Theater Review: Lombardi with Dan Lauria and Judith Light

Performances in Broadway’s Lombardi are Winners Too
By Lauren Yarger
Now, everyone knows legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, but back in the early 1960s the intimidating, growling man who had turned the losing Greenbay Packers around and led them to back-to back Super Bowl championships was still something of a mystery.

To tell the story of Lombardi, playwright Eric Simonson has focused on one week in 1965 during which reporter Michael McCormick (Keith Nobbs) talks with the coach (Dan Lauria), some of his players and his wife, Marie (Judith Light) to write a profile piece for Look magazine.

Lauria is great as the taciturn gridiron leader who doesn’t believe in losing (“We just ran out of time”) and who would rather die than finish second, which the Packers have just done twice following their championship seasons. He looks and sounds like Lombardi.

Light is very funny as sarcastic Marie, supportive of her husband’s obsession with the sport, but downing martinis while pining for the metropolitan New York area she left behind for the “frozen tundra” of Wisconsin. She appears to have trouble walking in high- heeled period shoes (Paul Tazewell, costume design), but it’s hard to tell whether they’re slipping on the stage surface, or Marie just has had a little too much to drink.

McCormick has a hard time getting Lombardi to open up, and his players, Dave Robinson (Robert Christopher Riley), Paul Horning (Bill Dawes) and Jim Taylor (Chris Sullivan) are even less cooperative. Marie, especially when plied with liquor, gives him some background. Thomas Kail effectively directs flashback scenes where the reporter looks on.

The week with the coach results in McCormick's finding out more about himself, his relationship with his father and what he wants to do with his life instead of producing the magazine profile that he thought would propel his reporting career.

The play is nicely staged with Packer footage projected on video screens (Zachary Borovay, design). Images also transform the stage into the football field and a chalkboard with circles and arrows showing plays. Props needed for the scenes seamlessly rise up out of the floor (David Korins, scenic design; Howell Binkley, lighting; Acme Sound Partners, sound).

Lombardi runs 90 minutes without an intermission. It plays at Circle in the Square, 235 West 50th St., NYC. Discounted tickets are available through Masterwork Productions at http://www.givenik.com/show_info.php/Masterworks/250/individual

Christians might also like to know:
 Language
 Lord’s name taken in vain
 References to Lombardi’s Catholic faith, his belief in the Jesuit philosophy “freedom through principle’ and to Paul’s writings about running the race.