On Thursday night, City Center’s Encores! opened its production of the 1955 musical Damn Yankees, starring Emmy Award winner Sean Hayes as the devilish Mr. Applegate.
Broadway favorites Cheyenne Jackson and Jane Krakowski co-star in the show as baseball slugger Joe Hardy and sexy seductress Lola.
Rae Allen, a member of the musical’s original Broadway cast, caught up after the show with Tony Award winner Randy Graff, who plays Meg Boyd.
The talented P.J. Benjamin plays Graff’s loving husband, Joe Boyd.
Veanne Cox and Kathy Fitzgerald get loads of laughs as Meg’s good friends, Sister and Doris.
The sassy Megan Lawrence plays hard-driving sportswriter Gloria Thorpe.
The opening night guests included the fabulous and funny Tina Fey, the star and creator of NBC’s 30 Rock, on which Krakowski plays the daffy Jenna.
That same evening, the Roundabout Theatre Company invited some special friends to a performance of the soon-to-open revival of The Marriage of Bette & Boo. Here’s the work’s celebrated playwright, Christopher Durang.
The show’s director, Tony winner Walter Bobbie, greeted guests before the show.
Tony winner Cynthia Nixon will star later this season in the Roundabout’s production of Lisa Loomer’s Distracted.
The wonderful actress Amy Irving starred some years ago in the company’s star-studded version of The Three Sisters.
The great Jefferson Mays, who played Henry Higgins in the Roundabout’s Pygmalion, attended the show with wife Susan Lyons.
Handsome Ben Daniels recently finished his run as Valmont in the company’s revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
The hilarious Nicky Silver’s new play, Three Changes, will open the 2008-2009 season at Playwrights Horizons next month.
Finally, on Thursday afternoon, former Broadway stars Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith met the press to launch the new fragrance, Blue Seduction for Women, which will donate some of its proceeds to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
For TheaterMania’s review of Damn Yankees, click here.
