Monday, June 16, 2008

Garland Summer Musicals opens Damn Yankees this week

By Shawn Parikh

Summertime means Garland Summer Musicals is back! They are kicking off their 26th season this week with Damn Yankees which will run from June 20 - 29. The show is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League Baseball. The musical is based on Wallop's novel, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant

A Senators fan, middle‐aged Joe Boyd, blurts out that he would sell his soul to have his team in first place. Obligingly, the devil in the person of Mr. Applegate appears and transforms the aging Joe into young Joe Hardy. As “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.” he sparks the team into surging ahead to the top. When something inside the new Joe yearns for the wife he left behind, Applegate sends the sultry Lola to seduce him. Featuring a hit score that includes favorites such as "You Gotta Have Heart," "Whatever Lola Wants," "Two Lost Souls," "Near To You," and many more.

The musical stars three well-known DFW theater personalities: PegasusNews content partner John Garcia as "Applegate", Morgana Shaw as "Lola", and Joshua Doss as "Joe Hardy".

Mr. Garcia is a professional actor who is the editor and founder of The Column, as well as the Executive Director/Producer of The Column Awards. He has over 300 productions to his credit as an actor and has performed with every equity house in the metroplex.

Ms. Morgana Shaw, who recently starred in Freakshow, will be portraying Jim Carrey's mother in the film, I Love You Phillip Morris. Plus, she is heading for Broadway to reprise her critical hit, All About Bette, which is being produced by Michael Jenkins of Dallas Summer Musicals.

Mr. Doss is a major leading man in the metroplex who has starred in such productions as Bare, Tick, Tick...Boom!, Carousel, Urinetown and more.

Overall, the company has over 30 talented performers from all over DFW and is directed and staged by Broadway veteran Buff Shurr, produced by Patti Granville, choreographed by Joseph Jones, and Musical Direction by Jeff Crouse.

Tickets can be reserved by calling the Box Office at 972-205-2790.

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