VIDEO: On This Day, May 5- DAMN YANKEES Opens On Broadway

On this day in 1955, Broadway hit one out of the park when the musical Damn Yankees celebrated its opening night!

The musical starred Gwen Verdon and featured choreography by Bob Fosse and direction by George Abbott.

Based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant by Douglass Wallop, DAMN YANKEES was the winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross and book by Douglass Wallop and George Abbot make this sporty musical comedy a true American classic.

Middle-aged baseball fanatic Joe Boyd, trades his soul to the Devil, also known as 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.