EVANSTON, Ill.—It’s set against a springtime baseball season, but “Damn Yankees” isn’t really about wining a ballgame. The musical is a comic retelling of the Faust legend. That theme, which permeates the musical, has been called a Faustian bargain. It forms the basis for the home-run production now playing at the Theo Ubique Cabaret Theater in Evanston, Illinois.
The idea for the Faustian bargain comes from German folklore. In it, Faust was a scholar who made a pact with the devil for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasure. It was based on Johann Georg Faust (circa 1480–circa 1540), a magician and alchemist in 16th-century Germany. It was depicted by Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) in his play “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus” (1594) and the tragedy “Faust” (1806) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832).
