From Broadway to the Ballpark: The Baseball History of DAMN YANKEES

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A new Broadway revival of Damn Yankees has been officially announced for this season—with an unprecedented sports partnership attached. 

The upcoming production of the 1955 musical written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (music and lyrics) and Douglass Wallop and George Abbott (book) will star Neil Patrick Harris as Applegate, Julianne Hough as Lola, and Austin Scott as Young Joe Hardy. It will play Broadway’s Marquis Theatre, which incidentally, hosted the first revival of the show from 1994-1995. The 2027 production will be the second Broadway revival for the perennially popular property which has been a favorite in schools and communities since it made a splash during musical theatre’s Golden Age. 

Damn Yankees, which is based on a book by Wallop called The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, is a retelling of the Faust story, set in the world of Major League Baseball. The legendary director and producer Hal Prince suggested the book as source material for a follow up musical by the team who had just triumphed with The Pajama Game. Director and co-book writer Abbott was the one to suggest shortening the title to the catchy ‘Damn Yankees’. 

The original production of Damn Yankees won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor, Best Actress, and two categories that are long defunct: Best Conductor And Musical Director and Best Stage Technician. It ran for over 1,000 performances and at the time it closed, was the 22nd longest running show in Broadway history. The major hit was also made into a film only a few years later, in 1958, with Gwen Verdon, who had given an iconic performance as Lola, reprising her role, and Ray Walston, who had done the same as Applegate, also re-creating his performance. 

Archival footage of the actual New York Yankees was included in the film, featuring Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, and others. This was filmed during the 1957 baseball season. Not only has the show itself entered the canon, several of its songs have become standards, including “Heart” and “Whatever Lola Wants”. And since the original production featured Bob Fosse’s choreography, several of Damn Yankees’ dances have been regularly re-staged and celebrated as well. In 1967, the show received a made-for-television movie version, utilizing the pop-art style made popular by Batman. It intentionally aired on the eve of the opening of Major League Baseball season. 

Damn Yankees was far from the first time sports were depicted on stage during a Broadway musical. From Good News (1927) to Too Many Girls (1939), sports had been a backdrop for many shows. But Damn Yankees was a major hit with a lasting legacy that made sports central to its plot line. Hitting as it did during Broadway’s golden age, the show had the craft and assets that made it enter the canon as a revivable property. The musical made a major mark on Broadway and continued to resonate with many audiences in the decades to follow. 

When baseball’s favorite musical returns to Broadway this coming spring, it will be with contemporary relevance. Major League Baseball itself is a partner on this Damn Yankees, and one of its lead producers is Haley Swindal, granddaughter of George Steinbrenner, former longtime owner of the Yankees. The production was officially announced in a press event held at Yankee Stadium. Its story will be adjusted, now set in the year 2000. Will Power and Doug Wright will attend to the updated book and Lynn Ahrens will contribute updated lyrics. Under Sergio Trujillo’s direction, the new Damn Yankees will address elements of diversity in baseball, deepen its female characters, and focus on realistic details pertaining to the sport. For example, while the original musical found a fan of the team the Washington Senators selling his soul to the devil so his favorite team could defeat those (damn) Yankees, the revival will trade the defunct Senators for the Baltimore Orioles. Several changes to the original script were worked on during a pre-Broadway tryout at Arena Stage in Washington D.C. in 2025.

Previous revivals of the show have made different updates and scored different sports tie-ins. The 1994 Broadway revival partnered with Topps to create a trading card set featuring the actors in the show, baseball card-style. Broadway fans could collect and trade baseball cards of Victor Garber, Bebe Neuwirth, Jarrod Emick, and the rest of the cast. The production also employed sports announced Mel Allen for several pre-recorded voiceovers. 

A consultant from the world of Major League Baseball is working with members of the 2027 revival to make sure their stances and movement are true to the sport. The upcoming Broadway revival marks several significant firsts, but it’s not the first time someone from the world of professional sports has been involved with Damn Yankees. In 1981, football legend Joe Namath played the role of Young Joe Hardy in a production of the show at Jones Beach Theater. Jones Beach, a gigantic outdoor amphitheater, had its heyday as a summer stock venue from the 1950s through the 1970s, with several outliers like 1981’s Damn Yankees bringing in crowds as well. In the show, Young Joe Hardy is the heroic slugger sent by the devil to defeat the Yankees after Old Joe Hardy makes a wish for his favorite team to triumph.

A 2002 production of the show in the Berkshires staged in an actual baseball field featured a performance from Dan Duquette, who had recently been fired as manager of the Red Sox. A 2006 revival at North Shore Music Theatre substituted the Red Sox for the Senators and a 2007 revival in Los Angeles substituted the Los Angeles Dodgers. A 2008 New York City Center revival of the show starred Sean Hayes, Jane Krakowski, and Cheyenne Jackson returned to the Washington Senators as the rivals of the Yankees. Since the 1994 revival had featured book revisions by director Jack O’Brien, the City Center revival was emphasized as a return to the original version of the show.

In his column, Walter Winchell declared 1955’s Damn Yankees to be George Abbott’s 70th show. Abbott would live to the age of 107. He directed major productions of Damn Yankees at age 99 and at age 106!

The relationship between Damn Yankees and professional baseball has been unique over the years. The scenic and costume designs for the original production were by husband-and-wife team William and Jean Eckart. One of the ways they celebrated the show’s baseball theme was by creating a show curtain comprised of over 1,000 actual MLB-sanctioned baseballs. On the show’s opening night on Broadway, its tickets were formatted as baseball tickets, contrary to typical Broadway tradition. The original production’s out-of-town tryout in Boston in 1955 overlapped with a game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees were invited to attend a performance of the musical and they came. Baseball players from several teams attended the show during its Broadway bow. Songs from the show have sometimes been heard at actual Yankees games and batting practices. This fall, former Yankee player Bernie Williams will join the on-stage band of Broadway’s Buena Vista Social Club.

While Broadway has had other brushes with baseball, none compare to the legacy of Damn Yankees. Since the early 20th century, the Broadway Show League has organized the cast and crews of Broadway productions for recreational baseball games against each other; that’s another way that a love for baseball infiltrates the community. Ironically, when the original Damn Yankees company participated in the Broadway Show League, they lost their game. (But they still had “heart”!) 

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