Baseball on Broadway

Broadway went mad in 1955 when Gwen Verdon starred in the hit musical Damn Yankees, and the original production ran for two years and 1,019 performances. It also won six Tonys, including Best Musical and one for Verdon as Best Actress. based on Douglas Wallop's novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, the show told the tale of Joe Boyd, longtime fan of the hapless Washington Senators, who agrees to give his soul to the devil in exchange for becoming the team's new star player. Verdon played Lola, Satan's sassy, seductive associate who tries to ensnare the virtuous Boyd.