In 1994, a revival of Damn Yankees opened on Broadway. It had a number of changes from the original, mostly for the better. I saw it four times over three separate trips to New York. I was then dating a young lady back there who had a "thing" for Victor Garber, the gentleman playing Applegate when it opened. She just wanted to see him live and then she wanted me to get us backstage so she could meet him.
I'd seen it before but I got tickets and at the last minute, she had an emergency and had to cancel on me. As it turned out, my friend Jerry Beck was not only working in New York then, he was working in the building right across the street from the Marriott Marquis hotel. Damn Yankees was playing in the Marquis Theater in the Marriott Marquis. So I called Jerry, who was just about to knock off work and head home…and instead of heading home, he went with me to see Damn Yankees — him for the first time, me for the second.
Later that night, the lady and I spoke and she apologized profusely and told me that if I was willing to get tickets again for the next night, she would not only show up but she'd reimburse me for the tickets. I am a forgiving type so I said okay, she showed up this time and we went to see it and got backstage so she could meet Victor Garber. I also got to meet someone else and one of these days, I'll tell you about him.
Around Christmas, a friend of mine who was in another Broadway show called me with a tip. She said, "Word on the street is that business over at Damn Yankees has been slipping and the producers were thinking of closing it." I asked how that was possible. I alone was responsible for enough ticket sales to keep it running longer than Hello, Dolly.
She ignored that and said, "Victor Garber was leaving anyway so they've decided to try and boost sales by bringing in Jerry Lewis to play the Devil." That was interesting. She also said the show was going into a brief hiatus and it would reopen with Mr. Lewis on March 12, 1995. Tickets for that date were on sale but they hadn't yet announced that Jerry was stepping into the part then. "So if you act now," she said, "you can see Jerry Lewis make his Broadway debut."
I mentioned this to my friend Paul Dini and on an impulse, we decided to call up and buy tickets, then fly back and see Jerry's debut on the Great White Way.
That was in December. By the end of January, we were kind of regretting the impulse. Neither of us had any other reason to go back to New York and it seemed like an awful lot of money to spend just to see Jerry. We started talking about finding someone else to buy the tickets from us.
Then I got a call from someone who was running a comic book convention in New York on the same weekend as Jerry's first performance. He wanted to know if Sergio Aragonés and I would come back and be guests at the con. He'd pay for our flights and lodging and various other perks. I said, "I'll check with Sergio but I'll do it." Then I added, "Hey, you know who'd be a great guest for you? Paul Dini!" The convention organizer said, "He would be great. Do you think you can get him?"
I called Paul and said, "How'd you like an all-expenses-paid trip back to see Jerry in Damn Yankees?" Paul, as you might imagine, loved the idea. So did Sergio, who not only flew back with us but also bought a ticket so he could see the show that night.
A great coincidence, right? Well, here's the kicker: The convention not only paid for our flight and put us up in a nice hotel but of all the hotels in Manhattan, the one they happened to choose was the Marriott Marquis. We just had to step out of our rooms and take the elevator down to where Damn Yankees was playing. Jerry was quite wonderful that night before a house full of Jerry Lewis fans. He got about a three minute cheering ovation when he made his first entrance.
The show was changed a bit for him and if this had been Sweeney Todd, that might have been sacrilege…but come on. This was Damn Yankees and as I said, the revival had already altered a number of things. The curtain call was quite memorable with Jerry making a surprisingly humble speech and members of the audience singing out, "We love you, Jerry!" That night, I kinda did.
Here's a video someone posted of two musical numbers from the show. If this is from New York, the lady is probably Charlotte d'Amboise, who replaced Bebe Neuwirth as Lola. But I can't recognize Ms. d'Amboise for certain and Jerry did the show in other cities with other Lolas and even for a time in London. Jerry performs "The Good Old Days," interpolating part of an old routine of his. Then he and whoever is playing Lola — and looking at it again, I think it is d'Amboise — do "Two Lost Souls." In the original, this was a number for Lola and Joe Hardy but from the start, even before Lewis was hired, this revival switched it over to Lola and Applegate.
I hope you enjoy it. Right now, I'm struggling to rid my mind of the image of Jerry Lewis as Sweeney Todd, yelling "Hey, LAY-dee" to Mrs. Lovett. Oh, why did I have to think of that? Why?
