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Jason Alexander Directs 'Damn Yankees' in L.A.
Nov 11, 2022
BroadwayWorld's own James Sims recently caught up with Jason Alexander during rehearsals for Damn Yankees discussing the former 'Seinfeld' alum joining Reprise! as Artistic Director and his vision for the future of the Los Angeles theatre company.
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0:00
My life with Reprise began about almost 11 years ago when I was invited to sort of select
0:14
I don't know why I got invited to select, but select and be in the first Reprise show ever
0:18
which turned out to be Promises Promises. It was a very different critter than what it is now
0:23
It was really more or less a very lightly staged production. I mean, it wasn't a concert because we did do the book
0:31
but it was far less than what we're attempting to do back here today
0:36
I did not pick Damn Yankees. This whole season was in place before I became the artistic director
0:43
The fortuitous, I guess, event was that Yankees did not have a director in place
0:49
and it was the only show that I could see this season that allowed me to try and take us towards the mandate
0:56
that I have really beginning next season, which is to try and revitalize some of these older shows
1:02
to see them in a different light, to invite both actors and the audience that are more diverse
1:07
actors of color, to do properties that they haven't been able to do before
1:12
So it was kind of interesting that it came into my life
1:16
But if you love it, then it was my decision, and I'm a genius
1:20
If you don't love it, somebody else thrust it on me. Six months out of every year
1:26
I might as well be made of stone. Six months out of every year when I'm with him
1:35
I'm alone. Goodbye, old girl. My old girl when you awaken I be gone
1:51
Goodbye old girl. My old girl, goodbye
2:11
When I re-read it again, it felt very much a creature of its time, which is kind of glorious in its own way, but it wasn't what I wanted to do
2:20
And I wanted to see if we could modernize it to a point where I could at least do some ethnic, diverse casting
2:28
To do that, I had to get it out of the 50s and into a period of time where the face of baseball had really changed
2:34
I couldn't do it modern because the score really would not lend itself to a sensibility of modern
2:39
but we found that we could kind of shift it to the 1980s
2:43
and it would feel pretty good there. And then once we started playing around with the idea of
2:48
well, you know, what kind of diversity would we be talking about? Suddenly the language of those very white characters from the 1950s
2:54
were inappropriate. And some of the structure of the show was inappropriate for what reprise can handle
2:59
So I began to tinker with it and then called the original Joy Abbott
3:04
George Abbott's widow has been an angel to me and got behind the nose
3:09
of resetting the time, the casting. I asked her if I could get the Los Angeles Dodgers
3:16
involved by changing the name of the senators to the Dodgers. And she said, yeah, that's a fine idea
3:20
And then I said about rewriting the book a little bit. I've written, probably rewritten about 20% of it
3:26
But in you know being absolutely faithful to the style and form and intent of the original And she gave us the thumbs up to that And then there was just a question of how to make the music sound like the rest of the show
3:42
So we have pieces from the original 1954 version, which are gloriously seductive even from then
3:50
We have a couple of orchestrations that Doug Besterman did and David Crane did from the 94 revival in New York
3:56
And in a couple of very key places where we re-envisioned the score rather uniquely to our production
4:03
we've had brand new orchestrations and arrangements that are all repriece. We've got heart. All you really need is hard
4:15
When the eyes are saying you never win, that's when the grand you should stop
4:23
We've got hope. Don't sit around in L'O. Not a solitary stop do we he
4:32
because Mr. Cause we've got hope. He'll fight for us. Do right for us
4:41
He'll be a league. He'll lie for us. He's shoot this joke from Hannibal Moe
4:45
Go, go, go, go, go. Go like a bat out of you nowhere
4:50
Shoot this joke from Hannibal Mo. Strike in the phone that I know you're there
4:54
A little brains, a little talent with an emphasis on the ladder
5:03
You've got to know just what to say and how to say it
5:09
You've got to know what game to play and how to play it
5:14
You got to stack your decks with a couple of extra aces We dream big with small resources We have to you know grow our audience which everybody has to do
5:28
You know, doing theater anywhere is not easy. Doing theater in LA is particularly not easy
5:35
We have to build our reputation bigger than it is. We have to build our name bigger than it is
5:39
You're going to hear some of our new music back here in a minute. You know, looking at the problems of, you know, how do we want to design our upcoming seasons
5:50
What kind of talent do we want to attract? Can we afford our dreams at this point
5:55
The problems are never ending. But what's great is that the excitement about the dream and where we want to go and where we think we can go
6:03
is very real and very sustaining, even when the problems seem overwhelming
6:09
I always get! What I aim for? And your heart and soul is what I came for
6:22
Lola wants, Lola gets you'll never win
6:36
Oh, you got to just hold on, hold on. Hold on. Hold on
6:43
Hold on. Hold on. Hold out to your heart. Ha, ha, ha, ha
6:51
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got to hold us. Oh, oh. Got to hold hearts
6:58
We got a heart. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ah
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