Damn Yankees Reviews

Washington Post- Highly Recommended

"...How do you turn a beloved but dusty musical into a home run? The invigorated revamp of "Damn Yankees" at Arena Stage is a damn-near-perfect example. Intact are the delightful songs and Faustian framework that have made the baseball tuner a favorite since its 1955 debut. Gone are the mid-century setting and any desire to deny the passage of time."

DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended

"...A night at the theater that doubles as a trip to the ballpark - what could be better? With the Oriole Bird strutting onstage and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" echoing through the house, Arena's Fichandler Stage feels less like a theater and more like the Baltimore Orioles Stadium - stage lights and plush seats aside. This is Damn Yankees: a musical with the same energy, passion, and camaraderie of America's favorite pastime but with a side of song and dance."

MetroWeekly- Highly Recommended

"...At nearly every turn, Damn Yankees engenders bubbly good feelings for its underdogs and true believers, devoted wives, husbands, friends, and fans. To open its milestone 75th anniversary season, Arena takes the whole house out to the ballgame, and Trujillo and company hit a home run."

Washington City Paper- Recommended

"...The desire to make his father, a minor league baseball player who was kept out of the major leagues because he was Black, proud of him. The change works well dramatically, but inadvertently lays bare the limitations of retrofitting classic musicals with new elements and motivations. Had this been an original musical, Joe’s relationship with his father would have been fodder for a pivotal song in either act. But this is a revival, and while Ahrens seeds the paternal motif in some of the existing songs, it fizzles in the absence of a dedicated number."

MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended

"...Arena stage has kicked off the new D.C. theatre season with a reimagined “Damn Yankees,” a must-see show that is nothing short of spectacular. Adapted by Will Power and Doug Wright with additional Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, this production marks the first major revival of the classic musical by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross in almost 30 years."

BroadwayWorld- Highly Recommended

"...Washington, D.C. has its very own perfectly awful last place home team, so it's inexplicable why the tweakers of Damn Yankees - originally about a Washington Senators fan who causes the Bronx Bombers to lose the pennant-revised the script to make the Charm City Os the losers who win said flag. Adapters Doug Wright (b. Dallas, TX) and Will Power (b. Oakland, CA maybe?) are definitely not from around here, and Mr. Abbott and DC native Douglass Wallopp, who wrote the original 1955 book, are no longer with us. League, schmeague: it would've been fun to see Screech in a decal of sequins on the back of Lola's game day leggings. Go Nats."