Cover photo by Peter Cunningham

Yanks 3 Detroit 0 Top of the Seventh

Jonathan Reynolds

This play is included in the collection:

Description

Deftly mingling fantasy and reality, the action centers on “Duke” Bronkowski, an aging big-league pitcher trying for a comeback. As his control begins to weaken, and with it his self-confidence, he is visited on the mound by his coach (who mouths fuzzy platitudes); his catcher (who temperamentally demands obedience to his signals); and his teeny-bopper girlfriend (who reminds him of the painful mess he has made of his personal life). Unable to deliver the fast ball he once had, or the curve ball he never had, Duke becomes a metaphor of middle age, as he smarts from the taunts of the younger base runners and retreats into ethnic jokes to cover his growing awareness of his fading powers. The truth that he finally faces up to is a bitter one but, thanks to the antic imagination of the playwright, its discovery is leavened with laughter and a warm sense of the absurdities the flesh is heir to.

Production Info

Cast: 10 total (1 female, 9 male)
Short Comedy (about 30 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Reviews

Press Quotes

“… undeniably funny … RUBBERS has a young woman member of the Assembly desperately trying to get a bill through that would require pharmacists to place contraceptives on public display. The response this receives from her fellow members is immediate, explosive and often very amusing. Mr Reynolds offers some whimsical caricatures of Assemblymen … In the second play, Mr Reynolds does keep rather closer to the real world, with an aging, fading baseball pitcher who is on his way out and frantically knows it. With his ethnic jokes and crass materialism there is nothing very attractive about Emil (Duke) Bronskowski paranoidly facing high noon on the mound. And yet seeing him assailed by the opposing team — all markedly younger and mocking men — his own catcher (he has the only catcher in the major leagues who wants his pitcher to call him ‘Mister!’) and his coach … one has to feel some basic sympathy.” —Clive Barnes, The New York Times

“The funniest double header of the season, bar none.” —New York Magazine

About the Author

Author

  • Jonathan Reynolds

    All ten of Jonathan Reynolds's plays have been produced in New York, most recently DINNER WITH DEMONS, an autobiographical one-man show in which he prepared a full five-course meal onstage eight times a week. Other notable plays include the controversial STONEWALL JACKSON'S HOUSE, which the Pulitzer Drama Jury recommended for the award; GENIUSES, produced by Playwrights Horizons and which ran for a year Off-Broadway; and the first plays he wrote, a pair of one-acts, YANKS 3 DETROIT O TOP OF THE 7TH and RUBBERS at The American Place. Less notable plays include FIGHTING INTERNATIONAL FAT, also produced at Playwrights Horizons, AND TUNNEL FEVER OR THE SHEEP IS OUT, also produced at The American Place. Although five of his screenplays have also been produced, most notably Micki & Maude and My Stepmother is an Alien, his most memorable experiences in filmmaking have been with Apocalypse Now and Leonard Part 6, both of which could have gone either way. He is the recipient of Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundation grants as well as The Dramatists Guild Flora Roberts Award for Sustained Achievement. For five years, he was Treasurer of The Dramatists Guild of America, and for six years wrote a bi-weekly food column for The New York Times Sunday Magazine. His memoir, Wrestling With Gravy: A Life, with Food, was recently published by Random House, and his next play GIRLS IN TROUBLE was produced at The Flea Theatre in New York in February 2010. He passed away in November 2021 and was survived by his wife, the set designer and producer, Heidi Ettinger, along with two sons from his previous marriage and three stepsons.

About the Book

Book Information

Publisher BPPI
Publication Date 9/1/2002
Pages 200
ISBN 9780881452075

Special Notes

Special Notes

Licensees are required to include the original stage producers credits in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
The following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
Yanks 3 Detroit 0 Top of the Seventh is produced
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com