Any die-hard sports fan who’s sacrificed their loyalty at the altar of futility can relate to Damn Yankees, the lively take on the legend of Faust in this Tony Award-winning musical adapted for the big screen. Washington Senators super fan Joe Boyd (Robert Shafer) is so fed up with watching his team lose, that he accepts the tantalizing offer from Mr. Applegate (the devil himself played with snake in the grass perfection by Ray Walston), to transform into “Shoeless Joe Hardy” (Tab Hunter), the Senators walk-on star player who can lead the team to a pennant and thwart the hated Yankees in the process. Joe has negotiated an “escape clause” into the contract should he change his mind, so with his soul hanging in the balance, when he misses his wife Meg (Shannon Bolin), the devil turns to his assistant Lola (Broadway icon Gwen Verdon) to keep Joe on the highway to hell. As the hapless Washington Senators sang, “all you really need is heart” and Damn Yankees has plenty of it.
