Show Summary

Yank! is a love song to Hollywood's "it takes one of every kind" platoon flicks and to 1940s Broadway. Yank! tells the story of a war reporter named Stu and an army private named Mitch who fall in love and struggle to survive in a time and place where the odds are stacked against them. Suffused with period songs (swing, big band, boogie-woogie), it explores what stories get told in wartime, and how WWII became the great catalyst in bringing gay men and women together.

Reviews for Yank!

The old-fashioned musical is neither dying nor in need of saving…if you love Golden Age-style musical romances, you can still find them - if you know where to look. Right now, that place is Brooklyn, where The Gallery Players…. [Yank! is] a touching and oh-so-tuneful look at a side of World War II we seldom see…”
- TalkinBroadway.com

“An old-fashioned musical with a contemporary, socially conscious sensibility.” - TheaterMania

“Yank! overlays a modern gay sensibility on a typical wartime crew to illustrate the sheer hell, internal and external, gay soldiers endured….More-complex emotions than many musicals allow are present.” - Back Stage

“If you’re looking for a well-crafted, gay-positive musical that’s sexy and heartfelt, you’ll have to look long and far to find anything as terrific as Yank!” - NEXT Magazine

“Yank! is one of the most heartening theatrical experiences in years….The choreography of thisshow is brilliant….The show never apologizes for its honesty…at the end of Yank! the audience (including me) was on its feet.” - The Brooklyn Paper

“Yank! is moving, heartbreaking, funny, lyrical, endearing, and painful….” - Q Onstage

“Joseph and David Zellnik serve up a beautifully composed, entertaining slice of our secret history. But because they tell this coming out story with such rich historical and psychological detail, Yank! engages fundamental questions of love, citizenship and cultural belonging, beyond the obvious audience of lesbians and gay men….Yank! is poised to become a musical of real stature.” - nytheatre.com

“It would be a pity to miss a show as lovely as David and Joseph Zellnik’s Yank!….Tender, touching and funny…Yank! is a delightful musical.” - Off-Off Broadway Review

David and Joe Zellnik have collaborated on the musicals First in Flight: The Wright Brothers for TheaterworksUSA, which toured the country to raves in 2004-05, and City of Dreams, which was performed at the first International Music Theatre Festival (Cardiff, Wales 2002), the Midtown International Theatre Festival (New York, 2002), and which won the National Music Theatre Network competition in 2003. Two songs from City of Dreams appear on Alison Fraser's album Men In My Life.

David Zellnik is the author of numerous plays, most recently Serendib (Ensemble Studio Theatre, 2007) and Ariel Sharon Hovers Between Life and Death and Dreams of Theodor Herzl (Theatre J, Washington DC 2007). Previous plays include Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom (2001 OOBR award, AllOutArtsBest Play 2000, and currently optioned for film by Rob Ahrens of Xanadu) and Killing Hand (EST Marathon, 1998). He is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre and was a founding member of Youngblood.

In addition to composing, Joe Zellnik has collaborated with his sister on the historical mysteries Murder at the Portland Variety and A Death at the Rose Paperworks (both from Midnight Ink). He is currently at work on his first solo novelistic effort.

Igor Goldin has directed David and Joseph Zellnik's Yank!, The Chocolate Tree (National Alliance for Musical Theatre, New World Stages with Cady Huffman and Christopher Sieber), Unlock’d (NYMF 2007 Best In Fest Award; Outstanding New Musical 2007 - Talkin' Broadway Summer Theatre Festival Citation), the all-star concert My First Time (New World Stages), Common Grounds (NYMF 2006 Award for Excellence in Direction), Yank! (NYMF 2005 - Outstanding New Musical 2005 - Talkin' Broadway; NYMF Audience Award - 1st runner up), and many others including Violet, The Spitfire Grill, The Full Monty and The Complete History of America (abridged). Igor is an on-going director of musical theatre industry showcases at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. He is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Creative Team

Amy Biedel	Zachary Bryant	Jacob Caltrider	Rocky DeHaro
Eric Dowdy	Tom Doyle	Juston Harlin	Tony Houck
Trevor Peringer	Sven Salumaa	John Whitley	Tom Zohar

 

Press Photos

Pictured: (l-r) Tom Doyle and Tom Zohar from Yank! The Musical. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.	Pictured: (l-r) Tom Zohar and Tom Doyle from Yank! The Musical. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.
Pictured: The men from Yank! The Musical. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.	Pictured: The cast of Yank! The Musical. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.
Pictured: The cast of Yank! The Musical. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.	Pictured: (l-r) Tom Zohar and Tom Doyle from Yank! The Musical. Photo credit: Barron Henzel.
Pictured: (l-r) Tom Doyle and Tom Zohar from Yank! The Musical. Photo credit: Barron Henzel.	Pictured: The men from Yank! The Musical. Photo credit: Barron Henzel.
Pictured: The men from Yank! The Musical. Photo credit: Barron Henzel.	Pictured: The men from Yank! The Musical. Photo credit: Barron Henzel.

