Review: DAMN YANKEES at Reboot Theatre Company

Dear Readers, if you’ve seen a show from Reboot Theatre Company, you know they like to tackle old gems and turn them on their heads with non-traditional casting and perspectives.  And just like when companies attempt to transplant Shakespeare or other works into different locales or time periods, sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.  The major test on whether it works, for me at least, is “does the change lend itself to a new an interesting perspective of the piece?”  Fortunately, Reboot’s current production of “Damn Yankees” does give us a new and interesting perspective.  Unfortunately, the execution of that perspective needs some work.

The tale of “Damn Yankees” wasn’t a new one even when the show was new.  It’s just a take on the Faustian tale as Joe Boyd (Ed Robison), a longtime suffering fan of the losing Washington Senators baseball team, makes a deal with the Devil (known as Applegate and played by Vincent Milay) to help the team win.  Applegate offers to make Joe Young again, as Joe Hardy (Jessie Selleck), so she can lead the team to victory.  But since he’s the devil, he certainly doesn’t want Joe to succeed so he enlists one of his best homewreckers, Lola (Salem Salma Wahab), to lead Joe down the wrong path.

The show with words and music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, and book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, is a certifiable classic with songs such as, “Whatever Lola Wants”, “Those Were the Good Old Days”, and “You Gotta Have Heart”.  Reboot’s twist on the tale is simply to take the Washington Senators and portray them as members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League as seen in the movie “A League of Their Own”.  The conceit works mostly as they don’t beat it to death.  In fact, there was only really one bit of staging as Joe Boyd transformed into Joe Hardy that they even slightly allude to the gender change.  Otherwise, everyone just goes on as usual with not a single word of the show changed.  Sure, the pronouns get weird at times, but the audience just went with it.

No, the downfall of the show for me was the pacing.  This could be attributed to opening night or a lack of rehearsals but, especially in the transitions and dialog scenes, you could drive trucks through those pauses. And nothing can sap the energy from a show more.  There were several moments with excruciating pauses for “emoting” that I wanted to scream “just say your next line!”  Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty in this show that’s worthwhile, but they need to tighten it up.

But, the cast, especially the ensemble of baseball players, take one of their songs seriously and know they “Gotta have heart”.  And they do.  There’s so much fun and life in their bigger numbers that it makes up somewhat for the scenes in between.  Especially their rendition of that “Heart” song as well as when they “Think About the Game” made for some delightful moments. 

Selleck shines as the eager Joe Hardy especially vocally as she beautifully belts out Joe’s songs.  I could have used a bit more of the boy scout, or in this case girl scout, in her character to communicate why all of this was important to her, but still a fine performance.  Wahab slinks around well as the sultry Lola but was lacking the confidence for a seasoned seductress.  And without that, her eventual change of heart wasn’t as powerful.

But the true gem of the show was the demonic one himself, Milay as Applegate.  He seemed to wear Applegate like a second skin, inhabiting every inch of the character, his swagger and humor.  A truly masterful performance and super fun to watch.

Director Brad Lo Walker along with music director Aimee Hong and choreographer Mackenzie Malhotra do well in taking a big show and fitting it to this much smaller stage, but on the whole could use some more time to tighten it up.  Maybe by the end of the run they will.  And so, with my three-letter rating system, I give Reboot Theatre Company’s production of “Damn Yankees” a long winded MEH+.  The twist works and makes for a nice gimmick to draw folks in.  Now they just need to sell it more.

“Damn Yankees” from Reboot Theatre Company performs at Theatre Off Jackson through September 21st.  For tickets or information visit them online at www.reboottheatre.org.

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