damn yankees & wall-e

July 9th, 2008

So on Monday Joanna and I went to see Damn Yankees (currently in previews) at City Center thanks to tickets from Chris. I had this show on my list of things to see this summer because

a) I love Sean Hayes

b) I think Jane Krakowski is hilarious and

c) I can watch Cheyenne Jackson without having to go see Xanadu, which while I understand its supposed to be kitschy and look bad on purpose as a comedic device, the performance I saw on the Today Show was just plain bad. Nothing humorous about it.

I really knew nothing of the show itself aside from the fact that its old school Broadway, which admittedly, I haven’t seen a lot of. The beginning commentary to get the audience to shut off their phones and not take photos played out like one of those cinematic ads (like the one I kept seeing for a good portion of last year with the frogs from that animated movie singing to the tune of I Heard It Through the Grapevine). Right off the bat the orchestra goes through snippets of all the numbers of the first act, which by the way, why were people so infatuated with mambo in the 50s? I feel like its something I need to investigate because its such a strange repetitive device in shows. Anyway, I also wasn’t aware that the song “Whatever Lola Wants” originated from this show, but that’s not something you need to know.

The show is about a fan of the Washington Senators baseball team who sells his soul to the devil in order to become a young strapping man and play for the team in order to lead them to win the pennant and beat those damn Yankees. At the core of the show, is a story about realizing what you have and what’s important. I wont give away what ends up happening, what I will say is that as fun as the show was you could have easily cut out a good twenty minutes because it was unnecessary. There were two particular numbers I had in mind, the first being the extra elongated dance number after “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.” While I understand they were showing how the team’s morale boosted and resulted in better playing thanks to Joe, it went on way too long and it wasn’t even really all that amazing choreography in the first place so it felt as though it had no point. The second number which was completely ridiculous and had nothing to do with anything was “Who’s Got the Pain?” It was like an excuse to throw in mambo in the show because it was popular at the time. Completely out of left field and didn’t move along any plot points or reveal anything about any of the characters and that’s a real pet peeve of mine. It also reminded me of how utterly awful “It Couldn’t Please Me More” (that damn pineapple song) from Cabaret was.

I really loved the scenes between Cheyenne Jackson and Randy Graff. I think they had great chemistry on stage and you could certainly feel Randy’s loneliness. We’re no going to discuss how completely unrealistic her reaction at the end is because that isn’t Randy’s fault, it’s the fault of the book because really, no woman would… well, when you see the show you’ll know what I mean. Sean Hayes was a lot of fun to see, however I don’t know if I got inherently evil from him. He was like a cartoon version of the devil, where you don’t really fear him but you know he’s the bad guy. Speaking of cartoons though, Jane Krakowski was completely animated and felt like a live version of Betty Boop almost. I adored her and thought she was great in her role. Actually to further the cartoon argument, during the dialogue prior to “A Little Brains, A Little Talent” Sean and Jane seemed very much like Boris and Natasha.

All in all its a fun show I recommend checking out but I wouldn’t label it a “must-see” (that title at the moment is reserved for In The Heights which really everyone must see). Below is video from Joanna and I at stage door.

Last night I went to see Wall-E with my friend Rebecca and her friend Oloff. I’m going to say right away that I’m surprised that this film was made considering Pixar and Disney were behind it. This film was beautiful and I don’t say that very often. Aside from the fact it had such heart, the environmentalist, anti-consumerist, and social commentary behind it was incredible. I could easily see that being a future for our world if our path continues the way it does. The movie plays almost like a silent film for a good portion of it, relying on character movements and noises to tell a story.

The theater was half filled with kids (which really I can’t complain about considering it’s a G-rated animated flick) but there were plenty of people who, like us, were adults going to see the film. It wasn’t one of those you felt the need to find a cousin or a niece or nephew to take just so you wont feel silly. I highly recommend it to everyone and I hope it opens people’s eyes to what we can become and what our world can become if we don’t take care of it.

As a complete side note I LOVED how the credits were done, and if you want to know what I mean go see the movie because I could not do it justice in words.

Entry Filed under: Film, Pop Culture, Theater