Press Release

Diversionary lands new musical "Yank!" for summer production

Diversionary production is West Coast Premiere

Diversionary Theatre will produce the new musical Yank! as the first show of its 2008-2009 season, running July 10-August 17. Yank! has book and lyrics by David Zellnik and music by Joe Zellnik. Igor Goldin will direct as well as recreate Jeffry Denman's original choreography, and San Diegan Amy Dalton will be music director. “We are very excited to welcome David, Joe and Igor to San Diego and to Diversionary,” said Dan Kirsch, Diversionary’s Executive & Artistic Director. “We are very honored that the New York creative team has chosen Diversionary for their first full regional production.” Yank! will be an official event of San Diego LGBT Pride (July 19-20).

Yank! is a love song to Hollywood's "it takes one of every kind" platoon flicks and to 1940s Broadway. Yank! tells the story of a war reporter named Stu and an army private named Mitch who fall in love and struggle to survive in a time and place where the odds are stacked against them. Suffused with period songs (swing, big band, boogie-woogie), it explores what stories get told in wartime, and how WWII became the great catalyst in bringing gay men and women together.

Diversionary's cast will feature Amy Biedel, Zachary Bryant, Jacob Caltrider, Rocky DeHaro, Eric Dowdy, Tom Doyle, Juston Harlin, Tony Houck, Trevor Peringer, Sven Salumaa, John Whitley and Tom Zohar.

The Zellnik brothers and Goldin have just completed two developmental readings of Yank! in New York, hosted by The York Theatre Company, preparing for a possible Off-Broadway production in 2008-2009. Yank! was performed at Brooklyn’s The Gallery Players last fall, the first new book musical that theatre had produced in a generation, garnering enthusiastic reviews, sold out crowds and the production was recently nominated for a GLAAD Media Award. Previously, the show was at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2005 where it had a completely sold out run and won an audience award for Best Musical. Both productions were directed by Goldin, who also will recreate Jeffry Denman’s original choreography from the Brooklyn production at Diversionary. Diversionary will present the West Coast premiere. Diversionary is pleased to present Yank! in association with The Gallery Players, sharing costumes created by Tricia Barsamian for the Brooklyn production as well as properties and other materials.

Yank! gets it title from Yank Magazine, which grew to become the most widely read and most popular magazine in the history of the U.S. Army. By the end of World War II, twenty-three various editions of Yank Magazine had been published. At the height of the magazine's operations, there were printing presses in Honolulu, Cairo, Tokyo, Okinawa, Rome, Trinidad, Saipan and other places, and the weekly achieved a worldwide circulation of 2,600,000. It is thought to have been read by ten million. The magazine, which was staffed entirely by enlisted soldiers, printed its last issue in December 1945, realizing for the War Department a profit of $1,000,000.

“While all the characters in Yank! are fictional, all of the situations and viewpoints come directly from memoirs and oral histories of gay (and straight) service members who took part in WWII,” said playwright David Zellnik. David spent hundreds of hours combing archives, researching these "hidden" histories, even having letters sent to him from around the country from old veterans or their families. Now as this generation begins to slip irrevocably into history, the Yank! team remains dedicated to the hope that their experiences will not be forgotten. Other inspirations came from Allan Berube's Coming Out Under Fire: the History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two; interviews by Studs Terkel for The Good War; and Evan Bachner’s Men of WW II: Fighting Men at Ease. Song clips, production history and more can be found at www.yankthemusical.com.

A review on TheaterMania of The Gallery Players production said, “The Zellnik brothers have crafted an old-fashioned musical with a contemporary, socially conscious sensibility. The terrific score manages the difficult feat of invoking the musical styles of the era without sounding completely derivative. The haunting "Remembering You" could easily have gotten radio play in the 1940s, and the tuner pays tribute to the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and other tunesmiths.”

