Sister Act: Veanne Cox & Kathy Fitzgerald of Damn Yankees

Throughout Damn Yankees, Meg's friend Doris and her sister, Sister, frequently appear to offer exposition and, more importantly, broad comic relief in a surprisingly dramatic comedy. They may not be the biggest roles in the show, but played right, they can be two of the most memorable. Stealing scenes in the current month-long Encores! revival at City Center are Veanne Cox (of Company, Caroline or Change and The Dinner Party fame) and Kathy Fitzgerald (who likewise stole scenes as the homeless lady and Shirley Markowitz in The Producers).

Damn Yankees marks both ladies' Encores! debuts, and both are excited to be stepping onto the City Center stage. "I've wanted to work for Encores! for forever!" Cox says eagerly. She had seen other productions in the series, but this was the first opportunity she had to be in a production. "And I thought, 'Well, I'll start here with the Sister role, and the next time, I'll move up to...' Whatever. It's wonderful," she laughs.

Fitzgerald had also wanted to do an Encores! production, but more than just being part of the program, she wanted to work with one specific director. "I had a big crush on John Rando," she says with a sweet smile, "and I never worked with him, so I really wanted to do it." Cox, on the other hand, had worked with Rando in The Dinner Party back in 2000. "I've never done this show, but I've played this character on Broadway four times now," Cox observes wryly. "Seriously, this is what I get hired to do on Broadway." Fitzgerald chimes in: "She told John, 'You know, John, this is just The Dinner Party revisited!'" In fact, Cox credits Rando with her involvement in Damn Yankees. "I had such a great time working with him on Dinner Party," she remembers fondly.

Even offstage, Cox and Fitzgerald keep a jovial, sisterly rapport between them, speaking over one another and finishing each other's sentences. "We're like a match made in heaven," Cox says, and Fitzgerald immediately agrees: "I don't know why we've never done a show together before. Our energy is very good." Cox summarizes their role as "We walk on, we say something funny, and we leave. And then we walk on, we say something funny, and we leave." But it is, of course, much more than that. "The show is funny, and it's nice to have the women be the comic relief. So often, men get to be the comic relief," she says. Fitzgerald agrees: "Look at The Producers," she says. "The men have the funny parts. [Or] Spamalot. All the men have funny parts."

So how do two funny ladies create comedy? "I try for my comedy to always come from a place of truth," Cox says, adding that schtick won't work if it isn't based in the script. "I believe comedy can be as big as you can go, as long as it's based in truth, something that would really happen, that you would really do, that you can make honest," she says. Fitzgerald agrees. "If it comes from a false place, it's not going to be funny," she says. "And real life is so funny, anyway."

While Damn Yankees may be a musical comedy and fantasy, it is surprisingly dark and dramatic, with many of its themes grounded in universal truths. "It's based in a relationship between wives and husbands," Cox says of the show's heart. Fitzgerald quips that she understands Meg's frustrations: She herself has to share her husband with the Lakers. Getting serious, she says that the heart of the musical lies in the classic battle between good and evil. "[It's] about the struggle between good and evil and family and the good things and the bad things that happen in life," she recalls.

Cox agrees, and says that in rehearsals, Rando compared Damn Yankees not only to Faust, but to Macbeth and A Christmas Carol's Jacob Marley. "There are so many references throughout history," she says. "It's a timeless story that's been told a hundred-thousand times, but it never gets old." Even in the future, she believes, people will be "wondering if life would be better if we all sold our souls to the Devil. I mean, really taking that into consideration. Because we all do, on a day-to-day basis, we choose details... And I think that struggle between good and evil is timeless, and I think that's the real pull of the show."

Beyond the drama, she continues, Damn Yankees is "also great dancing and singing." Both women are delighted that this production will not only return to the original 1955 script, but the original Fosse choreography. "I was surprised to see how true to text they are gonna be, and all the original Fosse choreography," Fitzgerald says. "It's really great watching those numbers. It's amazing! They're really fascinating to watch, too, because it's really different choreography."

Cox is pleased that as opposed to the 1994 version, the original is truly a product of its time. "Back then, they really knew how to capture a time and a space," she muses. "And it's glorious to really commit to where the zeitgeist was in the time period and the passion for baseball and what it meant to these people, and how their passion for baseball then informs their relationships-- or maybe it's their relationships that form their passion for baseball. And it goes into a larger picture of humanity, and John's great about keeping us within the real human element of that time period."

"It's a classic piece of American musical theatre," she continues. "And honestly, for me, it's more interesting to do this given that it's not been messed with."  

Photo by Linda Lenzi