‘Bronx Bombers’: Yankees move to Broadway

YESTERYEAR’S HEROES: (left) John Wernke as Lou Gehrig, (background) Chris Henry Coffey as Joe DiMaggio & (right) Bill Dawes as Mickey Mantle. Photo: Joan Marcus

By David NouNou

Eric Simonson is quickly becoming America’s premier sports playwright of the 21st century, but then you have to ask yourself how many others are there in the running? He tackled football in Lombardi, attempted a three-point shot in basketball with Magic/Bird, and now is teetering on one ball, two strikes in baseball, Bronx Bombers.

I enjoyed Lombardi and really liked Magic/Bird, not only as sports plays but as two biographical dramas with a direct narrative and tension. There were thought-out ideas that worked in the confines of a stage. There were also central characters that were fleshed out as people with ambitions and flaws, thus making them believable. So when you have Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Elston Howard, Thurman Munson, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin and Derek Jeter all on the same stage and at the same time, one expects a revelation or the second coming to take place. Do you know how disappointing it is to find out their only commonality is that they were and are all legendary Yankees?

No one can ever dispute the fact that the New York Yankees head the roster of the all-time greatest legendary icons of baseball. However, having icons in a play does not a show or story make. Act I is set in 1977 in a Boston hotel room in which Yogi Berra (Peter Scolari) is trying to remediate an argument that took place earlier between Reggie Jackson (Francois Battiste) and manager Billy Wilson (Keith Nobbs). All this upheaval causes him much stress about teamwork and the future of the Yankees.

Act II is a dream sequence with all the above-mentioned legends attending the same banquet dinner dream; now that is one hell of a dream; from Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig up to Mickey Mantle and Derek Jeter. Wow, man, now that is orgasmic; they are all there to comfort Yogi and let him know that it will all be okay, even in the new Yankee Stadium. As one era ends, another starts and the fans will always be there because, after all “tomorrow is another day” and baseball is the national pastime. One can’t help but wonder what happened during intermission from a hotel room in 1977 to a soup course in a dream sequence.

Now it’s okay to be reverential of iconic heroes, but you also have to have a story that legitimately brings all these people together. Unfortunately, there is nothing that connects the two acts. Peter Scolari is affable as Yogi Berra. However, the standouts are Francois Battiste as Reggie Jackson, Bill Dawes as Munson/Mantle, John Wernke as Gehrig and C.J.Wilson as Babe Ruth.

As you walk in the lobby of the Circle in the Square, the walls are festooned with pictures of all these legendary Yankees and it is a thrill to see them hanging there. One can’t help but be mesmerized by the aura of these legends. However, when the show ends and you are walking out of the auditorium, one can’t help but wonder what did they have to do with the show?

BASEBALL DREAM: (left to right) Christopher Jackson, Francois Battiste, Peter Scolari & CJ Wilson. Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published February 6, 2014
Reviewed at  press performance on February 1, 2014