収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

Saw Arena Stage's revival of Damn Yankees, which updates the 1955 musical about a middle-aged baseball fanatic's deal with the devil - his soul for the chance to lead his beloved Washington Senators Baltimore Orioles to victory over the unbeatable New York Yankees, as a younger man of supernatural talent - to 2000, and adds a layer to main character Joe's backstory via a minor league baseball-playing father who was unable to pursue a major league career due to racial discrimination ("Back then, they didn't let you play unless you were Willie Mays"). Fantastic show! The actor who played young Joe, Jordan Donica, has the most incredible voice— now, I feel like this statement is likely to be interpreted as "he has a really good voice" and, no, I must emphasize it is a genuinely, gobsmackingly incredible voice, like, the kind of voice you feel in your chest when he's singing. Pause, watch this video, and come back. ANYWAY. Outside of Jordan Donica's singing, the highlight of the show was Rob McClure as the devilish Applegate, which he plays with a slimy charisma - half salesman, half stage magician, all gleeful malice - and all of the show's funniest lines (a crack about Florida being worse than hell and the exchange "You've got lawyers?" "Millions of 'em, and more every day" got particularly loud laughs from the DC audience)/moments, including (what is revealed to be) a mid-show appearance as the Orioles' mascot to lead the audience in a sing-along of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

This was staged in the round, with a surprisingly small stage space but creative use of, e.g., aisles and trap doors; I don't think a Broadway transfer has been confirmed yet, but it's definitely aiming for one, and I'd love to see what it does with more room for the spectacle of it all. As it is, this had great lighting/sound design and staging— in particular, the use of lighting to facilitate the slight-of-hand swaps between old and young Joe, and between immortal temptress-for-hire Lola* and the aged crone she would have been a few hundred years ago, when Applegate reminds her of the deal she'd made with him to ensure her help in sabotaging Joe's; fun use of video projection (on a low "wall" fencing in the stage) when Applegate first appears to tempt Joe, by popping up on Joe's TV to continue the pitch after his initial confused dismissal. I would describe it as a dance-heavy musical (although, to air opposing views, my friend D. felt that it wasn't especially dance-heavy for a Golden Age musical), with particularly acrobatic dance numbers for the ensemble cast playing the baseball team; those guys were leaping and backflipping all over the place.

* Speaking of the show's updates, per skimming Wikipedia and some other reviews, it looks like this production toned down the character's faux-exoticness and gave her a more developed/sympathetic backstory; the other big plot change was that Applegate's scheme to sabotage Joe was to frame him for doping. Another nice modern touch was that the staging of the opening number about how baseball-fanatic spouses are distracted by the game "Six Months Out Of Every Year" included both a gay couple and a straight one where the wife, rather than the husband, was the die-hard fan glued to the TV.