Original Broadway Cast, 1987 (TER) (2 / 5) Alan Jay Lerner’s sad farewell to Broadway was this 1983 one-nighter, loosely based on Robert E. Sherwood’s 1936 drama Idiot’s Delight and updated to the Cold War era. Len Cariou stars as entertainer Harry Aikens, working in a posh hotel in the Austrian Alps with his backup trio, The Delights. He encounters the girl who got away (Liz Robertson), now passing as British and sleeping with a Kissinger-like diplomat (George Rose); they play romantic cat-and-mouse games as Europe mobilizes for World War III. Broadway audiences definitely weren’t interested in Lerner’s musings about geopolitical conflict (“We may be headin’ / For Armageddon” goes one notorious couplet). The Act II opener, “Homesick,” is a low point as The Delights wax poetic about Three Mile Island, Love Canal, and the San Andreas Fault. There’s an excruciating subplot involving two gay guys who want an Anglican bishop to marry them, leading to a group theological debate (“I Don’t Know”). But when the score by Lerner and Charles Strouse sticks to a mood of romantic disenchantment, it has a glamorous sheen, and even when the lyrics are ridiculous, Strouse’s music is alluring. Harry’s lament, “There’s Always One You Can’t Forget,” is a great number, and Cynthia’s gold-digging ways are laid out in three sleek items: “No Man Is Worth It,” “Another Life,” and “On Top of the World.” Best of all is the title tune, with its downbeat melody and live-for-the-moment lyrics. Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations are beautifully world-weary throughout. — David Barbour

Original Broadway Cast, 1955 (RCA) (4 / 5) For many musical theater buffs, Damn Yankees defines 1950s Broadway style: all-American in subject matter aria treatment, songs by the hot new team of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (whose hit The Pajama Game opened the year before), direction by old-pro George Abbott. Baseball may be the show’s surface theme, but it also deals with questions of aging and disappointment as refracted through a modern retelling of the Faust legend with a number of fantasy elements at play, including a natty but nasty devil, a suddenly young hero, and a sassy temptress. Also, the show teases audiences with a sort of April-November romance between the young man and the wife of his former, older self. That’s not to say this is a dark musical in sum; its serious notions never become grim and, midway through the first act, it’s galvanized by the brassy allure of Lola, the devil’s choice glamor girl. Gwen Verdon created the role in 1955, and Damn Yankees has been under her flame-haired spell ever since. While the original cast album can’t give us her legendary dance moves, it does present her fetching vocalism in its freshest form. “Whatever Lola Wants” is essential for the archives, and “A Little Brains, a Little Talent” is not far behind. Fortunately, the rest of the cast doesn’t fade by comparison. Stephen Douglass was one of the best Broadway baritones of his time, and he’s teamed with the appealingly homespun Meg of Shannon Bolin. Russ Brown expertly growls “Heart,” Rae Allen is up to the belting of “Shoeless Joe,” and Ray Walston reminisces amusingly in the devilish “Those Were the Good Old Days.” This first recording of Damn Yankees is an apt souvenir of a show and an era. — Richard Barrios

Film Soundtrack, 1958 (RCA) (2 / 5) Co-directed by George Abbott and cinema pro Stanley Donen, Damn Yankees didn’t fare as well on screen as the other Adler-Ross transfer, The Pajama Game. But most of the Broadway leads recreated their roles in the film, and movie star Tab Hunter makes a perfectly acceptable Joe Hardy; Hunter sounds OK here, partly because the role’s more challenging songs (“A Man Doesn’t Know” and “Near to You”) were eliminated. A feeble new tune, “There’s Something About an Empty Chair,” is sung as a solo by Shannon Bolin. Vocally, Hunter teams well with Verdon on “Two Lost Souls.” Again in blissful form, Verdon is partnered in “Who’s Got the Pain?” by future husband Bob Fosse, who choreographed Yankees (and Pajama Game) for both stage and screen. Walston is an even more snide Satan, Brown sings “Heart” with brio, and Jean Stapleton’s distinctive soprano wails in a supporting role. The soundtrack benefits from expanded orchestrations by Ray Heindorf; an instrumental cut of “Whatever Lola Wants,” used as background scoring, is especially lush. But it should be noted that the early-stereo-era sound is somewhat shallow and glassily reverberant. This, along with that dull “Chair” song, puts this enjoyable recording a notch or two below the original. — R.B.

Broadway Cast, 1994 (Mercury) (2 / 5) Perhaps Damn Yankees is too light a musical to merit a full-scale, reimagined revival in the manner of Cabaret or Carousel. Still, one might have wished for something more than the entertaining but uninspired treatment given the show in this production. In the role of Lola, Bebe Neuwirth is tireless, fun, and pert, but not great. Victor Garber makes an adequate devil without adding any new dimensions to the role. The one arresting new performer is Tony-winner Jarrod Emick, whose Young Joe winningly manages to combine Stephen Douglass’ vocal authority with Tab Hunter’s boyish charm (although Emick’s voice has more of a tenorish timbre than Douglass’s baritone). Linda Stephens is a far more youthful-sounding Meg than Shannon Bolin, so some of the poignancy of the Meg-Young Joe relationship is missing here. Vicki Lewis and seasoned pro Dick Latessa do very well with their big numbers. This is the fullest recording of Damn Yankees, with a longer Overture and the trial scene included. But having Lola sing “Two Lost Souls” with Applegate rather than with Joe Hardy makes no sense, and the numerous dialogue scenes included here do not add to the listening experience. — R.B.

