‘Damn Yankees’ @ Theatre Arlington
Photos courtesy of Theatre Arlington
—Jan Farrington
Oh, David Coffee.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
There’s nothing like watching an iconic stage “pro” strut their stuff. After near six decades on the stage, David Coffee gets more out of a line of dialogue or a bit of body language than seems humanly possible. I don’t think “triple threat” covers him, really: he can sell a song or light-foot his way through a dance routine, tackle a serious Shakespeare role, break our hearts in an instant, or make us fizz with delight. Heck, he can do a great imitation of a sexy girl without moving from the bench he’s sitting on—and leave an audience on the floor.
Clearly, I’m telling you to catch Coffee in Theatre Arlington’s just-opened Damn Yankees if you can manage it—and, as a bonus, you’ll get the big and talented cast around him, plus the terrific mid-century tunes of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, who were hot off their hit The Pajama Game when they wrote Yankees in 1955—and by rights, should have gone on to give us a whole lineup of great musicals. (Ross died of a chronic illness at age 29, soon after Damn Yankees opened.)
Coffee plays the plum part of Mr. Applegate, the clever devil who tries every trick to talk upright middle-aged American Joe Boyd (Randy Jordan) into selling his soul—so that his favorite baseball team, the Washington Senators, can finally get past “those damn Yankees” and win the pennant. (As a local side note, the Senators morphed a few years later into—guess who?—the Texas Rangers.)
To clinch the deal, Applegate will bring in his crack femme fatale Lola (Candice Proctor), a former witch who bought her beauty from Applegate, and “belongs” to him. Jordan touches us with his wistful farewell to wife Meg (Leslie Marie Collins), “Goodbye Old Girl”—morphing (a nice stage trick) into to the young and vibrant Joe Hardy (Joseph Tully) right in the middle of the song!
We’re introduced to the Senators ball players with the classic song “(All You Need is) Heart,” a crowd-pleaser with an encore or two in the old style. The team (Daniel Vanegas, Sean Sicard, Landry Beckley, Justin Konopka, Maximilian Swenson and Steven Rios) and manager Van Buren (Luke Longacre can sing with a cigar in his mouth) rev up the crowd (us) beautifully, and though they’re initially skeptical, take Joe Hardy on as a rookie.
Curious newspaper reporter Gloria (Rachel Nicole Poole can sing, dance, act, and twinkle her eyes—a real stage presence there) dances right along—but she still has plenty of questions about who this new guy really is. She’ll be driving everyone nuts with her questions—but hey, we need to stay good and worried about Joe’s fate. Brett Warner and Araceli Radillo are fun as wife Meg’s sister and friend—but also rabid fans of the baseball team who turn up in the darndest places. Proctor’s Lola gathered steam as she got into the part (though the OG quirky humor of Gwen Verdon is still in my head), and Tully as young Joe is a charmer—tall, lanky, sweet-faced—but a strong, determined man all the same.
There are too many plot threads and good songs to count. Among the standouts: another rouser from Gloria and the guys, “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal MO” … Lola’s “Whatever Lola Wants” … Applegate’s hilarious number about the “Good Old Days” of torture and destruction … and a pair of unexpectedly moving numbers, the duet “Near to You” between young Joe and the wife who doesn’t recognize him, and the bluesy, sad “Two Lost Souls” shared by young Joe and Lola—both beautifully done. And then there’s the “where did this come from?” mambo number “Who’s Got the Pain?” Performed with verve (and a bit of edge) by Proctor as Lola and terrific dancer Justin Konopka, it’s the show’s “Fosse” number—plunked into the plot well, just because. Because it’s cheeky and weird and Fosse, that’s why.
Kudos (could we think up another congratulatory word, please?) first of all for a fine job to director Steven Morris (staging and pace were great, and the actors engaging). Choreographer Leslie Jones got all the juice out of the songs, in the best way … music director Mark Mullino and sound designer Ryan Simón never let the tuneful live band overwhelm the singers, and that’s a trick … and costume designer Hope Cox, who was period-savvy in all her outfits, was especially good with Poole’s “Gloria” costumes, very chic and ‘50s. The clean scenic designs by Bryan Stevenson work well (Robin Dotson’s props too), and there were a number of nice effects pulled off—though by who I don’t know.
All you need to know, really, is that if you haven’t ever seen Damn Yankees, if it’s been a while, or if you have a soft spot for the America of those days (not perfect, but simpler, somehow)…this show will pull you in, make you grin—and give you a shot of Coffee.
WHEN: February 13-March 1, 2026
WHERE: 305 W. Main Street, Arlington TX
WEB: theatrearlington.org
