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The Rice Thresher
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Elizabeth Jardina Thresher editorial staff Three and a half stars. A man stays up late one night after his wife has gone to bed. There's a knock at the door. A well-dressed devil comes in and offers him the thing he wants most in the world. The man gives up his soul in exchange, and then realizes that what he has given up isn't worth what he's gained. Along the way, he gets a baseball contract, learns the value of heart, realizes that the devil has a sense of humor and participates in some snazzy dance numbers. Faust has never seemed so catchy. Lovett College's entertaining production of Damn Yankees is kitschy and good-natured - exactly as the show should be. Damn Yankees is ostensibly a musical about baseball, but it's really about love. Joe Boyd, a mild-mannered real-estate agent (played by Sid Richardson College junior Phil Haussmann), loves the Washington Senators, and he hates to see them lose. Therefore, he hates the New York Yankees. A smooth-talking, well-dressed version of the devil named Applegate (Wiess College senior Ben Graf) offers to make him the greatest baseball player ever, such a great player that he can bring his beloved Senators to the top of the league - in exchange for his soul, as most dealings with the devil operate. However, Boyd also loves his wife Meg (Lovett senior Annie Weyand, also the music director). He talks the devil into an escape option in the contract so that if Boyd changes his mind about the whole eternal soul thing, he can get out on the day before the end of the season and return to his wife. So with a bang (quite literally), Boyd turns into Joe Hardy (Lovett freshman Wes Gunter), a beefy 22-year-old with a golden swing. One of the nice technical aspects about this show is the use of fireworks. I didn't mind the corny way Haussman runs offstage and Gunter runs onstage when Boyd transforms to Hardy because I was so distracted by the bang of a firecracker and a puff of smoke. Also, Graf does a couple of tricks making a cigarette appear in a sudden flame. The appearance of Joe Hardy does not go unnoticed. Sid Richardson College sophomore Lauren Aronson plays ace reporter Gloria Thorpe, who wants to know where exactly this Hardy character came from. The major drama of the plot is whether or not Joe will go back to Meg. Applegate, naturally, would prefer to have his soul, so he brings in Lola (Lovett freshman Kat Messick), the "best homewrecker" on his staff, to try and persuade Joe to keep his life as a swingin' single. The longing between Meg and Joe is very sweet, especially in the songs "A Man Doesn't Know" and "Near to you" although both were marred by microphone problems. Weyand has a beautiful but soft voice, and her microphone only worked some of the time at the opening performance, so she was occasionally hard to hear. Gunter has a beautiful voice and brought the needed poignancy to the songs. One of the problems with the show is that it really needs two more male actors. Director Chip Aucoin appears as a member of the chorus so that the team looks convincingly large. Also, Haussmann has to pinch hit (if you will) as a Senator. This confused me, considering that in the first scene he was playing 50-year-old Joe Boyd. This brings up another problem. Boyd is supposed to be transformed into a young man, only in the first and last scenes, Haussmann looks just as young as Gunter. No attempt was made to age any of the characters. I know that age makeup is hard to do well and often looks corny, but I think they could have at least tried. Still, the performances on the whole are solid. Graf is a fine Applegate. He looks like he's having a wickedly good time, and his are often the most delightful one-liners. Aronson as Lois Lane-esque Gloria is appropriately energetic and amusing and has a loud, clear voice. Messick, whose Lola is perpetually dressed in fishnets, has the finest legs I've ever seen on a Rice stage. Her performance is solid, although she is more spunky than sultry, and she rushes a little bit through the scenes where she is supposed to seduce Joe. The technical aspects of the show are unusually good, with the exception of the microphones, which caused some substantial problems. Lovett is the only college that uses body mikes, and I've never thought it was necessary in a space as small as the Lovett Commons. However, in this particular show, the microphones were miserable. At the opening performance, they crackled distractingly. They sometimes were on when they were supposed to be off (most amusingly during blackouts when the audience could hear snippets of backstage conversation), and sometimes were off when the singers clearly thought they were supposed to be on (judging from their alarmed expressions). However, most unforgivably, the microphones were inelegantly scotch-taped to the actors' faces. I realize that college theater is not professional theater and that the tech isn't always perfect. The makeup is fine (other than a little too much eyeliner on some of the males) and the costumes are good. I'm impressed that they actually came up with baseball uniforms that all looked the same. The set is quite ingenious - a baseball diamond built into an all-purpose stage. The singing, particularly in choral numbers, is strong and intelligible and is well suited to the dancing. Will Rice sophomore Jessi Harper's dances are appropriately endearing - sharp when they should be (as in the first number "Six Months Out of Every Year") and goofy when necessary (as in the all-male numbers "Heart" and "The Game"). The orchestra is large and quite good, and there are some wonderful sound effects - most notably the sound of the ball hitting the bat and flying out of the park. On the whole, Damn Yankees isn't perfect, but it was a damn good time.
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