Damn Yankees review

Damn Yankees Review - Broadway musical

This musical tells the story that periodically flares up here and there as the subject of relations with the Devil, when some ordinary person wants to sell his soul for the fulfillment of secret desires (or one desire, as in this case). An ardent fan of a professional baseball team longs them to win from Yankees, and is ready to sell his soul for it. The devil suddenly comes to him in the guise of Applegate. As it often happens, the devil is in the end of the story turns out to be beaten by his own weapon – deceit – and the soul remains with a man. A popular move. The deception of the Devil was clearly illustrated in the film Bedazzled of genius Harold Ramis, in 2000 (who, unfortunately, passed away a few years back), with Brendan Frazer and Elizabeth Hurley. Elizabeth represented seductive The Devil. A similar topic is covered in the movie The Devil's Advocate (1997) – not a comedy, as in the first case, but an acute social work, with much more professional dramatic actors – Keanu Reeves & Al Pacino. All these films and many others, including the stories, is a reference to the classic Faust by Goethe. This bright German legend goes back to the ancient beliefs of the first proto-Christian tribes. In this global backbone, Mankind in general tends to work out the different interpretations, based on original material. It would seem that The Master and Margarita is very far from Damn Yankees, but basically they have the same roots, retold quite differently and, as a result, there are two stories possessing radically different content. Damn Yankees has turned out more like a sitcom, which became popular much later and it is easy to guess, this musical was performed for a specific audience – the Americans, where athletic achievement interwoven, along with the love to the team, as well as family values, such as the inviolability of the Family and eternal love, which stands above the Devil himself with all his strength.

Undoubtedly, history and legend, as the basis of it, are strong. Apart from them, the musical also has its charm in presenting the information. Its main characters are all quite cute, but Gwen Verdon, as it seems for us, is too dim to be a seductive woman. Future incarnations of her also entirely unconvincing. Even in 1994. The general impression of the musical remains positive – no least you expect from such a thing on Broadway that lasted for more than 1,000 hits originally, not including its renewal and other performances, in particular, on West End. By the way, the resurrection on Broadway brought 718 new regular shows in 2008. Despite the presence of the last resurrection, the 1994th version is considered a classic.

For version of 1950, musical has such awards: 7 Tonies (incl. for Best Musical) and 2 nominations; 1994 – 1 Tony and 3 nominations, 1 Drama Desk win & 2 nominations, 2 Theatre World Awards. 1997's in London gave another 3 nominations, this time for Laurence Olivier.
Last Update:April, 06th 2016