Johnny Baseball May 14, 2010

After the Red Sox’s stunning collapse in the 2003 playoffs, a baseball-obsessed team of musical theater writers (one long-suffering Sox fan and two smug yet oddly sympathetic Yankees fans) began searching for the source of Red Sox’s infamous Curse. Their journey yielded surprising conclusions and a clever new musical. Johnny Baseball is an exhilarating blend of fact, fiction, and the mystical power of the game. It traces the origin of the Curse to a collision of three orphaned souls: Johnny O’Brien, a hard-luck right-hander on the 1919 Sox; his idol, Babe Ruth; and Daisy Wyatt, a dazzling African American blues singer and the love of Johnny’s life. The entanglements of love, friendship, and betrayal in these lives contain both the reason for the Curse and the secret to its end off the bat of Big Papi in 2004. Johnny Baseball packs a thoughtful commentary on American social history into a funny, heartfelt and spirited musical that will bring cheers and tears to baseball fans everywhere.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.americanrepertorytheater.org, by phone at 617-547-8300, or in person at the A.R.T. box office. Group rates, $20 student rush and $10 off senior discount rates are also available.

Shows times are: Tues, Wed, Thurs 7:30pm; Fri 8pm; Sat 2pm & 8pm; Sun 2pm & 7:30pm

Official Website: http://www.amrep.org/events/show/johnny-baseball