Diversionary Theatre was started in 1986. The mission of the theatre is to produce plays with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender themes that portray characters in their complexity and diversity both historically and contemporarily.

Yank! will preview on July 10 and 11, and open on Saturday, July 12 and run through Sunday, August 17. Performance times are: Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday & Saturday at 8:00pm, Sunday at 2:00 & 7:00pm, and a Monday, July 28 performance at 7:30pm. Single tickets are now on sale. For information, call the Diversionary box office at 619.220.0097 or log on to www.diversionary.org.

The City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture provides major support for Diversionary Theatre.

Reviews

Pat Launer’s Center Stage
KSDS Jazz 88.3
July 25, 2008

Diversionary Theatre - Yank!
Listen to the radio broadcast here
http://www.jazz88.org/centerStage.php

Atten-hut! Listen up, you guys! There’s a new musical in town, and this is an order. See it. On the double.

Okay, here’s your briefing…

”Yank!” tells a story that’s been kept in the closet for years -- the untold tale of gays in the military during the second world war. The show takes its title from the most popular publication in U.S. Army history, a morale-boosting weekly magazine that was written by soldiers, for soldiers.

The musical was created by a couple of Jersey Boys, the brothers Zellnik: Joseph composed the score, which is very much in the style of ‘40s pop songs and movie musicals, and David wrote the funny, poignant book and clever lyrics. Consider it an old-fashioned romance with a contemporary spin. The love interest develops between a wimpy Yank magazine photographer and a handsome, macho guy who can’t quite adjust to who and what he really is. I guarantee you’ll get caught up in this heart-rending show that’s Off Broadway-bound after this West coast premiere.

The framing device is a 60 year-old journal kept by that Yank photographer, found in a bookstore remainder bin by a modern-day San Franciscan. Though the diary isn’t real, all the characters and situations are based on memoirs and oral histories of actual service members, both gay and straight. Making it all the more real, the Diversionary Theatre lobby is adorned with photos and memories from gay San Diego veterans of several conflagrations, from World War II to Iraq, Vietnam to Afghanistan. One soldier is sketched by her partner in silhouette, since she’s still active military and can’t risk exposure.

So, it’s an old story, and a current one, and it’s excellently told. The music is lively and evocative. I didn’t go out singing any one song, but I left feeling touched and moved. Also sad and angry that, after all these years, the closet is still pretty tightly closed, and some folks still believe gays in the military undermine the effectiveness of our armed forces.

But meanwhile, back at Diversionary, there’s plenty of laughter and fun to be had. The 12-member ensemble is talented and energetic, though several are stronger dramatically than vocally. At the center, Tom Zohar is irresistible as Stu, the pansy who can barely wield a weapon, but puts himself on the frontlines, just to be near his beloved. His indecisive darling is appealingly played by Tom Doyle. Amy Biedel is a knockout in a bevy of roles, from torch singer to butch officer. Her costumes and wigs look great. The set and musical accompaniment are simple but effective. Director Igor Goldin, who’s been with the show since its inception, keeps the action sharp and comical.

All right, you guys. If you’re not at Diversionary Theatre by 1900 hours, it’s latrine duty for a month. Got it? Get going. Company dismissed.

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CRITIC'S CHOICE

San Diego Union-Tribune
THEATER REVIEW
Big cast and a big sound underscore 'Yank!'
By James Hebert
THEATER CRITIC
July 14, 2008

You have to be a little mad to stage a musical: all those moving parts, all those dancing feet, all those actors breaking into sudden song and trying to sell such antics as rational human behavior.

By that clinical measure, here's the word on “Yank!”: It's just about crazy good. Diversionary Theatre's season opener might not be the most adventurous or spectacle-heavy or pop-hit-laden musical to hit the boards, but its understated feel serves to underline a show that's funny, moving and true.

This is the West Coast premiere for “Yank!” which debuted at the New York Music Theatre Festival in 2005 and then ran at Gallery Players in Brooklyn last year (with talk of a possible off-Broadway staging down the road).

Diversionary doesn't do a lot of musicals, but this was a smart pick, and a coup for the theater: a polished piece that fits the gay-and lesbian-centered company's big-hearted, socially conscious approach as well as its retro jones (the last two productions there were both set in the '50s). The title makes the work sound like some abbreviated ode to George M. – a Cohan koan? – but “Yank!” actually is named for a magazine that circulated among U.S. service members during World War II.

