'Damn Yankees' at the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre - My Review

Vincent McCoy makes his directorial debut at the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre, the second stage at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, with a fine production of Damn Yankees. The show is the only successful musical comedy built around baseball and the original Broadway production starred Ray Walston and Gwen Verdon with choreography by Bob Fosse. It is the story of a middle-aged man who sells his soul to the devil in order to allow his favorite team, the Washington Senators, to win the pennant set in the 1950s. It seemed as if the Yankees were the team to beat to this first time viewer, and the devil was clearly incarnate in the character of Mr. Applegate. That is pretty much all this non-sports fan got of the baseball story, but the rest of the drama, comedy, dancing and singing was good enough to enjoy on its own. Do not be surprised that there will be very few baseball references in this review.

Sharon A. Wilcox took to the stage with Mr. McCoy after a wonderful fanfare from the excellent orchestra under the direction of E. Karl Gallmeyer to welcome the almost full house to the show. She mentioned that the director has grown up on the Warner stage and in fact appeared as Joseph Pulitzer and an immigration official in the world premiere of Liberty: A Monumental New Musical.

In his director's notes he graciously thanks everyone in his theater family who helped him get the show up and running, including Ms. Wilcox, Mr. Gallmeyer, the choreographer Trisha Carr, the production team and the stage manager Breanna Rollano. Finally, he thanks all the member of this "triple threat cast" for volunteering their time and talents.

Lest we forget, virtually everyone who is involved in community theater are unpaid volunteers. Yes, the cast and crew take away a theater credit to add to their resume, but they earn nothing monetary for all the time and travel that they put into rehearsing and performing the show. They sometimes even have to provide some parts of the costumes they wear onstage, including often expensive dance shoes.

This version of the musical seemed to follow the plot of the movie quite closely and this excellent cast brought the strong characters in life. The middle-aged version of Joe was well-played by Johnson Flucker and his long-suffering wife Meg was played by the always outstanding Jeannine Gallmeyer. Her friends Sister and Doris were played by the comic duo of Warner vets Roberta Coffill Healy and Catherine Thoben-Quirk. Joe Harding played the loud manager of the team and Jeff Savage was their owner Mr. Welch.

Every one of the young men playing the ballplayers did an amazing job of singing (especially of [You Gotta Have] "Heart,") dancing and behaving like baseball players, even to the point of changing into their uniforms onstage. They included Ruben Soto, Michael Santangelo, Rodney Kluessendorf, Stephen Peterson, Noel Roberge, Zach Cote, Richi Lucibello and James Donohue as Rocky.

Alexis Willoughby was impressively nasty as hard-nosed reporter Gloria Thorpe. Choreographer Trisha Carr covered the roles of Madalyn Sheehy at this performance; it is always a treat to see this young lady perform. The other featured dancers included Samantha Putko, Becky Sawicki and Jessie Sawyer in her Warner debut. Ms. Sawyer is the editor of the Avon and Farmington Patch and the girlfriend of Ronald DeRosa, formerly the editor of the Naugatuck Patch. His quote was "Jessie has been getting involved with a lot of community theater, mostly for the Simsbury Theater Guild. This is her first Warner show though so she's making it to the big leagues! (Pun intended)."

Special mention goes to three terrific performers, the talented actors that played the leading roles of Joe Hardy, the younger version of Joe Boyd who leads the team to better things, and the devil incarnate and his partner in crime Lola. Zack Heidom was poetry in motion (and voice) as he played the transformed ballplayer. Walter Cramer was a smooth operator as Mr. Applegate, dressed by Aurora Montenero in a black suit with fiery red accents. Amber Cameron Miller is all leg and was always dressed in red with black accents as the devil's helper Lola (who sings "Whatever Lola Wants.") A former Rockette and a dancer in The Best Little...at TriArts, this lovely lady can dance and sing her way into most men's hearts...but not Joe's.

Damn Yankees has played to sold out crowds and closes with a matinee today.