The Savannah Bananas combine baseball with choreographed performances.
Broadway's own Derek Klena has joined the Savannah Bananas, a baseball team that combines the game everyone knows with choreographed song-and-dance performances. Baseball isn't new to Klena, who played the sport in college at UCLA, before he began persuing acting.
The Bananas took to Instagram to make the announcement. "From Broadway to Banana Ball," the caption reads. "Meet your newest Entertainment Player for your Bananas. Welcome to the Show, Derek Klena!"
Check out the video!
The Savannah Bananas play "Banana Ball", known as the fastest and most entertaining game of baseball. The players perform choreographed dances every game, including songs from Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, Mariah Carey, and more.
Every game includes the "3-2-2", which stands for third inning, second batter, second pitch. These are unique in-game pre-pitch dances that have combined together for over hundreds of millions of views on TikTok.
The team is also known for its iconic walk-ups, where Bananas may be escorted to the plate by your favorite music artists, make a dramatic entrance drenched in rain or recreating the latest TikTok dances. Additionally, the team has special scoring celebrations, which include running through the crowd to performing fully choreographed dances.
Learn more about the team here.
Derek Klena most recently appeared in in Moulin Rouge! on Broadway. Previously, he appeared in Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, reprising his role from the world premiere production at A.R.T in Cambridge, MA. He also starred as Dmitry in the stage adaptation of the animated movie Anastasia.
Derek first broke onto the NYC theatre scene in the 2012 Off-Broadway revival of Carrie, where he was quickly noticed and scooped up by Oscar and Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul to originate the lead role of Eddie Birdlace in Dogfight. He then made his Broadway debut as Fiyero in 10th Anniversary Company of Wicked and followed that up by originating the role of Michael in Jason Robert Brown's The Bridges of Madison County. Derek has also made appearances on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," "Quantico," "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver," "Blue Bloods," "Law and Order: SVU," and "Carrie Diaries."
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