NYC -New York in summer is a recipe for delight. What do you get when you combine sweet summer breezes, horsehide, cheesecake, beefcake, vintage love, young love and a soupçon of fiery foppery? New York City Center's Encores! Summer Stars Production of Richard Adler, Jerry Ross, George Abbott and Douglass Wallop's "Damn Yankees!"

The cast itself contains an embarrassment of riches. How easy it is to fall into the snare of thinking that these multi-talented entertainers we love are no more than the roles for which they are best known. Encores! provides the opportunity to experience more of these talents than we could otherwise dream existed.

We can all relate to the passions felt solely by a significant other in the opening number "Six Months Out of Every Year." We miss the spouse who is glued to a TV set while we pine for the person we know when they are not enthralled. Joe Boyd is the Washington Senators' biggest fan, and not quite as young as he used to be. But heartstrings are tugged when Joe Boyd, played by veteran actor P.J. Benjamin, strikes a deal with Mr. Applegate to become the long-ball hitter his Senators need in order to win some games. Boyd prepares to leave home and sings "Goodbye, Old Girl." A neat bit of stagecraft transforms Joe Boyd into Joe Hardy, All American Boy and baseball phenom. Literally, if you blink, you'll miss it! The sincere and luminous Cheyenne Jackson portrays Joe Hardy. Both Joes know how to wring the nuance and pathos out of a love song to someone whom they may be losing forever. The use of vocal dynamics to show the differences between age and renewed youth was particularly striking.

Randy Graff as the long-suffering Meg manages more with suggestion and nuance than others do with an entire play. She is understated and brilliant and as complex as vintage brandy. She becomes the focal point of nearly every scene she's in. She doesn't draw focus, but her presence is electric.

Jane Krakowski's nod to Marilyn Monroe-esque torch-dom in a yoga-toned package is rapturous serendipity. The role of Lola was tailor-made for a dancer and Ms. Krakowski knocks that role out of the park with acetylene intensity. In a cast of standout performers, this Jersey girl takes top honors. Krakowski's Lola is kittenish and fiery hot, yet still vulnerable to the sheer goodness of a really good man. Throughout the show, all the players get to show more than the "everyman" portraits some works require. Lola is everything to every man, by design, and a loyal minion, till one man becomes everything to her.

Sean Hayes as Mr. Applegate weaves the web of this tour de farce. His sparkling, breezy whirling 'Devilish' is on top of every situation. He is in control of every aspect of everything. He is the feral tomcat who twines himself around your legs to get what he wants, and then lashes out with razor sharp claws when his temper is aroused. But hubris goes before a fall, and the canny Joe Boyd writes an escape clause into his double handshake with the Devil. Mr. Applegate has a surprise in store for him as well.

Hayes is so much more than "Just Jack" of "Will and Grace" fame. Or if you remember him as Billy Collier, from "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss," you may think of him as strictly an actor. You are in for a fabulous treat when you learn that Hayes is a classically trained musician who knows how to conduct himself. His musical sense is unerring and radar sharp, and a fitting match for his finely honed comic sense.

Cheyenne Jackson is a man of many parts. Moviegoers know him for his sensitive portrayal of Mark Bingham, one of the heroes of Paul Greengrass' "Flight 93," or may remember him from his turn as Elvis, in "All Shook Up," or his once-and-future role as Sonny, in "Xanadu." His present role of Joe Hardy provides the canvas on which to limn a sensitive young man, who displays the gravitas beyond his physical years that Joe Boyd has been earning all his life. Balancing the virile athleticism and bodily joie de vivre of being young again with the leavening that a lifetime of experience provides is a challenge that Jackson tackles with aplomb.

The energy of the production sweeps you along and the supporting actors are award winners in their own right. Veanne Cox and Kathy Fitzgerald as Sister and Doris Miller are priceless. My especial favorite bit of theirs is when they realize that Meg's boarder is their favorite baseball player.

Megan Lawrence as Gloria Thorpe, the tough investigative sports reporter, is also a gem. Her character voice as Gloria cuts through the overtones of the masculine voices around her with a nasal twang reminiscent of characters in our favorite black and white movies. She's part Hedda Hopper, part Howard Cosell and part Geraldo Rivera- Hedda and Howard and Geraldo, oh my!

John Lee Beatty's scenic design is well conceived and well executed. The play is set in 1955 and the interiors are vintage perfection. The colors are ballpark brilliant. William Ivey Long's costumes were also spot-on period, while still allowing for plenty of movement for the dancers, one of many in a costumer's range of challenges. Mr. Applegate has a number of changes, and all are natty and, well, Devil-may-care.

The orchestra is in the stands for the show. This means that there is less stage than there ordinarily would be. Rob Berman conducts from the 300 level and is clearly loving every moment. The scene design incorporates conductor and musicians skillfully.

John Rando directed and Mary MacLeod reproduced Bob Fosse's original choreography for this production to sensual perfection. The energy of the "baseball ballet," in the "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo" number, is balanced by the "Two Lost Souls" opium den indolence of the hipsters from Hell. Fosse's appreciation of and use of the human form, with his sense of sex and athleticism, makes this choreography as fresh now as it must have been when this show was first produced.

Musical moments and chemistry abound. Among the standouts, the duet between Joe Hardy and Meg on the reprise of "A Man Doesn't Know," where the intensity and chemistry gave me chills, is very real in depicting a couple's love letters to each other semi in absentia. Another tender moment is the other Joe Hardy and Meg duet, "Near to You." My partner and I were holding hands and we squeezed each other a little bit tighter in harmony with Joe and Meg.

"Damn Yankees" is truly a timeless American classic. It's a hot ticket for summer, but you've got to move fast. The play opened officially on July 10 and is only running through July 27. Tickets are available at the New York City Center Box Office, at West 55th between 6th and 7th Avenues; via CityTix(r) at 212-581-1212; or online at www.nycitycenter.org. This is must-see theatre for the entire family and if you don't act quickly you'll need to consult Mr. Applegate for good seats.

Make an evening of it with dinner at Osteria del Circo. We had never been there, but were drawn by its convenience to City Center. It is a delicious taste of Italy. The décor is strongly reminiscent of restaurants we both recall from la Citte Eterna, with tightly arranged tables and delicious fresh food. And be aware, if you are parking on the street, that Muni Meters do not presently accept debit or credit cards. This is a citywide situation, so if you are not putting your car in a parking lot, make sure you get a roll of quarters or dollar coins as insurance.