Lesli Margherita’s Tony Award-caliber triple-threat star turn as Lola tops the list of reasons to celebrate Musical Theatre West’s 2022 revival of the 1955 Golden Era musical classic Damn Yankees.

Few 1950s hits have stood the test of time as well as George Abbott, Richard Adler, Jerry Ross, and Douglass Wallop’s modern retelling of the Faust legend set in the world of Major League Baseball and featuring over a dozen catchy songs (including several that went on to become standards) and multiple rousing production numbers.

As it has for the past sixty-seven years, the show-opening “Six Months Out Of Every Year” introduces us to middle-aged real estate agent Joe Boyd (Norman Large), who spends each and every summer and fall in couch potato mode, plunked down in front of his TV set watching his beloved Washington Senators lose game after game after game as his wife Meg (Teri Gibb) stands by in ignored-spouse despair.

That’s when director Cynthia Ferrer and choreographer Alexis Carra Girbés make it clear that this Damn Yankees will be the furthest thing from a by-the-numbers revival.

Instead of half a dozen of Joe’s fellow game watchers plopped down in front of their TV sets, Ferrer and Girbés give us twice that many Washington Senators pitching and catching and batting balls while executing athletic dance moves to thrilling effect.

And this is just the beginning of the excitement on the Carpenter Center stage.

Joe has only just uttered the black-magic words, “I’d sell my soul …” when who should suddenly materialize in his living room but the Devil himself with an offer.

All Joe Boyd has to do, “Mr. Applegate” (Jeff Skowron) informs him, is sign on the dotted line and presto change-o, he will be transformed into Joe Hardy (James Olivas), a 20something phenom capable of propelling the Senators to their first American League championship in decades.

When the now nationally known Joe Hardy rents a room in the house he and Meg called home, the better to be near the wife he left behind, Mr. Applegate has no choice but to call in the sexiest reinforcement in hell, the one and only Lola, who as any Broadway buff knows by heart, gets “Whatever Lola Wants,” or at least that’s what Applegate is counting on.

Director Ferrer and choreographer Girbés, who shared the stage as Meg and Lola in 3-D Theatricals 2014 Damn Yankees revival, make for the dreamiest of dream teams, shaping a production that combines terrific acting, sensational dancing, and Broadway-caliber vocals under Matthew Smedal’s expert musical direction.

Production number standouts include the baseball-meets-Broadway moves of “Shoeless Joe From Hannibal, Mo.,” the Latin rhythms of “Who’s Got The Pain,” and the Fosse-esque “Two Lost Souls,” along with Lola’s doubly delicious “A Little Brains, A Little Talent” and “Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)” and Mr. Applegate’s droll “Those Were The Good Old Days.”

Margherita once again proves (as she did locally in show after show before departing for Broadway stardom ten years ago) that she is (as Funny Girl Fanny Brice would put it) “by far the greatest star,” taking an iconic role and investing it with fearlessly chance-taking brilliance. (Her squeaky-meets-raspy-voiced “Whatever Lola Wants” tops the list of Margherita marvels, but it’s far from the only one.)

Skowron’s divinely devilish Mr. Applegate is just the latest in a string of versatility-revealing lead and featured turns, and audiences are hereby advised to catch 6’3” triple-threat stunner Olivas singing and dancing up a storm before Broadway and/or Hollywood beckons.

Supporting cast members are uniformly splendid, from Bibb’s gorgeously sung, deeply felt Meg, to petite ball of fire Aurelia Michael-Holmgren as nosy baseball reporter Gloria Thorpe, to the always terrific Matthew Henerson as ever-frustrated Senators manager Van Buren, to perennial MTW favorite Norman Large as a velvet-voiced Joe Boyd, to the never less than fabulous Kevin Symons as Senators owner Mr. Welsh, to the hilariously kooky Katie Brown and Julie Cardia as fanatical female fans Doris and Sister, with dynamic duo Marissa Ruth Meyer and Monika Peña completing the female contingent in multiple singing-dancing roles.

Last but most definitely not least are the singing-dancing Senators, roles that demand believability as testosterone-fueled baseballers (and not just a bunch of dancing showboys), and that is precisely what Josh Alvarez (Smokey), Richard Bulda (Sohovik), Quintan Craig (Lowe), Cedric Dodd (Bouley), Alejandro MullerDahlberg (Mickey), Daniel John O’Connor (Rocky), Logan Rice (Bryant), Brandon Keith Rogers (Henry), and Julian Xavier (Vernon) deliver, with special snaps to Alvarez, O’Connor, and Xavier (and the aforementioned Henerson) for a harmonious, hilarious “Heart” and to Bulda and Craig for vanishing into multiple cameos.

Kevin Clowes’ scenic design does an okay job of setting the scenes, while Paul Black’s lighting, Dylan Powell’s props, Michon Gruber’s wigs, Julie Ferrin’s sound design, and especially Amy Setterlund’s costumes are Broadway caliber all the way.

Jill Gold is production stage manager and Dylan Elhai is assistant stage manager. Bren Thor is company manager. Steve Calzaretta is production manager.

 I’ve now seen a grand total of ten Damn Yankees, and if only a handful of them have done the show justice, it’s because to make this classic work, you need world-class talent both onstage and off. With the world-class talent on hand at Musical Theatre West, this Damn Yankees is a pennant-worthy champ.

Musical Theatre West, Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach.
www.musical.org

–Steven Stanley
October 15, 2022
Photos: Caught In The Moment

Tags: Douglass Wallop, George Abbott, Jerry Ross, Los Angeles Theater Review, Musical Theatre West, Richard Adler