That military campaign forms the backdrop for the story of a tumultuous romance between two young servicemen, Stu (Tom Zohar) and Mitch (Tom Doyle), who are sent to the Pacific to fight the enemy but are as much at war with themselves over matters of sexual identity.

The moral dictates of the time lend added tension to their tortured relationship, since being found out means a long stint in the brig (or worse). But while “Yank!” offers some cause for “How far we've come” sorts of sentiments, the show also makes it hard to conclude that the modern military's “Don't ask, don't tell” gospel is, by comparison, a model of enlightened thinking.

Except in the broadest terms of tolerance and acceptance, though, this is not a message show. With its snappy humor, period dialogue and perfectly diverse assemblage of characters, it takes after those old war movies that reveled in throwing together ragtag bands of guys to bond in battle.

For Zohar, “Yank!” represents a major step forward. He's been a frequent (and frequently memorable) presence at Diversionary, New Village Arts and other stages over the past couple of years, but here he's carrying a show for the first time – and doing his first musical to boot.

It turns out he can sing, and even seem natural in the process. His voice has a classic, screen-idol feel to it that's an ideal fit for this show, which overall showcases a good, consistent blend of voices, without any becoming overpowering.

Doyle makes a good vocal match for Stu as Mitch; he doesn't have quite the rakish, devastating air that his nickname, “Hollywood,” might suggest, but as the relationship between the pair deepens, his character's pain and confusion feel raw and genuine.

Zachary Bryant as the hick nicknamed “Tennessee” shines in a meaty role as Stu and Mitch's chief antagonist. Their buddies in Charlie Company – played by Juston Harlin, Sven Salumaa and Rocky DeHaro – are also good (although DeHaro's Sicilian soldier, Rotelli, might be a bit too pungent a caricature even for this type-minded play). Eric Dowdy has some standout comic scenes as Artie, the Yank magazine reporter who senses a kindred spirit in Stu and hires him as a photographer.

At 12 members, it's a big cast for Diversionary, but New York-based director Igor Goldin, who stages the show with a deft sense of flow, has the actors working in close harmony.

Speaking of which: Joseph Zellnik's score is dotted with winning ensemble numbers that showcase a knockout blend of voices. Some of the songs seem to take their cues from a decade or two before World War II, though there's a clear influence of big band and swing. Amy Biedel, the only female cast member, also steps up with a couple of moody torch songs (along with a funny turn as a tough emissary from Army brass). Pianist and musical director Amy Dalton and percussionist Nathan Hubbard, unseen behind Goldin's exceedingly simple set of rolling, olive-drab flats, breathe warmth into the evocative score.

Writer David Zellnik, who also penned the lyrics, opens and closes with a framing device that elegantly captures the poignance of the story. He introduces a modern-day San Franciscan (also played by Zohar) who has discovered Stu's tattered wartime journal in a junk store and has become fascinated with its contents and long-lost author. It's an effective way to connect our time with that long-ago wartime.

There's one other era invoked in “Yank!” if only for laughs. Tony Houck, Trevor Peringer and John Whitley, soldiers who work in the steno pool, have a taste for drag that runs particularly to the Old South of “Gone With the Wind.” (They even call themselves Melanie, Scarlett and India.) These three sweetly comic misfits, who can only dream of a time when they might find a bit of societal acceptance, would be the first to remember the words spoken by a certain Southern belle: Tomorrow is another day.

