For the love of the game
Belasco presents ‘Damn Yankees’ at HB Playhouse
They’re all players: L-r, Lauren Nagasugi as Lola, Jacob Parisse as Applegate, Kyle Cook as Young Joe, Amber VanBuskirk as Meg, and Christoph Wagner as Old Joe.
Given the age of the cast members and the content of the play, perhaps Belasco Theatre Company should consider renaming the musical “Darn Yankees” when they open at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse tomorrow night.
We’ve got deals with the devil and several worldly temptations offered to a true baseball fan who wants desperately for his Washington (D.C.) Senators to beat the Yankees and win the American League pennant. Hence the title, “Damn Yankees.”
Heck, I make the same deal every year for my Cleveland Indians, even without the intervention of a seductress. Thus far, the devil has simply chuckled and said, “Bet on the Red Sox.”
Hermosa-based Belasco Theatre Company teaches all phases of live performance to would-be stars, ages (roughly) 8 to 18. Shanti Belasco is the director and founder of the troupe, which is an outgrowth of her father’s similar endeavors in Northern California, which began in 1981. This is the southern company’s eighth season, during which time they have produced two shows per year.
Regarding “Damn Yankees,” Shanti said, “We always do Broadway-style productions with kids, the Tony Award-winning shows, rather than just ‘Little Mermaid’ and things like that. This is a good story; it’s fun and it works.”
She said the company performed “Yankees” in 2005. In the course of that production, Belasco took the troupe on several “field trip shows” to local schools and, indeed, did change the name to “Darn Yankees.”
Do the kids understand the concept of a man making a deal with the devil?
“It’s interesting; the kids range in age from 8 to 18. The older ones are playing the leads, so they get most of that,” said Belasco. “For the younger ones, some of it goes over their heads; to them it’s more about getting out there and singing and dancing and having a good time….
“It’s fun for the kids; they get to be baseball players. We have some of the girls as ball players, too, which is a challenge. There’s a lot of dancing in it and all the kids have speaking parts.”
The show includes the role of a siren temptress named Lola (“Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets”). The original role, as portrayed in New York by Gwen Verdon, is quite steamy. “We tone it down a bit,” said Belasco, “and try to make it not so blatant.”
Bob Fosse was choreographer of the original 1955 Broadway production. Jessica Guess instructs the dancers in the Hermosa show. Melissa Harding returns as vocal director.
Belasco, as usual, has two casts performing through the two-week run so that more kids can enjoy the footlights. All 39 of her current charges are onstage for every performance; the leads of “cast A” meld into the chorus when the stars of “cast B” take to their roles. Many of Belasco’s students are repeat performers – four of whom were in chorus roles for the 2005 production of “Yankees.”
Leads for the show include Christoph Wagner (Old Joe Boyd), Kyle Cook and Alec Johnson (Young Joe Hardy), Amber VanBuskirk and Marissa Koeller (Joe’s wife Meg), Lauren Nagasugi and Geovanna Nichols-Julien (Lola), Jesse Givich and Jacob Parisse (Applegate, the devil). George Abbott and Douglas Wallop wrote the book for the 1955 Tony Award winner for Best Musical. Words and music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross.
‘Damn Yankees,’ Belasco Theatre Company, Hermosa Beach Playhouse. Feb. 11-27. Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2. Tickets, $15; groups of 10 or more, $13. For info and tickets call (310) 796-7952 or visit www.belasco.org. ER