Review - Johnny Baseball at the American Repertory Theatre

Exactly how populist should a regional non-profit theater become? That's the question that was going through my mind as I was watching Johnny Baseball, the disappointing new musical currently running at the American Repertory Theater. Johnny Baseball is part of a decidedly crowd-pleasing turn on the part of the A.R.T. under the reign of the A.R.T.'s new artistic director, Diane Paulus. 

In her inaugural season, Paulus presented the admittedly popular but artistically debatable production The Donkey Show, which has become a bit of a cash cow for both the A.R.T. and for Paulus herself, via her and her husband's financial involvement with the show. I'd rather not get into what seems to be a brewing controversy, but you can check out the lively debate over at The Clyde Fitch Report as to whether the financial arrangements that Paulus and her husband have with the A.R.T. amount to profiteering.

I'm frankly more interested in the artistic future of the A.R.T., whose upcoming season, while certainly featuring what seems to be a decent complement of adventurous productions, includes the Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret, a disappointingly pedestrian choice. Sure, it's an important show, but it's not exactly underperformed. And the recent Roundabout revival (justifiably) ran for 6 years, and toured extensively. It's not clear how Cabaret fits into the season of a theater company at one of the most august (not to mention well-heeled) universities in the world, other than it allows Paulus to continue to run The Donkey Show at the A.R.T.'s Zero Arrow Theater while Cabaret plays there as well. I'm hoping for more consistently imaginative programming from the A.R.T. in the future. 

But, back to Johnny Baseball, which is essentially a fictional speculation about why the Boston Red Sox didn't win a World Series from 1918 to 2004. There's been a considerable amount of chatter about whether a show about the Red Sox could move to, and play successfully in, New York City, given the team's longstanding rivalry with the New York Yankees. Well, Damn Yankees was a fairly significant hit in New York, despite the fact that the show was about someone who hated the Yankees and made a Faustian pact to bring about the team's defeat. Plus, native New Yorkers aren't the ones who make a Broadway show a hit, but rather the ticket-buying tourists. 

Alas, the point would seem to be moot, because it's not really a question of whether Johnny Baseball could play New York but rather whether it should. The show certainly features worthwhile subject matter, but as is all too often the case, that doesn't necessarily lead to compelling execution. The musical is based on the intriguing proposition that the 86-year fallow period for the Sox was based not on the famed Curse of the Bambino but rather institutional racism. Historically, the Red Sox were the last professional team to integrate blacks, some 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Again, an intriguing notion, but the show's book, by Richard Dresser (Good Vibrations), is musty and plodding, featuring clumsy dialog, hoary jokes, and maudlin sentimentality. 

Key among the book's failings is the unimaginative (but eventually justified) narrative device of having an old codger relate the story to a young kid at a pivotal Sox game. The story is told in flashback, with the focus switching between the 2004 World Series and the more distant past. The effect is jarring and deleterious to the show's effectiveness, with the present-day numbers coming off mostly as forced attempts at comic relief. It's as though Johnny Baseball can't decide which of two shows it wants to be, a lighthearted musical comedy or a searing musical play. And it winds up doing neither particularly well. 

The story features an interracial romance that becomes the motor for the rest of the plot. Colin Donnell gives a solid, sympathetic performance in the title role. As his love interest, Boston Conservatory graduate Stephanie Umoh is considerably more affecting and layered than she was in the recent Broadway revival of Ragtime. Broadway veteran Burke Moses delivers a detrimentally broad portrayal of Babe Ruth.

The score to Johnny Baseball is actually better than the book deserves, with music by Robert Reale and lyrics by Willie Reale (both of A Year With Frog and Toad). The songs are by turns tuneful, rhythmic, energetic, and -- at least in the case of most of the period numbers -- dramatically appropriate. But the book undermines the show's momentum at every turn, and not just with the present-day numbers. The story doesn't build, it flutters. In addition to the jarring back-and-forth, the show also takes a 30-year leap in the middle, which doesn't allow the drama of either time period to build properly.

Johnny Baseball is apparently a show that is still underdevelopment. There's enough promise in the premise and the score to justify continued work on the show, but there would need to be some fairly radical changes in the show's structure and dialog for there to be much hope for a sustainable future life for Johnny Baseball.

GRADE: C (Points for the ambitious subject matter, but major demerits for a diffuse and scattered book.)

NOTE: New Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations require bloggers to disclose when they accept anything of material value related to their blog posts. I received complimentary press tickets to this performance of Johnny Baseball.