“Damn Yankees” swings and misses — by that much

Melissa Schorr

Thursday, June 25, 1998 | 9:43 a.m.

"You gotta have heart," sing the baseball players in the musical production "Damn Yankees," the first offering from Super Summer Theatre's 1998 season playing at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park through Saturday.

If only this show had a touch more of it.

The otherwise smooth production swung and missed at times, hampered by weak spots in its acting and singing, and actors with an anemic amount of stage presence.

The 1955 musical, based on the book "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant" by Douglas Wallop, with music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, still holds up fairly well in the '90s as a battle of temptation versus loyalty, played out against a baseball backdrop.

The story involves Joe Boyd, who is offered a deal by the devil: he will transform him into "Shoeless" Joe Hardy, the best baseball player of all time, and allow his beloved Washington Senators to beat those "Damn Yankees" -- provided he sell his soul in return.

The show's strongest performance was turned in by Young Joe, played by the earnest Dean Bengert, who provided the energy, emotion and sex appeal -- not to mention the strongest singing voice in the cast.

As Lola, the vampy homewrecker hired by the devil to tempt Joe away from his homelife, Jane Laney -- sporting a Gwen Verdon hairdo -- believed wholeheartedly in her all-mighty ability during her locker room seduction number, "Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)," although at times her voice seemed too sweet and operatic for a "472-year-old" temptress.

Also enjoyable was Jeanne Brei's high-kicking verve as investigative reporter Gloria Thorpe, trying to discover the truth about Joe.

Other performers, including Jim Abernethy as Coach Benny Van Buren and John Ivanoff as the devil (Mr. Applegate), did admirable jobs with their numbers -- "Heart" and "Those Were The Good Old Days" -- but they could and should have been even bigger. You need loads of personality and charm to sell these numbers -- and we weren't quite sold.

And one wonders what inspired some choices made by director Betty Sullivan-Cleary. Using tape recorded music is one thing, but relying on a taped vocal track to back up your chorus in numbers such as "The Game" would not have been necessary with a stronger set of collective lungs -- and a team with more than five players.

Finally, the most "Heart" was provided by the quartet of peewee fans, who tossed us peanuts and popcorn at the start of the show and reprised the number near the end, easily walking off with audience's heart.