Reviewed by Laura Kennelly
You don’t really have to love football to “get” the season opener at The Cleveland Play House. Playwright Eric Simonson’s Lombardi focuses on a week in 1965 when Michael McCormick, a young reporter, tries to write an in-depth story about Vince Lombardi, the coach who turned the Green Bay Packers into winners. Evidently using a sort of “pass and move” formula, the production directed by Casey Stangl turned slow opening night and the pacing was uneven.
Despite this, the ever-interesting Bob Ari creates a Lombardi much like his Mark Rothko in last spring’s CPH production of Red. He projects a strong physical presence as he blusters and intimidates those around him. His Lombardi gives no excuses: it’s just what he does; the way he is. In his world, bullying works.
His wife, Marie (brilliantly played by Deedee Rescher) ignores the tirades, as do his players all of whom long ago realized that their coach cools off as fast as he blasts off. The young reporter learns a lesson, well maybe several, before the play concludes.
This biopic does not claim to be a true story (we are told that McCormick, played blandly by Nick Mills, didn’t exist) and as a result, the play’s dramatic power lacks the appeal it might have had as either an exposé or a hagiography. It is, instead, a dark, bittersweet narrative that uses names of real people; but what’s the point? We can’t be sure we have learned anything. We might do better to turn to When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi by David Maraniss, a journalist who actually did spend time with the coach.
Still, this play serves to remind us that the right coach at the right time can work what appears to be a miracle with a team when things are right. That’s always good to know. And if it brings folks to the theatre who would never come otherwise, that’s even better.
Lombardi continues through Sun 10/7/2012. Tickets are available at the PlayhouseSquare ticket office, by calling 216-241-6000 or going online at http://clevelandplayhouse.com.
[Caption: Bob Ari as the legendary Green Bay Packers coach in the Cleveland Play House production of “Lombardi,” directed by Casey Stangl, on stage in the Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare, September 14 – October 7, 2012. Photo credit: Roger Mastroianni.]
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.