Music and the Devil - A Damn Yankees Opinion

I've been involved in a production of Damn Yankees out at the Empress Theatre. I had a fantastic time of it - met a lot of great people, learned some fantastic songs and dances, and ate a LOT of good, home-made food. It was a tough show plagued with setbacks (and, on occasion, actual plagues). Overall, it was a great experience.

Too bad Damn Yankees is one of the worst plays I've ever seen.

First, let me make clear that I don't hate all musicals. Back in college, I took a course on the history of musical theater and Broadway. As a part of the course, I watched dozens of musicals, and many of them I loved. Damn Yankees was NOT one of them.

I auditioned for Damn Yankees because I'd worked with this particular director before and had a pretty good time with it. I'd also been hankering to perform in a musical again (the last time I'd done a musical was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers about two years earlier). I loved the cast, we all had a great time, and (if I may say so - which I may, because I will) we put on a good production.

Still, Damn Yankees is a sloppy, sloppy show. The musical numbers are almost universally pointless, the characters insubstantial, and the plot so full of holes you could sift flour with it. Even that's not enough to really make me hate the show - as long as it's sufficiently fun, I'm willing to overlook a lot of shortcomings.

I can't get over the devil, though.

I HATE the way the devil is portrayed in Damn Yankees. I can go with the smooth-talking sociopath approach. It allows for too many used car salesman jokes, but it works just fine. No, the REAL problem is that he appears to be completely impotent.

Joe Boyd, our protagonist, agrees to work for the devil in exchange for youth and incredible prowess at baseball. Joe manages to work an escape clause into the contract, which stipulates that he can get out of the deal at midnight on a certain date. Joe misses the deadline, so his soul should be forfeit, right?

Too bad Applegate forgot about the POWER of LOVE TM.

Applegate: Time's up, Joe. You're mine now. FOREVER.

Joe: But I'm in love with my wife.

Applegate: CURSES!!!

I think this is what cheeses me off the most. Joe Boyd makes some incredibly STUPID mistakes, and he suffers zero consequences for them. Normally, when the antagonist of a story is THE DEVIL, I want the good guy to win. In this case, Joe brings these problems on himself. He makes it clear that he knows EXACTLY what he's getting into, but he just dives right into it. And what happens to him?

Not a blasted thing.

Apparently, love is strong enough to completely erase ALL of the bad decisions you make, even a casual love of convenience that you value less than the win record of your favorite sports team.

Somebody really should have told Spider-Man about that loophole.