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1969 (Columbia/Sony) (5 / 5) Jim Wise, George Haimsohn, and Robin Miller’s ingenious salute to the Busby Berkeley movie musicals of the early ’30s never hits a false note. The show’s spoofing is so expert and affectionate that its first production in a Greenwich Village cafe soon made its way to the Bouwerie Lane and then to the Theatre de Lys, where it ran and ran. This album replaces the show’s two-piano accompaniment with wonderful full-orchestra arrangements by Jonathan Tunick, an orchestrator as talented as the hopefuls onstage. The central joke of the original production was staging huge production numbers in a tiny space with a cast of six. Of those original players, only Bernadette Peters went on to stardom. While she’s an adorable Ruby, the others are just as expert and lovable: Tamara Long’s temperamental star; Sally Stark’s best-buddy blonde; Steve Elmore as the producer and sea captain; and David Christmas as Dick, a songwriting sailor (“Why, I can see it now! As if it were happening on this very stage!”). As Lucky, Joseph R. Sicari partners Stark nimbly in “Choo-Choo Honeymoon” and is ingratiating in “Singapore Sue.” A nod to the CD booklet’s evocative production stills and to Marc Kirkeby’s smart notes. — Marc Miller

Original London Cast, 1969 (Columbia/Sony Masterworks Broadway) (3 / 5) After its New York success, Dames at Sea quickly sped across the Atlantic, and this cast album shares some of the pluses and minuses of the later London revival recording: extra dialogue, an extra dance break or two, and orchestrations that are annoyingly thin reductions of the Jonathan Tunick originals. The cast seems to have listened to the original off-Broadway recording a fair amount, and Sheila White’s winsome, corn-fed Ruby evokes Bernadette Peters, sometimes to a scary degree. Her Dick, Blayne Barrington, is appropriately earnest and enthusiastic. William Ellis’s Lucky has a little more voice and a little less personality than Joseph Sicari’s, while with Rita Burton’s Joan, it’s vice versa. Joyce Blair, a popular U.K. leading lady, plows through Mona’s songs without much individuality; her “Beguine,” opposite Kevin Scott, doesn’t achieve the rapturous heights attained by Tamara Long and Steve Elmore. As is the case with the recordings reviewed below, this one isn’t a must-have, but it’s nice listening with some enjoyable moments.  — M.M.

Television Cast, 1971 (Kritzerland) (2 / 5) NBC-TV trotted out Dames at Sea as a starry one-hour special in 1971, with a chorus, new orchestrations, and even a smattering of new lyrics. No soundtrack album was commercially released at the time, only a promo LP. Nearly 50 years later, Kritzerland cleaned up that mono tape and released it on CD . The recording is notable for its cast, especially the three ladies: Ann-Margret (Ruby), Anne Meara (Joan), and a divinely brassy Ann Miller (Mona). Also nice to hear are Harvey Evans in a rare lead as Dick, ably supported by Fred Gwynne as Hennessy and Dick Shawn as the Captain. Elliot Lawrence conducts ably, and nobody can sell “Wall Street” or “That Mister Man of Mine” like Ann Miller. That said, the album only presents about half the score, with ultra-brief renditions of “It’s You” and “Good Times Are Here to Stay.” Anne Meara really can’t sing, and even Ann-Margret sounds rather wispy on “Raining in My Heart.” Track down a video if you can, as the show is fun to watch, but there are better Dames at Sea recordings out there. [Note: This CD also includes selections from I’m a Fan, a 1972 TV special with music by LeRoy Holmes, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, and a cast including Dick Van Dyke, Carol Channing, Donna McKechnie, Karen Morrow, and Mary Louise Wilson.] — M.M.

London Cast, 1989 (JAY) (3 / 5) It’s hard to top the original cast album of Dames at Sea, and though this recording has its pleasures, it offers no real competition. However, it does contain more dialogue — lines that are so grin-inducing, you’ll wish the original recording had more. Josephine Blake is a terrific Mona Kent, a larger-than-life cartoon of the Temperamental Star with a snarling delivery and a versatile voice. Paul Robinson is appealing as Dick, and the other men are fine, too, but Tina Doyle’s Ruby lacks individuality, and Sandra Dickinson’s squeaky-voiced Joan lacks color. Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations have been reduced and synthesized; the results have so little to do with a ’30s sound that going back to the original two-piano arrangement would have been smarter. Two chorus people have been added to the cast of six, and in a musical with a postage-stamp quality as the soul of its wit, that feels like cheating.  — M.M.