Devil's pitch

Conflict of good and evil makes Damn Yankees successful

A story is only as good as its dark side.

Face it, Star Wars would be nothing special without Darth Vader. Cinderella would be dull without the wicked stepmother. And Damn Yankees would be lost in Yonkers if it wasn't for the Devil.

That devil, with the nom-de-plume Mr. Applegate (Brian Stivale), was the driving force in the baseball-inspired Broadway revival that slid into Eisenhower Auditorium last Thursday and Friday nights. Applegate was the dealmaker, the "I'll go out of my way to get a soul"-type Beelzebub whose mere presence on stage was enough to spark the action -- at times, literally.

Stivale was in exalted company, though. The devil in Yankees is traditionally one of the "star roles" in the play. The first Applegate was Ray Walston, of "My Favorite Martian" fame, while the last devil was Jerry Lewis, from a whole bunch of Disney movies.

A solid performance helped Stivale pull it off, though, propelling the Washington Senators into first place while gunning for the soul of Joe Boyd (John Weber). But Boyd's deal turns him (literally) into a young go-getter by the name of Shoeless Joe Hardy (Joseph Ditmyer), the star player who leads the Senators.

The clock was ticking, for Boyd (a wily real estate agent) had wired an escape clause into the deal. He could be released from the contract and keep his soul until the last day of the season; Applegate was working on borrowed time.

Yes, that story was pretty interesting, too . . . but it wasn't until bad-girl Lola (Julie Tussey) took the stage that the flames began to fly again.

Despite that dark side, almost all the light effects used in the revival were surprisingly effective. Hellish locales, such as Applegate's offices beneath the U.S. Senate, were denoted by swirling red circles on the background, reminiscent of a fire.

Although the storyline of Damn Yankees won't inflame modern audiences, the crowd in Eisenhower seemed to know that and enjoy the performance anyway. The revival isn't meant to shock or flash its way into the audience's heart; it's more worth seeing to realize what the history of musical theater is all about. Yes, the songs were corny and you could see the rhymes coming a mile away, but it really didn't matter. You also knew the devil would meet his match, but that didn't matter either.

And that's the best test a musical needs to face -- not monetary sales or critical approval, but time.

Damn Yankees has passed that test . . . time and time again.