Highland Stage Presents Damn Yankees

VERNON — Since the Highland Stage Company was founded in 1997 by William Donald, the tradition of putting on a summer show has been maintained by manager and producing director Heather Hamilton Burns and co-director/musical director Faith Anderson.
Their first time introducing "Damn Yankees", the company branches on the more traditional side of the scale with a cast of about 50 — far from the more modern Footloose the Highland Stage presented last summer.
In this Faustian musical tale, West Milford High School graduate Joseph Bellina plays Joe Boyd, a middle-aged man obsessed with baseball and dissatisfied with his life. Boyd, seeking to win the pennant for his beloved team the Washington Senators and beat the “damn Yankees,” sells his soul to the devil, who operates under the alias, Mr. Applegate.
Boyd’s youth is restored and he becomes Joe Hardy, a 22-year-old home-run hitter and Boyd’s alter-ego.
“The show is about overcoming change and switching between perspectives,” Bellina said.
Megan Johnson, also a recent graduate from the same high school, is portraying Boyd’s wife, Meg. She will attend Ithaca College in the fall for acting. This is her 22nd show.
“It’s been a challenge because of the age difference, but Meg is a lovely character,” Johnson said. “Joseph and I were co-leads together in our senior high school show, Young Frankenstein. He played Dr. Frederick Frankenstein and I played his love interest, Inga.”
“We’ve got a talented cast we’re lucky to have," Anderson said. "They’re a musically intelligent group of people. Damn Yankees is an all-American musical, and traditionalism is pleasing to audiences. Why would there be so many revivals if the classics weren’t still so popular?”
The production features the lively numbers, “Heart,” “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo,” “A Little Brains, a Little Talent,” “Whatever Lola Wants,” “The Game,” “Two Lost Souls,” and many others!
Recent Vernon High School graduate Dominick Gonzalez, who will be attending the AMDA Conservatory in New York for a B.F.A. in performing arts this fall, plays the sneaky salesman Mr. Applegate — the Devil in disguise.
Emerging from his most recent role as the stuck-up phonetics professor Henry Higgins in his high school musical My Fair Lady this past spring.
“You can’t think of Applegate as the bad guy,” Gonzalez said. “I like to think of it the way actor Christoph Waltz puts it, roughly: every character has rationale, reason and logic behind his/her actions. Satan knows he’s evil, but he also understands it’s for a reason. He needs Joe’s soul, and that’s the objective.”
Recent Union City High School graduate Mariajesus Valdes, is Lola, the Devil’s seductive assistant. A dancer of seven years, Valdes intends to pursue acting.
“Lola is 172 years old," she said. "She was the ugliest woman in Providence, Rhode Island. She sold her soul to Applegate to be forever beautiful. It’s hard for us girls nowadays with the constant pressure to always ‘look good.’ I can understand Lola’s motive to want to feel accepted and have the quote-on-quote perfect body. Plus, she represents every woman that’s ever fallen for a man that didn’t share the same feeling. Lola falls for Joe, who loves his wife. I’ve never been a seductress before in a role, so I want to show audiences I can be fearless.”
All performances begin at 7 p.m. at Vernon Township High School (1832 County Rd 565 in Glenwood, N.J. 07418) on the following dates: Friday, July 29, Saturday July 30, Thursday, Aug. 4, Friday, Aug. 5, and Saturday, Aug. 6.
Tickets ($15 for adults and $10 for students, seniors and children) can be purchased at the door before each show. On Thursday, Aug. 4, senior citizens pay only $8.00.
This year’s stage manager is Kira Gumbinger, a sophomore at the County College of Morris studying stage managing and lighting design. Jon Hartlage has been the orchestra conductor for the company since 2003 and looks forward to this summer’s performances. Co-director and full-time teacher/choreographer at Ziegler Dance Centre, Renee Ziegler-Schmidt, choreographed the show.