Families step up to plate in Salem’s ‘Damn Yankees’

Staff report

SALEM

Baseball is a team sport, but Salem Community Theater’s production of “Damn Yankees” will be a family affair.

The classic musical staple about a baseball fanatic who trades his soul to the devil has a cast with an amazing number of family members.

The Tony Award-winning show opens Friday for a two-weekend run at the downtown Salem theater.

Members of six families are involved in the production: Dave Wolford and son Donny, Tyler Kinser and son Zach, Mark Kholos and daughter Bethany, Mary Catherine McMahon and daughter Gillian, and brothers Curtis and Dillon Kerner, with their father, Josh, helping on the technical crew.

But most notable are Mike Newman and his mother, Ruth, who were both part of the cast when SCT produced “Damn Yankees” 24 years ago. In the current production, Ruth plays the ubiquitous “Sister,” and Mike is Washington Senators player Vernon.

Salem veteran Mark Frost, who played Senators player Vernon when SCT last staged this show in the 1989-90 season, is the director.

Carrie Mazzucco is the choreographer, and Ed Phillips is the music director.

With a nine-piece orchestra, veteran directors and a seasoned cast, SCT Managing Director Gary Kekel said “Damn Yankees” will be one of the highlights of the season for the theater.

“Our audiences really appreciate the big, classic musicals,” said Kekel, “and this production has all the elements you could expect from the Broadway stage.”

The musical centers around middle-age baseball fanatic Joe Boyd (played by Dave Wolford), who is transformed into baseball player Joe Hardy (Roger Gaskins). He trades his soul to the Devil (Tom O’Donnell) for a chance to lead his beloved Senators in the pennant race against the New York Yankees, but he eventually realizes the true worth of the life — and wife — that he left behind.

Rounding out the cast are Joanna Andrei, Jackie Stevens, Amy Romine, Zach Kinser, Mary Catherine McMahan, Julie Benner, Michael Dempsey, Eric Kibler, Rev. Kari Langford, Dave Wack and Cheryl Kekel.

“Damn Yankees” brims with enduring tunes, including “Whatever Lola Wants,” “You Gotta Have Heart” and “Those Were the Good Old Days.”

The musical opened on Broadway in 1955 and won a Tony award for Best Musical. It was revived on Broadway in 1994. It is based on the novel “The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant” by Douglass Wallop, with music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, and choreography by Bob Fosse.