1955 DAMN YANKEES LP * CAST SIGNED * 29 AUTOGRAPHS * All 5 Tony Noms & Winners

$

35

1955 DAMN YANKEES LP * CAST SIGNED! * 29 AUTOGRAPHS! * All 5 Tony Noms & Winners

DAMN YANKEES
Original Cast Recording
1955 / RCA Victor LOC-1021
Original 12" LP Vinyl Record

Condition: Jacket is split along top and bottom edge, still hinged at spine. Front surface is quite clean and bright although some signatures are rubbed. Chip out at lower right edge. Record is lightly played and comes in original glassine as show.

Rather stunning cast signed album featuring 29 autographs plus one mystery signature.

All 5 actor Tony Award nominees and winners have signed plus the musical director Tonny Award winner.

The album came out after the original cast had been altered, but 17 performers and 3 crew from the original cast have signed.

The show opened on May 5, 1955 and the album appears in Billboard for the first time on August 6, 1955. The show closed on October 12, 1957.

Here is a list of signatures
-- original cast amd crew members have an asterisk

Gwen Verdon * (Tony Winner - Best Actress in a Musical)
Ray Walston * (Tony Winner - Best Actor in a Musical)
Russ Brown * (Tony Winner - Best Featured Actor in a Musical)
Stephen Douglass * (Tony Nominee - Best Actor in a Musical)
Rae Allen * (Tony Nominee - Best Featured Actress in a Musical)
Janie Janvier *
Shannon Bolin *
Elizabeth Howell *
Nathaniel Frey *
Del Horstmann *
Jeanne Grant *
Janet Hayes *
Joan Keenan *
Marie Kolin *
Al Lanti *
Lynn Ross *
Margot Feldman *
William Joyce *
Hal Hastings * music director (Tony Winner - Musical Director)
Fred Hearn * stage manager
James Hammerstein * stage manager

Bob Dishy (in his Broadway debut)
Bill Adams
Barbara Williams
Anita Webb
Ellen Beach
Penny Ann Green
Janyce Ann Wagner
Dorothy Richards

"Damn Yankees" is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League Baseball. The musical is based on Wallop's novel "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant."

The show ran for 1,019 performances in its original 1955 Broadway production. Adler and Ross's success with The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees seemed to point to a bright future for them, but Ross suddenly died of chronic bronchiectasis, at the age of twenty-nine, a few months after Damn Yankees opened.

The producers Harold Prince, Robert Griffith, and Frederick Brisson had decided that the lead actress for the part of "Lola" had to be a dancer. They offered the role to both the movie actress Mitzi Gaynor and ballet dancer Zizi Jeanmaire, each of whom turned down the role. Although Gwen Verdon had sung just one song in her previous show (Can-Can), the producers were willing to take a chance on her. She initially refused, preferring to assist another choreographer, but finally agreed. Choreographer Bob Fosse insisted on meeting her before working with her, and after meeting and working for a brief time, they each agreed to the arrangement.

All photographs are of actual item.

Full refunds cheerfully given for any item that I have misdescribed.