About the work
Damn Yankees is a musical by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (music and lyrics) with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, premiered on Broadway in 1955. This baseball version of the Faust story won the Tony Award for Best Musical.
Plot
The ageing baseball fan Joe Boyd, despairing at the failures of his favourite team, the Washington Senators, makes a pact with the devil: as the young star player "Joe Hardy" he is to lead his team to victory over the all-powerful New York Yankees. The devil Applegate sends him the seductive Lola to bind his soul for good. But Joe's longing for his wife and his old life leads him in the end to thwart the infernal bargain.
Cultural significance
Damn Yankees is famous for the numbers Whatever Lola Wants and Heart, and for Bob Fosse's choreography, which made a star of Gwen Verdon as Lola. As a tongue-in-cheek American Faust variant, it combines a love of sport with devil's-pact comedy. The 1958 film and numerous revivals secure the work a firm place in the repertoire of 1950s classics.