Avon High School Theater Shows Heart in "Damn Yankees"

For a show about baseball that did not show any actual playing, Avon High School Theater was able to keep the game interesting at the Saturday night performance of Broadway hit Damn Yankees.

There is a saying on t-shirts across New England, "I root for two teams. The Red Sox and whoever beats the Yankees," and that sentiment is strong for one of the leads, an older man named Joe Boyd (Ryan Edgar).

In the musical, Boyd seems more married to watching baseball than he is to his wife, Meg (Reagan Henke). He despises the Yankees as much as he loves his team, the Washington Senators.

Claiming he'd sell his soul for his team to win the pennant, Mr. Applegate (Sam Nagle), the devil, takes him up on that offer, transforming him into young baseball hotshot, Joe Hardy (Jason Connor) who can help his team win.

It was surprising to see that the Joes were played by two different people. In comparison, the transformation scene in Broadway musical Jekyll and Hyde is done with one actor. The prestige of the Avon rendition of Damn Yankees was in the transformation scene, which happened quickly.  When Edgar's gray-haired Joe Boyd exits the set house and a younger-looking Joe Hardy (Connor), whose clothes are suddenly too big for him, steps out the other side of the door, it is reminiscent of the disappearing and reappearing man in the film, The Prestige.

Both Joes had powerful voices and balanced vibrato, enough to match the solid soprano vocals of Meg Boyd (Henke) and persistent reporter Gloria Thorpe (Gigi DiGiuseppe).

Thorpe goes from a tap-dancing supporter of the new ball player for the Senators, Joe Hardy, who she dubs Shoeless Joe, to launching an investigation into his mysterious past, thanks to Mr. Applegate, who feeds her information.

Mr. Applegate had more than cane tricks up his sleeves. While his character was the villain, Nagle  was likeable and humorous. When reading pre-show announcements in character, he pointed out that the red exits were his favorite color. He balanced sarcastic humor with vulnerability when he realizes his mistake in letting Joe Boyd create a loophole in their contract that denies Applegate his soul.

And you can't mention humor without acknowledging the performances of Jessica Polesel and Kassi Lehman, who played Sister Miller and Doris Miller, respectively, Meg Boyd's two busybody friends and Senators groupies.

As the Senators enjoy success and advance toward the championships, Applegate joins teams with his prisoner, Lola (Elle Crane), whose soul he owns after turning her from "the ugliest woman in all of Providence, Rhode Island" to his number one "home-wrecker" and seductress, to sneak attack Joe and foil his attempt to excercise his escape clause.

Crane's singing was the most impressive when she put on an exotic accent in the number "Whatever Lola Wants" to distract the faithful Joe from returning home to his wife by midnight on Sept. 24, his last chance to avoid losing his soul to Mr. Applegate. Crane stood out most through her dancing and elegant movements.

The play took a large team effort, including 70 students, broken up into 40 singers and dancers, 15 extras and 15 technical crew members. A pit orchestra played all of the music live.

Doreen Cohn directed the play, along with Andrew Brochu as director, David Raposo as orchestra conductor, Ken Jones as technical director, and Terri Schulman and Marcy Nesbitt as choreographers.

Cohn's next project are a slew of summer programs, including Avon Summer Theater's The Wiz on July 21 to 24 for area seventh through 12th graders. She described the play as an inner city version of The Wizard of Oz that originally starred Michael Jackson as the scarecrow. She plans on putting a contemporary spin on the play like Rent meeting Wicked. Everyone who signs up can participate, and the first day of rehearsals is June 27.

Until then, the theater club is focusing on its final performance Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Avon High School auditorium.

The Senators sing about how "you've got to have heart" to win, and the heart the cast put into the production made Damn Yankees a hit, without any of the players literally hitting a single baseball.

Tickets cost $15 for adults and $10 for students, and admission is free for any Avon seniors 65 or older who have a Join Us Back to School card.