Yahoo Movies How Amazon’s ‘League of Their Own’ Ball Players Compare to the 1992 Movie Lineup
“Broad City” co-creator Abbi Jacobson and “Mozart in the Jungle” executive producer Will Graham give “A League of Their Own” a modern makeover for the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series, emphasizing LGBT storylines and the struggles of Black female athletes to play baseball during the World War II era. The show, which debuted this weekend, follows the basic outline of Penny Marshall’s 1992 movie of the same name: A catcher with a husband away at war quickly becomes a team leader, played in the update by Jacobson. Nick Offerman has stepped into the equivalent shoes of Tom Hanks as a disgraced-star-player-turned-manager. Here’s how the show stacks up against the 30-year-old movie, which introduced Rosie O’Donnell to pal Madonna and was itself an adaptation of a late-1980s documentary of the same name.
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Abbi Jacobson plays catcher Carson Shaw, a reluctant leader exploring unexpected feelings for a teammate while her husband is serving overseas.
Geena Davis commands the action behind the plate and off the field as Dottie Hinson, who looks out for her sister Kit while waiting for the return of her soldier husband.
Chanté Adams sensitively portrays the angst of Max Chapman, a talented Black pitcher barred from playing due to her race and gender; she also has a secret romantic life.
Tom Hanks, who had already starred in the Marshall-directed “Big,” is the boozy manager who exasperatedly utters the film’s most famous line: “There’s no crying in baseball.”
D’Arcy Carden’s Greta is a flirty presence adept at protecting herself from censure as a queer woman.
Lori Petty’s Kit wears her heart on her sleeve, frustrated at the attention her big sister Dottie receives.
Melanie Field, second from left, portrays Jo De Luca, Greta’s boisterous pal from Queens, who draws teammate whispers about her sexuality.
Madonna, then at the height of her stardom, has a supporting role as Mae “All the Way” Mordabito, a taxi dancer before she joined the Rockford Peaches.
Gbemisola Ikumelo is Max’s excitable married pal and wannabe comic book writer, Clance.
Mae’s pal Doris in the movie, Rosie O’Donnell, pops up in the Amazon series as a gay bar owner.
Nick Offerman doesn’t stick around long as manager Dove Porter, a former pitcher with a healthy ego.
Jon Lovitz makes an amusing entrance early on as a scout for the burgeoning all women’s league.
Molly Ephraim plays the role of Maybelle Fox, a fun-loving bottle blonde oblivious to sexual undercurrents on the team.
Marshall’s daughter Tracy Reiner, older brother Garry (a director in his own right) and “Laverne & Shirley” co-star David Lander all play small roles in the movie.
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