Jerry Lewis to Star in O.C. ‘Yankees’

The devil is coming to Orange County, but when he gets here, he’ll be a dead ringer for Jerry Lewis.

Lewis will star in the touring stage production of “Damn Yankees!,” coming to the Orange County Performing Arts Center for its 1995-96 Broadway season, center officials announced Tuesday.

Lewis plays Mr. Applegate, the Satan figure who cuts a deal with lifelong Washington Senators fan Joe Hardy and transforms him into a baseball hero. The actor-comedian is to assume the role on Broadway later this month, before the show goes on tour. This revival was directed by Jack O’Brien and was overseen by Abbott, who died recently at age 107.

The center’s six-show season opens in June with Tommy Tune in “Busker Alley,” a new musical inspired by the film “St. Martin’s Lane” (1938) that starred Charles Laughton and Vivien Leigh. The tale of a London busker named Charlie Baxter, it is being produced by three-time Tony winners Fran and Barry Weisler and directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun with music and lyrics by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, who won an Oscar for “Mary Poppins.” Tune is counting on the show to be his ticket back to Broadway, after an absence of nearly 10 years.

The season also includes a new musical version of “Jekyll and Hyde” that premiered recently in Houston, written by Leslie Bricusse (who wrote “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off” with Anthony Newley) and composer Frank Wildhorn. Like “Busker Alley,” it is billed as part of a “pre-Broadway tour.”

Rounding out the season are national touring revivals of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” with Chita Rivera reprising her Tony-winning performance in the musical version of the Manuel Puig novel, adapted by Terrence McNally; “West Side Story,” the Jerome Robbins musical with a score by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and “Ain’t Misbehavin’, “ an evening-long celebration of the music of Fats Waller, starring the Pointer Sisters.

Broadway series subscribers should receive renewal information in a few weeks; season subscriptions will go on sale to the general public on April 2, from $112 to $282, same as this year’s. Remaining tickets to individual shows will go on sale eight weeks before each engagement.

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THE BROADWAY SERIES

The Orange County Performing Arts Center will present:

* “Busker Alley,” June 27 to July 2.

* “Jekyll and Hyde,” Aug. 29 to Sept. 3.

* “West Side Story,” Oct. 24 through 29.

* “Damn Yankees,” Dec. 5 to 10.

* “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Dec. 26 to 31.

* “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” May 14 to 19.

The Orange County Performing Arts Center is at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Information: (714) 556-2787.