Damn Yankees

Damn Yankees is a musical comedy about a baseball fan who signs away his soul so that his team can finally get past the New York Yankees. It takes the old Faust story of a pact with the Devil and plays it for laughs on a ballfield, with a marriage at its center. Richard Adler and Jerry Ross wrote the songs, and George Abbott and Douglass Wallop wrote the original book, working from Wallop's 1954 novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant.

The Broadway run planned for 2027 is a revival in a fresh adaptation, and it will be the show's third Broadway production, after the original of 1955 and a 1994 revival. Will Power and Doug Wright have revised the book, Lynn Ahrens has written additional lyrics, and Sergio Trujillo both directs and choreographs. The story has moved to Baltimore and the 2000 season, at the height of a Yankees dynasty that won three World Series in a row, and the hero is now an Orioles fan. This version was first staged at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., in 2025.

As of October 2026, three leading roles have been announced. Neil Patrick Harris will play Applegate, the Devil in the guise of a smooth salesman. Julianne Hough will play Lola, his accomplice; it will be her first Broadway musical. Austin Scott will play Young Joe, the ballplayer the hero turns into. Major League Baseball and its production label, MLB Studios, have signed on as partners, something no earlier Broadway musical had done with one of the big professional leagues.

Joe Boyd is a middle-aged fan of a team that keeps losing. In this version he follows the Baltimore Orioles, and he and his younger self are Black; his father was a Negro leagues player. The revised book also works references to Baltimore culture into the story. Fed up, Joe wishes out loud for one slugger who could beat the Yankees. A smooth talker who calls himself Applegate offers to make it happen. Applegate is the Devil, and the slugger he has in mind is Joe.

Joe is cautious enough to demand an escape clause: until a deadline on the night before the season's final game, he can still call the whole thing off. The catch is that he has to leave his wife, Meg. The middle-aged fan becomes a young home-run hitter (Joe Hardy in the original script, billed as Young Joe for Broadway), joins the club, and his hitting carries the team up the standings.

Stardom does not cure Joe's homesickness. He takes a room in his own house as a lodger and gets to know Meg all over again. Applegate, afraid that Joe will use the escape clause, sends Lola, his seductive assistant, to pull him away from his wife. Joe does not give in. Other key figures include Van Buren, who manages the struggling team, and Gloria Thorpe, a sports reporter.

In the second act Applegate goes after Joe's reputation instead, hoping to keep him tied up past the deadline. In the original, Joe is framed as a con man; in the rewrite, he is pulled into a doping scandal, and the old courtroom scene turns into a sit-down with baseball's commissioner. Lola, for her part, comes to see how deeply Joe loves Meg and starts working against her boss.

Richard Adler and Jerry Ross shared credit for both music and lyrics. This was the last show they wrote together: chronic bronchiectasis took Ross's life at age 29, several months into the original run. The new version keeps their score.

The original production introduced "Whatever Lola Wants" and "Who's Got the Pain?", both sung by Gwen Verdon as Lola. A few other numbers from the 1955 score, and what they do:

• "Six Months Out of Every Year" opens the original show with Meg, Joe Boyd and a chorus, as Meg laments her husband's devotion to baseball.
• "Goodbye, Old Girl" is Joe's farewell to Meg, shared by the older Joe and his younger self.
• "Heart" is the losing team's vow to keep trying, led by Van Buren with Smokey, Rocky and Vernon, and it comes back later as a reprise.
• "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo." lets Gloria Thorpe and the ballplayers hail the new star.
• "Two Lost Souls" pairs Lola with Joe Hardy in the second act.
• "Those Were the Good Old Days" was Applegate's solo in the original second act: worn out by a single wager, the Devil grows nostalgic for the easier times of his long past.

"Goodbye, Old Girl," "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo." and "Two Lost Souls" were all part of the Arena Stage version. As of October 2026, the running order for Broadway has not been published, so the song list on this page follows the original score.

As of October 2026, no Broadway designers have been announced, and it is unclear whether the Arena Stage team will move with the show. At Arena Stage the show played in the round on the Fichandler Stage, with sets by Robert Brill, costumes by Linda Cho, lighting by Philip S. Rosenberg, sound by Walter Trarbach and projections by Peter Nigrini. Charles G. LaPointe designed the wigs, and Paul Kieve was credited with illusions. On the musical side, the Arena Stage team included Doug Besterman (orchestrations), David Chase (score supervision), Greg Anthony Rassen (music supervision) and Adam Rothenberg (music direction).

The musical brought back much of the group behind The Pajama Game: George Abbott, Richard Adler, Jerry Ross and choreographer Bob Fosse, with Wallop added as co-author of the book. It opened on May 5, 1955, at the 46th Street Theatre, a house since renamed the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Abbott directed, Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince produced, William and Jean Eckart designed, Don Walker wrote the orchestrations and Hal Hastings led the orchestra.

The producers wanted a dancer for Lola. Mitzi Gaynor and Zizi Jeanmaire both said no before Gwen Verdon took the part, although she had sung only one song in her previous Broadway show, Can-Can. Damn Yankees also began her partnership with Fosse, first as collaborators and then as a couple; they wed in 1960. Ray Walston played Applegate, with Stephen Douglass as Joe Hardy, Robert Shafer as Joe Boyd, Shannon Bolin as Meg, Russ Brown as Van Buren, Rae Allen as Gloria and Jean Stapleton as Sister.

RCA Victor recorded the original cast on May 8, 1955, at Webster Hall. A London staging opened at the London Coliseum on March 28, 1957, and ran for 258 performances. On May 17, 1957, the New York production changed houses, moving to the Adelphi Theatre; it closed there on October 12, 1957, after 1,019 performances. The 1958 film, directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen, kept most of the Broadway principals but cast Tab Hunter as Joe Hardy. NBC aired a television version on April 8, 1967, with Phil Silvers as Applegate and Lee Remick as Lola.

The first Broadway revival played the Marquis Theatre, where the new production is also booked. It began previews on February 14, 1994, opened on March 3, 1994, and closed on August 6, 1995. Jack O'Brien directed and revised the book, Rob Marshall choreographed, and Victor Garber, Bebe Neuwirth and Jarrod Emick led the cast; a cast album followed on May 17, 1994. Jerry Lewis took over as Applegate on March 12, 1995, in his Broadway debut, and went on to head the national tour and a run at London's Adelphi Theatre from June 4 to August 9, 1997.

From July 5 to July 27, 2008, New York City Center brought the show back for its Summer Stars series. John Rando directed, Jane Krakowski, Sean Hayes and Cheyenne Jackson starred, and Fosse's original dances were reconstructed.

The new version ran at Arena Stage from September 9 to November 9, 2025, with an official opening on September 20, 2025. Rob McClure was Applegate and Ana Villafañe was Lola, with Jordan Donica as Joe Hardy, Quentin Earl Darrington as Joe Boyd, Bryonha Marie as Meg Boyd and Alysha Umphress as Gloria Thorpe. The run sold out.

The Broadway transfer was announced on September 27, 2026, at a press conference at Yankee Stadium. Previews are set to begin on March 24, 2027, one day before the Yankees play their first game of the 2027 season, with opening night on April 20, 2027. Sports leagues have come to Broadway before, but with plays: the NFL produced Lombardi in 2010, and Major League Baseball partnered on Bronx Bombers in 2014.