“Bull Durham”: take me out to the new ball game!

Bull Durham, the 1988 rom-com starring Susan Sarandon, Kevin Costner, and Tim Robbins, has been brought to life as, of all things, a musical! While musicals can be made out of the most unlikely of subjects — like, say, the Founding Fathers, comic strip characters, or a book of poetry about felines — it’s rare that baseball is used as source material (most famously, a little work from the 50’s called Damn Yankees). While the game itself is not the central story, it’s why the characters interact and where the romance and the comedy lie.

Bull Durham is written by playwright Ron Shelton, here adapting his own original screenplay, and composer-lyricist Susan Werner, making her musical theater debut. It follows the spring training season of the Durham, NC, Bulls, a AAA minor league team who are perpetual cellar dwellers. The Bulls have just taken on young pitching sensation Ebby Calvin LaLoosh, who appears to be vain, dumb, and inconsistent — a lethal combination for any team. To knock LaLoosh’s rough edges off, the Bulls’ management calls in veteran catcher Crash Davis. He has his work cut out for him.

Making Crash’s work harder is Annie Savoy, practically a Durham Bull herself. Each season, Annie becomes the muse for one member of the Bulls. She starts this season trying to decide between LaLoosh and Crash, inviting them both to her home to vie for her favors. Crash sees no need to compete and walks out. Annie, never having been turned down before, takes on LaLoosh, whose explosive style of lovemaking leads Annie to give him the nickname “Nuke”.

Annie and Crash both try to improve Nuke’s pitching game, but come at him from two conflicting angles. Meanwhile, their antagonistic public interactions lead everyone else to conclude that they’re both hot for each other. When Nuke’s pitching starts to improve and the Bulls start winning games, the entire town is ecstatic — as is the Bulls’ management. Annie is pleased that Nuke is doing so well, but Crash knows it’s just a matter of time before Nuke is called up to the big leagues while he is sent off to another minor league team.

The show is delightful, charming and funny in equal amounts with solid characters and situations. Director Marc Bruni builds on the talents he’s displayed at Paper Mill Playhouse on The Great Gatsby (which he also directed on Broadway) and other shows. The real knockout is Joshua Bergasse’s choreography, last seen at Paper Mill’s The Honeymooners. He has come up with powerful, muscular pieces. They include a slow-motion brawl between two teams on the field, and a Bulls warmup juggling full-weight professional baseball bats, reprised by the entire cast at the show’s finale.

The cast is outstanding. Carmen Cusack as Annie Savoy smolders, knowing what she wants and letting nothing stand in her way. Smooth and sexy, grabbing life for all it can give her, Cusack’s Annie is also a baseball savant whose unorthodox ways of improving players do get results. Nik Walker’s Crash Davis is Annie’s match in determination and training ability, with a realistic side born of years of pursuing his dreams in the game he loves. Will Savarese as Nuke LaLoosh displays the wild card spirit in a young athlete who was a high school hero used to winning games and getting any girl he wanted, yet lacking the discipline needed to succeed professionally.

There are also fine performances given by Paper Mill newcomers Andrew Poston as Jimmy, a devout Christian pitcher being cut by the team, and Ashlyn Maddox’s Millie, daughter of the ball park’s owner, who always manages to find her way into the team’s locker room. As the secondary romantic couple in Bull Durham they bring an almost innocent kind of joy to the proceedings. Upholding the comic side of the show are James Moye as Skip, the team manager; Joel Ashur as assistant manager Larry; and Paper Mill veteran Nick Wyman as team announcer Uncle Roy Tuck.

The orchestra, led by Vadim Feichtner, smartly handles the fine score created by Susan Werner.  We learn about our main characters in the first three numbers. “The Church of Baseball” sums up Annie’s attitude about baseball’s role in her life; “Damn This Game” is Crash’s love/hate song about the thing to which he’s devoted his life; and “She’s Mine” sums up Nuke’s view of what he thinks life owes him due to his talent and energy. “A Heaven for You” is a perfectly sweet falling-in-love song for Jimmy and Millie. The female ensemble get to show off their comic chops in “A Little Time to Myself” and “Every Woman Deserves to Wear White”, while the Bulls chime in with their song, “Winning”.

Bull Durham is the type of show that even people who don’t care about baseball in general will find entertaining. It brings a whiff of spring to the Paper Mill Playhouse and gives you underdogs to cheer on, all the while drawing you into the triangle that is Annie Savoy, Crash Davis, and Nuke LaLoosh. And if that wasn’t enough, the audience is invited to sing the one song in the score not written by Susan Werner — the classic “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”! How can you resist? I strongly recommend making your way to Paper Mill Playhouse for a good old time at Bull Durham!

Bull Durham is presented at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn through Nov. 2, 2025. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to papermill.org.