Damn Yankees 1994

i also have this recording and ejoy it dearly (especially since its got a good deal of scenes/dialogue on it) bit i sadly do feel bebe(who i adore) was not the best choice for lola. Gloria Thorpe btw was Vicki Lewis.

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What was the biggest difference between 1994 and 1958 besides actors and such

Oh yeah... I noticed that cuz during our show it was Lola n Joe Hardy but in this it was Lola n Applegate...

I saw the production. Very tight. Bebe was great as Lola. Charlotte d'Amboise, aka Sweet Charity, replaced her and was also very good.

I saw this production first in San Diego and on Broadway with Bebe as Lola and Victor Garber as Applegate and then again later when Jerry Lewis (!) replaced Garber. Garber was brilliant and played him elegantly but invested the character neuroses a la Tony Randall which earned him a Tony nomination. Jerry Lewis was, well...Jerry Lewis.

Vicky Lewis was great her high point being fronting the "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal,Mo" number. Neuwirth was technically very good but somehow made Lola remote and chilly.

Tigger

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I like Vicki singing "The Trial" but she made Gloria seem very self- centered and vain

i did a workshop of it, playing applegate and directing. Then i ran the production byt the powers that be at the local theater and got told that my sets were too elaborate, and there was no way in hell i'd be allowed to use that many pyrotechnic effects. So i ended up scrapping it wholly... for now

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I've done it! It was fun, in most ways(it's a LONG story). I was a dancer.

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I played Joe in high school (1984) lots of fun. Oh my, that was 21 years ago!!!!!

I fall in love with Jarrod's voice everytime I hear that soundtrack...what a voice! ::sigh::

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Yes..a LOT of changes between the 1955 and 1994, many for better including

1. A new Overture (better)

2. Voiceover narration leading into "6 Months out of every year" which was re-routined to start with teh song and place the verse in the middle (better)

3. Added the blooper ballet (better)

4. Re-routined "Heart" into a bigger number including shower scenes (better)

5. Added a montage showing joe's growing fame in commercials (better)

6. Gave Lola a more dramtic entrance (better)

7. Built up the scenes between Joe and Meg so that each helps the other understand how they were taking each other for granted
(better)

8. Moved the intermission earlier and gave a great gag ending for Lola (not so good... theer was no follow up after the intermission. Also the original ended dramatically with Joe being accused of being Shifty McCoy. In the revival Applegate announces the plan but nothing happens on it until Act II)

9. Moved the talent show sequence to the start of Act Two (weak) and changed how "Who's Got the pain" was used. (Bad - the number was needless specialty material and the original plays much better without it.)

10. Move "The Game" to the second slot in Act II giving the 2nd act essentially two opening numbers.

11. Re-routined "Near to You" to bring older Joe back and give it more dramatic effect (better)

12. Changed the Trial into a montage narrated by Gloria. Played faster and funner. (Better)

13. Changed the script so "Two Lost Souls" was sung by Applegate and Lola. (Bad - Applegate didn't lose his soul. In the original script Lola and Joe both did, so the number made sense with them.)

14. Changed the final ball-game so Joe (older) hits a pop fly (in the original he catches one) (needless change but neither better nor worse)

Now if you listen to the 1994 OCR (on Mercury) you hear a lot of dialogue not from the show but created for the recording.

Here's a curiosity: In the Song lne-up for the original Broadway production are two songs listed that were cut within days of the opening, not included on RCA Victor OCR, and never heard again: "Not Meg" sung by Ray Walston and The Gossips, and "The American League" sung by the Downtown fan club. In addition the reprise of "heart" sung by Jean Stapleton was originally done AFTER "The Game" in Act II but moved to act as the Act One Finale.

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I know I'll go to hell for this, but I prefer the revival script and orchestrations to the original. I don't know if it's because the material has just become dated, but the original version just seems to play without laughs - even Applegate falls flat.

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