James Hebert: (619) 293-2040; jim.hebert@uniontrib.com

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CRITIC'S PICK

San Diego Reader
Yank! review
July 13, 2008
By Jeff Smith

Gays in the military - in World War II. David and Joseph Zellnik's musical begins today, in San Francisco. A young man finds a battered diary kept by a soldier named Stu. Amid torn and missing pages, the diary's heartfelt and sketchy. The young man wonders who Stu was and why he wrote some sections in code. In a flashback, the young man becomes Stu, and the musical moves from basic training, in WWII, to the Pacific front. Stu discovers his sexuality, falls for a solider named Mitch, and faces extreme consequences. Unlike Stars and Stripes, which was mostly propaganda and puff pieces, Yank! was a magazine written "by the servicemen, for the servicemen" and boasted a more realistic account of the war. The musical unfolds from Stars and Stripes optimism in Act one to unvarnished, Yank! themes in Act two. The book, especially the longish first act, could use a trim (it tries to cover so much ground that lulls result). But the tight, flashy, and moving Diversionary Theatre production is outstanding. Director Igor Goldin has staged the musical before, and it shows in the precision of scenes, in his choreography, and in the confidence of his ensemble cast. Accompanied by pianist Amy Dalton and percussionist Nathan Hubbard, they break into rousing, WWII buddy numbers in Act one, and more plaintive, torch-like songs in Act two. The design's so simple - screens, like upright trampolines, move and change locales - it's eloquent. There are no weak links in the ensemble, but two performances stand way out. Tom Zohar shines as Stu, he sings and dances with pizzaz and combines vulnerability with a quietly fierce courage. Decked out in Jennifer Brawn Gitting's stunning costumes and Missy Bradstreet's voluminous wigs, Amy Biedel plays a dozen women, sings wondrously (especially the haunting "Blue Twilight"), and alone is worth twice the price of admission.

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BEST BET

San Diego CityBeat
Balancing acts
Diversionary’s fun Yank! is as good a show as it is an idea
By Martin Jones Westlin
Wednesday, July 15, 2008

If you’ve already seen Yank!, Diversionary Theatre’s current musical and season opener, there’s a chance that the first scene of Act II—a hilarious send-up of every wartime drama film ever made—is your most vivid memory. A squeaky-clean young nurse listens to a litany of hopes from a doe-eyed, terminally wounded enlistee; but here, she’s all sweetness and light as her patient meets his end, warbling the war effort’s praises amid her mind-numbing banter and Pollyanna smile. Lights flicker at the scene, as if an ancient projector’s in play. That touch of low camp, and actor Amy Biedel’s sensational singing voice, make this the single best part of the show.

Some might say the bit suffers from overkill (what, pray tell, is a combat movie doing in a play set in World War II?). Then again, Yank!, like Broadway’s The Producers, is outstanding at exploiting its own excesses—if war is humanity at its worst, both shows say, then overkill will eventually give way to the truths behind its unseen stories. In Yank!’s case, that trait is the vehicle for a piece about gay wartime relationships and the men who forged them, a piece also eager to flash its serious side on a dime. A critical anticlimactic scene seriously overplays its hand; get past that, and you’re looking at a West Coast premiere that balances concept and execution pretty damn well.

David Zellnik’s script was inspired by real-life histories from World War II servicemembers, with war correspondent Stu (Tom Zohar) at the show’s fictional center. He and a private named Mitch (Tom Doyle) fall in love as duty calls; their fellow soldiers catch wise to the relationship over the course of a year, with the brass taking the matter in hand prior to the assault on Iwo Jima. Zellnik keeps things light amid his portrayals of all things masculine and feminine; he makes sure that lots of sexual tendencies dot his script, from those of the down-home, prickly Tennessee (a great Zachary Bryant) to the prissy India (played by Trevor Peringer, who always seems to have a ball with his female-charged roles). The choreography, which director Igor Goldin patterned after that of Broadway song-and-dance man Jeffry Denman, carefully takes typecasting into account, and that’s one reason innocuous numbers like “Polishing Shoes” and “Your Squad is Your Squad” are such fun.

It’s too bad Zellnik and Goldin couldn’t have found a way around Stu’s treatment behind closed doors. Near the end, the character is stripped to his civvies and beaten by the MPs at his side; and while that scene may reflect wartime reality, its literal nature does nothing for our imaginations. This is where Corpus Christi, which closed Diversionary’s prior season, broke down—the Crucifixion was spoon-fed to us in an anticlimax that took the better part of two acts to set up, and Yank! stumbles in almost identical fashion. And to boot, Zohar’s baby face is often at odds with his character.

But whereas Corpus Christi couldn’t get over itself, Yank! is highly generous in its attention to detail. Monikers like “Light Loafers” and rueful barbs like “Smell her!” are relatively minor items on paper, but they add up to big-time character traits, and Goldin makes sure his cast behaves accordingly. Music director Amy Dalton lets Joseph Zellnik’s 18 tunes evoke the genres of the ’40s rather than copy them; her approach is as original as just about everything else in this show. Yank! wins on virtually all counts, putting a fun and human face on gender identity at a time this culture couldn’t begin to fathom its import.

This review is based on the opening-night performance of July 12. Yank! runs through Aug. 17 at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights.