'Damn Yankees': Familiar Formula, All Bright and Polished

It’s a romp, this musical, a joy, a cheerful excursion into a time when women wore circle skirts and crinolines, men wore hats and people kept voting for Eisenhower. It was the decade of interstate highways, school integration, Sputnik, McCarthy and, oh yes, the New York Yankees.

   Damn them.

   They always won.

   And the Washington Senators, they always lost.

   It just drove Joe Boyd, a middle-aged, overweight fellow in real estate, wild.

So wild he made a pact with the Devil.

   And so George Abbott and Douglass Wallop’s musical, “Damn Yankees,” that pretty good musical with heart (as the song says), is closing the TriArts season with a swift, sophisticated and very entertaining production.

    In some ways, this “Damn Yankees” rings of the original TriArts formula: All musicals, all the time, with pros in key roles, a lot of community people backing them up and kids drawing families and friends into the woodsy old Sharon Playhouse. (The opening performance was packed.)

   But Artistic Director John Simpkins has made this old show and a nice-but-iffy formula absolutely shine.

   John Champion does a good job as Joe Boyd, the frustrated Yankees fan, and Jarrad Green (a musical theater student at NYU Steinhardt) as Joe Hardy — same guy only younger, fitter and vocally much stronger — is one terrific performer. Jane Kivnick (a senior at NYU Steinhardt) as Lola, is a little doll-like for the role, but charming. And Audrey Heffernan Meyer as Meg, Old Joe’s wife, is a pro and shows it. So is Dale Hensley as Mr. Applegate, the snappy, old vaudevillian of a Devil.

   In addition to community players like Champion, Emily Soell as Sister is terrific, stealing moments every chance she gets; Duane Estes, in his 13th season at TriArts, is a solid Mr. Welch and David Fanning as coach Van Buren is fun to watch. So are the kids.

   Erik D. Diaz made gorgeous and telling and witty sets that allow Simpkins to shift scenes almost cinematically. And MK Lawson’s choreography is spirited and makes everyone look good.

   So Simpkins, who is finishing his first season as TriArts’ sole artistic director, has tried a number of new moves this summer: Cutting back a bit on local performers and youngsters, introducing some original musical theater, also a drama for the first time in a decade and adding a handsomely put together young people’s show. But he has also polished up a treasured part of the old TriArts, using skilled pros, talented theater students and gifted directors to make this “Damn Yankees” as entertaining as it gets.

   “Damn Yankees” runs at the TriArts Sharon Playhouse through Aug. 25. For tickets and information, call 860-364-7469, or go to www.triarts.net.