Peoria Players closed its season with the 1955 TONY award winner “Damn Yankees.” The musical is a fable involving the hapless Washington Senators ball club who are, it seems, a worse club than the hapless  “Cubbies.” The action begins with Joe Boyd (Bill Barr), a middle age fanatic, who is so frustrated with his losing team that when the Devil (Bryan Blanks) offers him a deal, he takes it with hardly a second thought for his wife (Wendy Blickenstaff) and goes off on an adventure reclaiming his youthful skills as a ball player. He will be transformed into the youthful hitting phenom Joe Hardy (Derek Kimler) who becomes the sensation of the season and leads the team past the Yankees to win the pennant, after first proving his ability to the team manager, a zany Doug Orear, who has perhaps been beaned from too many high and inside. This was the era when ball players needed to supplement their income in the off season and one of them is hawking insurance in the early innings of the show. It is 1955, baseball is the nation’s past time, ball players are the humorous boys of summer and who wins the pennant actually means something, unlike today with celebrity millionaire players who take themselves entirely too seriously and the recent “deflate gate,” symptomatic of much of current professional sport.

Eisenhower was President when this show was first produced and it is showing its age. The lack of development to the characters’ motivation is now seen as simplistic and awkward. The only way to justify the writing is to think of it strictly as fable. To me it is indicative of the complacency of the ’50s where a happily married man could leave his wife in the middle of the night, make a deal for his soul to the Devil, transform to a young man, win the pennant and then through parsing the deal, beat the Devil and return: happy, wiser and in love with his wife.  As young Joe Hardy, old Joe Boyd is a modern Ulysses, off in the broad world and tempted by the siren’s song.

The Devil brings in his assistant to seal the deal in the person of Lola (Ingrid Beyhl) a temptress, recently of Chicago. Joe (young Joe, the ball player) withstands the temptation because he has met an older woman (old Joe’s wife) to whom he is strangely attracted, a soul mate, strictly Platonic but with sparks, and he has moved into her spare bedroom?! Huh? Unraveling that could keep a team of Freudian psychologists busy for at least nine innings. Vaudeville olio acts are woven through the evening in the characters of two sisters (Julie Simmons and Mary Ellen Ulrich) who top off their clowning with a hilarious burlesque on ballet funny enough to be on The Ed Sullivan Show.

The audience, a full house, had a good time and showed their appreciation with sustained and enthusiastic applause. The music was live, well performed, and Maggie Sloter, a junior at Bradley, conducted. The choreography had memories of the original Bob Fosse. Randy Blickenstaff was outstanding in her field, dancing as a ball player. Although not my favorite material, it was entertaining and well directed by Jimmy Ulrich. Once again it is encouraging to see young talent developing experience and skill. I wish there was audience support for more contemporary scripts. It is ironic that Peoria Players, founded in 1919 at the time of “the little theater” movement, is now doing old commercial shows. That national movement saw the founding of the Goodman in Chicago, the Provincetown Playhouse in New York and many others to encourage contemporary playwrights and scripts that were more realistic than the popular melodramas packing them in at the large theaters. It is the challenge all our local theaters face: how to do modern work without alienating the traditional audience.

The program at Players acknowledged many “patrons.” I encourage everyone to become a “patron of the arts” by purchasing a season ticket for Cornstock’s upcoming season of five shows for only $70. That is five guaranteed nights out this summer and also a meaningful contribution to the cultural life of your community. The season at the tent begins on May 29 with “Brigadoon.” The box office number is 676-2196.