Review: Bull Durham Swings and Misses

The musical adaptation of Bull Durham closely resembles the career trajectory of its chief protagonist, Crash Davis. After 15 seasons spent bumming around the minor leagues, Crash finds himself close enough to smell the baseball stardom he desperately craves—yet the jump from the small time to “The Show,” as the players refer to the majors, remains as elusive as a home run.

Ron Shelton’s stage treatment of his 1988 comedy classic has also been knocking around the regional-theater landscape for the better part of a decade, landing now at the Paper Mill Playhouse after previous tryouts in Atlanta and Raleigh. Broadway might be just across the river, but this sexed-up comedy remains moored on first base.

Shelton’s script, written with composer and lyricist Susan Werner, hews close to its source material. At the start of another season for the Durham Bulls, baseball groupie Annie Savoy (Carmen Cusack) mulls which player to take into her confidence—and her bed. She sets her sights on the young Nuke LaLoosh (Will Savarese), a pitching prospect for the major league, whom the back office describes as having “a million dollar arm and a five cent head.” But she also finds herself drawn to the mature, worldly Crash (Nik Walker), who’s brought in to improve Nuke’s form and tame his wilder impulses.

Fans of the film will delight at the dialogue Shelton retains from his Oscar-nominated screenplay, and Werner’s score features songs that evoke classic memories from the movie. The mystical Annie sings of her spiritual devotion to the sport in “The Church of Baseball,” which opens the show, and Crash shows off his intellectual and sensual side in “I Believe,” where he lets loose his life’s philosophy in a litany of metaphors.

But as often happens in screen-to-stage adaptations, you feel less like you’re watching an organically flowing musical and more like you’re waiting for familiar scenes to play themselves out verbatim. A Broadway composer once described this phenomenon to me as “cut-and-paste syndrome,” and Bull Durham seems content to take that path of least resistance.

What remains is a musical that feels exactly like what you’d expect going in but lacks one all-important element: the quirky charm that makes the original a classic. A major stumbling block comes in the form of casting. Cusack, Walker, and Savarese are all competent performers, but none can equal the star wattage of Susan Sarandon, Kevin Costner, and Tim Robbins in their prime. Savarese comes closest, nailing Nuke’s goofy energy but not quite nailing the endearing quality that makes Annie want to protect him. Cusack and Walker sing extremely well, but neither generates the wiry chemistry and world-weariness that make Annie and Crash a mature couple to root for.

Marc Bruni’s production also looks oddly slick, with an imposing set by Derek McLane that fails to capture the rough-and-ready world of the minor leagues. Choreographer Joshua Bergasse also fumbles in his attempts to replicate the balletic world of baseball: game sequences and on-the-field balls look tentative and clumsy. Alejo Vietti’s costumes largely re-create famous looks from the movie, especially for Annie, but they don’t quite telegraph character personalities in the same way. Haley Parcher’s distorted sound design renders many lyrics unintelligible.

A truly endearing moment does emerge when Millie (Ashlyn Maddox), the sassy daughter of the team’s owner, falls in love with ultrareligious ballplayer Jimmy (Andrew Poston). They get the show’s best song, “A Heaven for You,” which Maddox and Poston elevate further with soaring voices and genuine charisma. But it seems odd that the standout scene belongs to two characters who fundamentally have little to do with the plot.

At the risk of bludgeoning a metaphor, Bull Durham feels like minor league entertainment at major league prices. Content to coast on nostalgia, it’s largely forgotten by the time you reach the parking lot. After a decade in development, it still doesn’t seem ready for The Show.