CURTIS BROWN
Nik Walker stars in “Bull Durham” at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, through Nov. 2.
Like the 1988 movie it is based on, the “Bull Durham” musical — currently making its New Jersey debut at The Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn — is a both a love story, and a love letter.
The love story has to do with a female minor-league baseball fan in Durham, North Carolina, who has to choose between two players — a seen-it-all veteran, and a hot young prospect. But “Bull Durham” is also a love letter to baseball itself: Something that appears, at first, to be an escape from life, but then becomes larger than life. Something that can make you feel like a kid again, but can also break your heart. The national pastime, the field of dreams.
The musical begins with a song titled “The Church of Baseball.” And, no, that is not meant as a joke.
There isn’t much suspense in the story: following rom-com convention, you know how everything is going to end, right away, even if you haven’t seen the movie. And while composer/lyricist Susan Werner (a veteran recording artist and touring singer-songwriter who is making her first attempt at a musical here) has produced a batch of songs that are consistently clever and melodically engaging, she doesn’t really come up with the kind of show-stopper that could put this musical over the top.
But there are some nice surprises along the way, including an on-field brawl that takes a wild twist, and the three lead actors (supported by about 20 others) are all excellent. This “Bull Durham” is no revelation: I can’t honestly say that I was blown away. But I wasn’t disappointed either. It’s a reliably entertaining, feel-good kind of show.
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Carmen Cusack in “Bull Durham.”
Ron Shelton, who wrote and directed the film, also wrote the book for the musical. A former minor-league baseball player himself, Shelton fills the story with lines that make it obvious he has spent a lot of time around the game, with references to things like “dying quails” (a weakly hit fly ball that somehow becomes a hit) and the 1965 Frank-Robinson-for-Milt-Pappas trade (both were All-Stars, and while Robinson continued to play at that level, Pappas didn’t). It rings true when a manager, calling a player into his office to let him knows he is being released, starts by glumly saying, “This is the toughest job a manager has …”
Marc Bruni is the director; my only criticism of him is that he sometimes lets the orchestra drown out the singers. Joshua Bergasse handles the choreography, and smartly emphasizes the strutting athleticism of the ballplayer/dancers.
Two-time Tony nominee (for “Bright Star” and “Flying Over Sunset”) Carmen Cusack plays Annie (the Susan Sarandon part in the movie), giving her enough sass and confidence to make her dazzling, but enough vulnerability to make her relatable. Annie teaches English at a community college, and never misses a game by her local minor league team, The Durham Bulls. She is more than a fan: She is a student of the game, so serious about it that she monitors the pitchers’ velocity with her own radar gun.
She also has a relationship with one player per season, in which she serves as both on-field mentor and off-field lover.
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Will Savarese, left, and Nik Walker in “Bull Durham.”
The musical starts of the beginning of the baseball season, when she is trying to decide which player it will be. One possibility is Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh, a young, immature pitcher who is the team’s top prospect. Another is Crash Davis, a veteran catcher who spent a few weeks, once, in the majors, but has been unable to get back, and is now nearing the end of the career. He has been signed by the Bulls to help give Nuke the seasoning he needs.
Nuke represents the unknown, scary future; Crash is the wizened, no-nonsense traditionalist. “I believe you should only open Christmas presents on Christmas morning/Never on Christmas Eve,” he sings in his statement-of-purpose, “I Believe.”
Will Savarese is appropriately wide-eyed and gangly as Nuke (played in the movie by Tim Robbins), while Nik Walker projects the necessary gravitas as Crash (played in the movie by Kevin Costner), and sings in a supple, seductive tenor.
When Annie lets both characters know they are “finalists” for her relationship, this year, Nuke is game, but Crash opts out. “I’m not interested in a woman who’s interested in that boy,” he says, before marching out of her home. So she goes with Nuke, making it clear that she is only interested in sex and baseball, not love.
Crash is right, he’s just a boy. But Crash — who is surprisingly well read for a minor league baseball player — is the kind of man Annie could possibly build something more substantial with.
The Bulls are awful at the start of the season. But Nuke starts pitching well, and they go on a winning streak. “Winning is better than losing,” everyone sings in Act 1’s closing production number, “Winning” — the sentiment is true enough, but a little too obvious to really work as a song’s refrain.
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The Durham Bulls’ mascot.
The winning continues. But if Nuke gets called up to the majors, it is pretty clear he will leave Annie behind and never look back. Also, there will be no reason for the team to keep Crash; he is only there to help Nuke.
Meanwhile, there is a subplot involving an unlikely love affair between the ardently religious ballplayer Jimmy (Andrew Poston) and Millie (Ashlyn Maddox), a promiscuous young baseball fan who decides she wants to change her ways.
Manager Skip (James Moye), coach Larry (Joel Asher) and radio broadcaster Uncle Roy Tuck (Nick Wyman) reminisce about the old days in the charming song, “Pensacola.” Annie, Millie and their friends celebrate Millie’s upcoming wedding in the fun, upbeat “Every Woman Deserves to Wear White.” Benny Elledge is great as a pugnacious umpire in the aforementioned brawl scene.
Shelton evokes the folksy delivery of small-town baseball radio broadcasters; and the way players learn to give bland, noncommittal answers in interviews (e.g., “I’m just happy to be here and hope I can help the ballclub”). He also has the team’s bull mascot start the second act by leading the crowd in “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
Corny? Sure. But it works. This “Bull Durham” is proudly old-fashioned, in a lot of good ways.
The Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn will present “Bull Durham” through Nov. 2. Visit papermill.org.
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