‘Bull Durham,’ the Triangle’s signature love story, is home — with surprise local star
To see “Bull Durham” performed as a musical is to watch Nuke LaLoosh moonwalk across a bar, hear Crash Davis belt out “Damn This Game” in an angry tenor and maybe take shelter when a team of lollygaggers jumps up to dance in unison — tossing their bats in the air.
In this live onstage version, Annie Savoy delivers her philosophy on quantum physics and Walt Whitman in a roadhouse-blues style, joined by a chorus of baseball widows who sing into microphones made from Budweiser bottles.
The updated dialogue features jokes about Bojangles, Greg Maddux and Fuquay-Varina, not to mention a surprise appearance from Ira David Wood III as the gravel-voiced announcer, clad in suspenders and fishing hat.
And when the show opens in Durham Friday night, the cast from Theatre Raleigh offers a gritty reimagining of the Triangle’s signature love story, faithful down to the last zinger from Annie’s “Church of Baseball” speech.
“There’s some technical choreography that involves throwing, twirling, dancing with bats,” said director Marc Bruni. “We call it ‘bat tricks.’ We haven’t had to put anybody on the disabled list.”
Much of ‘Bull Durham’ dialogue preserved
Original “Bull Durham” writer and director Ron Shelton helped adapt his screenplay for the stage about 10 years ago, preserving much of the original dialogue from “Breathe through your eyelids” down to “Rose goes in the front, big guy.”
“Some new ones didn’t make the cut,” said Shelton at Tuesday’s preview performance. “For obvious reasons.”
Favorite quotes remain almost entirely intact, but they arrive via soulful melody rather than through close-ups.
Crash’s famous “I believe” speech gets its own musical number with items added to his original list. Instead of “the small of a woman’s back and the hanging curveball,” he praises “good gin, a dry martini and public schools.”
Annie’s immortal line — “Honey, we all deserve to wear white” — also gets its own song, this time delivered by the Bulls’ wives and girlfriends who never got to appear in the movie.
In a wedding shower scene invented for the musical, bride-to-be Millie asks a question any “Bull Durham” fan can answer:
“Why’d everybody get me candlesticks?”
Nuke LaLoosh, Mitch’s Tavern and that famous bull
“Bull Durham” may have drawn lukewarm reviews in its early showings — “a solid double,” wrote The New York Times in 2014 — it shines far brighter a decade later in front of a hometown crowd.
Durham audiences will recognize the Lucky Strike water tower on the stage backdrop, along with the famous bull sign with its smoke-puffing nostrils and glowing red eyes.
During rehearsal, the Broadway performers who play the show’s lead roles got to sip drinks and mingle inside Mitch’s Tavern in Raleigh, where Crash and Nuke’s dance floor fight was filmed in the original movie.
Sitting on those same bar stools Sunday, they realized how deeply “Bull Durham” inhabits the local psyche.
“The names of the bars, the names of cocktails ...” said John Behlmann, who plays Nuke and was nominated for a Grammy for his role in “Shucked.” “I’ve been involved with this show a long time. Why didn’t we go here first?”
Behlmann’s portrayal of Nuke brings a Southern twang and an Elvis swagger to the character, and inside Mitch’s Tavern, he reveled in the chance to inhabit his character’s oblivious nature.
“Who doesn’t carry around a dark cloud of regret?” he asked. “To just be living your id and follow your impulses for two hours is great. They let us (mess) around.”
Nik Walker, who plays Crash and starred as Burr in “Hamilton,” said he sees his aging minor league character as a cowboy, written by Shelton to resemble Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name — a formidable drifter burning from the inside.
“My whole job is to be a (jerk) to this guy,” he said, motioning to “Nuke” inside Mitch’s. “To take the (pee) out of every scene and (mess) with everybody — all of these excellent actors and incredible lines. There’s just something about Durham, Just to be able to sit and chill, enjoy a good beer, enjoy a good whiskey, and give (a hard time) to your friend, and to do that where this all actually happened.”
Crash Davis wants you to have fun
The obvious challenge in transforming a movie riddled with catchphrases and favorite quotes involves making a fresh piece of art while preserving what audiences love about the 36-year-old classic.
There will be purists who balk at ball players doing pirouettes, or the team’s pre-Wool E. Bull mascot turning cartwheels onstage.
But perhaps they are thinking too much, which can only hurt enjoyment.
To paraphrase Crash himself, ‘This show is fun, OK? Fun, (gosh darn it)!”
How to see ‘Bull Durham’ at Duke University
Theatre Raleigh’s production of “Bull Durham” runs Sept. 13-22 at Reynolds Industries Theater on the Duke University campus.
Ticket prices vary and can be purchased here or at www.theatreraleigh.com/bull-durham.
This story was originally published September 13, 2024 at 5:30 AM.