux Folles, the musical comedies The Wedding Singer, Mel Brooks’ The Producers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Drowsy Chaperone.
The 2012 Season’s production of Damn Yankees will mark the show’s return to Way Off Broadway, having been a part of the 1997 Season. A hit fifteen years ago, 2012’s production is an entirely new remounting of the show, under the direction of the theatre’s Executive Producer, Bill Kiska.
A Broadway classic, Damn Yankees tells the story of how middle-aged baseball fanatic Joe Boyd trades his soul to the Devil (the charming but devious Mr. Applegate) for a chance to lead his favorite team to victory in the pennant race against the New York Yankees. As young baseball sensation Joe Hardy, he transforms the hapless Washington Senators into a winning team, only to realize the true worth of the life (and wife) he's left behind. With the help of a handy escape clause and a guilt-ridden temptress named Lola, Joe outsmarts Applegate, returns to his former self and shepherds the Senators to the World Series.
Damn Yankees opened on Broadway in 1955 starring Ray Walston as Applegate and Broadway legend Gwen Verdon as Lola. Even though the original production ran for over two year and more than 1,000 performances, Damn Yankees did not find its way back to the Great White Way until 1994 when a brand new production opened at the Marquis Theatre. This time around, the role of the Devil was played by Victor Garber with Bebe Neuwirth, who was already well known for her role on the hit sitcom Cheers and would go on to become one of Broadway's current legends, playing Lola. Following Garber's departure from the show, comic icon Jerry Lewis took over the role of Applegate, making his Broadway debut. Lewis would later lead the national tour after the show closed on Broadway.
The original Broadway production won seven of the eight Tony Awards for which it was nominated including Best Choreography (Bob Fosse), Best Actress in a Musical (Verdon), Best Actor in a Musical (Walston), and Best Musical. While the revival did not fair as well with the awards, it introduced the show to entirely new generations of theatre-goers. And now, a reimagined version of the show is set to open Way Off Broadway’s 2012 Season.
The cast of Way Off Broadway’s production of Damn Yankees is led by Justin Mohay as baseball superstar Joe Hardy, with the “devilish” duo of Lola and Applegate being played by Jaimie Hoover and Jordan B. Stocksdale, respectively. Joining them onstage will be Denise Wade as Meg, Mary Beth Luckenbaugh as Gloria Thorpe, A.P. Kopec as Van Buren, and Samn Huffer as Mr. Welsh. Rounding out the cast are Jessica Billones, Betsey Brannen, Zach Harris, Michael Iacone, Erin Jones, Dalton Korrell, Xavier Lyles, and Taryn Wood.
Damn Yankees has music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross and a book by George Abbott and Douglas Wallop. Way Off Broadway’s production is directed by Bill Kiska, with choreography by Amanda Patten and music direction by Jordan B. Stocksdale.
