Damn Yankees

Damn Yankees is a frothy, faithful adaptation of the 1956 Broadway hit. In an amusing slant on the "Faust" legend, aging baseball fan Joe Boyd (Robert Schafer) is given an opportunity to lead his beloved Washington Senators to victory by a devilish gent named Applegate (Ray Walston). Boyd is ...more

Like such other Broadway luminaries as Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, Gwen Verdon was rarely given the opportunity to re-create her stage triumphs onscreen. Damn Yankees is the sole exception, and Verdon makes the most of the opportunity. The ultimate Bob Fosse dancer, she moves with a snakelike grace yet muscular intensity that wrings every ounce of meaning from Fosse's choreography. Fosse himself joins her for the delectable "Who's Got the Pain," an essentially meaningless diversion in terms of ...more