It takes guts to bring a drama to Broadway these days without a megastar playing the lead. To top it off, the producers of the show Lombardi promise to reveal why the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers football team was so successful. Lots of luck with that, I thought, when I first read about the show. My curiosity got the best of me, however, once I learned that Lombardi was based on one of my favorite sports biographies, David Maraniss’ When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi.
To my great surprise, Lombardi was enthralling and inspiring. My wife and I were among the many enthusiastic audience members who expressed our appreciation with a standing ovation at the show’s conclusion.
What first stood out to me about the show was its supurb acting. Dan Lauria who played the dad on the Emmy award-winning television series, The Wonder Years, portrayed Vince Lombardi flawlessly. Deconstructing Lauria’s performance doesn’t capture what he pulled off but suffice it to say that Lauria’s walk, talk, facial expressions and sheer dominating presence were pure Lombardi. Keith Hobb’s Michael McCormick, a Look magazine reporter who wrote about Lombardi, and Judith Light’s portrayal of Marie Lombardi, Vince’s wife, were also marvelous. The rest of the cast was terrific too. This small cast and crew clicked. Together they’ve gone beyond the stereotypes to create more than the story of a great coach and his family; they’ve brought to life a nuanced and touching portrait of the Lombardis struggling, sometimes winning and sometimes not, amidst the booming 1950’s-1960’s.
Like America during the post-World War II period, Lombardi had supreme self-confidence and a driving passion to win in life. Unfortunately, like all of us, the great coach was not without flaws in his character. Lombardi needed to dominate everyone in his presence. He found it hard to be socially equal or, heaven forbid, subordinate to anyone. As a result, Vince Lombardi was a somewhat lonely man. If not for his wife Marie, Lombardi would have been a tragic story. Instead, what emerges by the end of the show is a surprising and moving story of how Vince and Marie committed to love one another despite their awareness of each other’s flaws.
In Lombardi’s own words we learn that the real secret of his success and the success of the Green Bay Packers was their commitment to love the people in their lives despite their shortcomings and a commitment to be there for one another, to encourage and help one another do the hard work that is necessary to succeed together despite life’s inevitable struggles. What a great message for each of us to hear, especially during a time when so many are struggling.
I hope you’ll check out this show. Whether you are a gridiron fan or not, you’ll come away feeling entertained and encouraged by this gritty and heart-warming drama.
P.S. Lombardi’s public relations firm just sent me a link to special prices on tickets. See details at this link: http://lombardibroadway.com/fanoffer.php
Disclosure: I was provided two free tickets so that I might consider writing a review of the show.
