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PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Damn Yankees — Who's on Faust?
By Harry Haun
11 Jul 2008
Considering the scarcity of Adler-Ross shows (two), Megan Lawrence has amazingly made it into both of the recent New York revivals, running a gamut from Gladys the secretary in The Pajama Game to Gloria the reporter in Damn Yankees. "They were pretty much back-to-back for me so I feel very pleased to be a part of both of them. It has been a challenge because Gloria is a little more sophisticated than I normally play. I'm, normally, much more of a goof-off so this has been quite interesting to do."
Lawrence stepped up to the plate when Ana Gasteyer, originally cast as Gloria, broke her ankle on the first day of rehearsal, playing with her kids on Fire Island. She was at the opening — on crutches — receiving condolences and good wishes.
John Lee Beatty, who's all-too-familiar with City Center space as the de-facto set designer in residence for the Encores! series, had a luxury budget to work with at last. "Not as much as you might think," he cautioned. "It was six or seven times more than an Encores! show, but that's still only about a sixth of what a Broadway show costs. I've never done a Summer Stars show before. I've only done Encores. Physically, it's a lot of work, but you can respect the conventions a little more fully, especially this piece that is so constructed by [co-librettist] George Abbott in that mid-'50s style." Now, he's working on Christmas in July [the How the Grinch Stole Christmas tour].
Director John Rando, who made all of the above happened, was nowhere to be seen on opening night. He was in Williamstown, putting Brooks Ashmanskas, MacIntyre Dixon, Mark Harelik, Tom Hewitt, Tom McGowan, Katherine Meisle, Heidi Neidermeyer, David Pittu, among others through their paces in A Flea in Her Ear. David Ives' adaptation of the George Feydeau farce plays there July 30-Aug. 10.
The Damn Yankees opening-night party never truly left the premises, spilling over into the courtyard adjacent to City Center and eventually encompassing the first floor lobby.
Honored guests of the evening were two surprise catches from the original cast: Shannon Bolin, 91, who was the wife abandoned for baseball, and Rae Allen, 82, who gave a Tony-nominated performance of Gloria Thorp, girl reporter. Bolin, in particular, was still the rah-rah-rah team-player: "I loved it," she trilled. "I just loved the performance tonight. I think they should take it to Broadway — don't you?"
Seconding that — "I had a wonderful time" — was Joy Abbott, widow of the Great "Mister A," George Abbott, who directed the show and co-adapted it with Douglass Wallop from Wallop's best-selling novel, "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant."
Scampering about the party with energy-to-spare were three little boys in white — the grandsons of director-choreographer Bob Fosse — and daughter Nicole.
There was a contingent of 9 to 5 personnel, bound for Los Angeles the second week of August, who had special ties to Damn Yankees. Sporting what he called his "porn star mustache" for the nasty, misogynist boss, Marc Kudisch was there with Kathy Fitzgerald, who will play his cauldron-stirring secretary. Dancer Kevin Kern was there was his wife, Megan Lawrence. Wig and hair designer Paul Huntley, who gave Krakowski a '50s Monroe-like fillip, will be providing some working-girl authenticity for leading-ladies Allison Janney, Megan Hilty and Stephanie J. Block.
Director Richard Maltby and producer Chase Mishkin checked out Damn Yankees. Their new musical, a touching two-hander from Canada called The Story of My Life (book by Brian Hill, songs by Neil Bartram), has been cast. Will Chase and Malcolm Gets will play boyhood pals — straight and gay — when the show tries out in October at Goodspeed.
Legendary costumer Willa Kim was on the arm of Damn Yankees designer William Ivey Long, who freely and gleefully confessed "I was weeping and weeping. Wasn't it charming?" The indefatigable Kim is doin' Dancin', which Roundabout will revive May 5, 2009, at Studio 54. "Then," she beamed proudly, "The Red Eye of Love. It was my first show, and now it is being musicalized. Ted Sperling is directing it."
Sperling, taking the night off from conducting South Pacific, filled in a few more blanks. "John Wulp adapted it with Arnold Weinstein, who wrote the play, and the music is by a man named Jan Warner. It's beautiful music. We've been working on it together now for around a year. We took it to the O'Neill Center last summer, and now we're planning to do another developmental workshop this fall in New York."
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Tina Fey at the opening
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
Other prominent and familiar faces at Damn Yankees included Tina Fey (Krakowski's co-star on "30 Rock" and its creator), Tony Walton (preparing to unveil his sets for A Tale of Two Cities to cast, crew and press on July 16), Michael Urie of "Ugly Betty," Gerard Alessandrini (unpressured about opening a new season of Forbidden Broadway — "I haven't really thought about that. I just keep putting new numbers in"), Conrad John Schuck, Tony-winning choreographer Donald Saddler and Encores! mainstays like conductor Rob Fisher (prepping Hair for the Delacorte in August) and director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall (with future projects a-perking).
CBS's Mo Rocca loved the evening but managed, as is his wont, a mock canard: "My only complaint is that I thought this show was going to star A-Rod, Cynthia and Madonna. That's what I thought. In this era of reality TV, that's where they'd go. I was surprised. I was waiting for Madonna to sing 'Whatever Lola's Mother Wants.'"
For more photos from the opening night, click here.
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The cast of Damn Yankees at curtain call.
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
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