[NEohioPAL] Review of Cleveland Play House's "Lombardi"

[Bob Abelman]

CPH's 'Lombardi' is an imperfect play about an imperfect man

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 9/28/12

 

Huddle up.

 

In the playbill for the Cleveland Play House's "Lombardi," director Casey Stangl suggests that the play is about more than a legendary football coach and more than just football.  No.  No it's not.  

 

Despite her promise that this biographical drama by Eric Simonson offers something for everyone, there is in fact very little for anyone.

 

This play is about Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the 1959 to 1967 Green Bay Packers and his infamous temper.  Yet, it is told primarily through the eyes of a Look magazine journalist seeking-and failing miserably to obtain-insight into the man and the mystery behind his winning ways.  The running joke in the story is that Lombardi is absolutely inaccessible, but this subsequently results in storytelling that reveals very little.

 

Watching an old NFL Film documentary would be more insightful than this 95-minute drama.  So, too, would reading the actual, scathing Esquire exposé on Lombardi that serves as the justification for the fictitious Look magazine counter-article being written in this play. So would perusing Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Maraniss' book When Pride Still Mattered, on which this play is based. 

 

It is ironic that the projected image of a football field that fills the back of the Allen Theatre stage during this production places the audience on the 25 yard line.  While its intention is to give us the impression of being right on the sidelines and privy to insider information, it actually reminds us of our limited vantage point and obstructed view.

 

The biggest problem with "Lombardi" as a piece of theater is that the play is written as if it were several one-man shows strung together.  The dilemma is not that various perspectives on the same subject are being offered; it's that they are stand-alone expositions that lack a fluid, connective, or accumulative narrative.

 

Here is the story as told by the reporter Michael McCormick, played with extraordinary charm by Nick Mills.  He stands in the spotlight, talks directly to the audience as if we were buddies, and discloses about his frustrations with this assignment.  Throughout the production he breaks away from its limited action and breaks the 4th wall to share with us his latest failure at penetrating Lombardi's hard shell and stubborn defensiveness.

 

Now here is the story being told by Lombardi himself, well impersonated although slightly understated by Bob Ari.  He bursts onto the stage, yells at the audience as if we just missed a tackle, and offers his much-quoted wisdom-under-fire.  He then hustles off again to chew out some other victim, tell the reporter that "all that was off the record," draw up the power sweep on a blackboard, or reappear in a short scene involving a player or his wife. 

 

Now here is the story being told by Mrs. Lombardi, played with aplomb by DeeDee Rescher.  Her steady diet of highballs loosens her tongue just enough to want to share some real insight into her husband but not nearly enough to carry it through.  Rescher, the recipient of the play's best writing, serves as the show's comic relief and excels in this regard.  She is the most interesting and entertaining thing on stage.

 

Now here are the ballplayers-played by Branton Box, William Oliver Watkins, David Hardie, and their overdeveloped abs-who represent the variety of challenges facing Lombardi during his tenure as coach and general manager.  They introduce us to the bad behavior, business, and brotherhood that are as much a part of the game as the Xs and Os, but they do so in spurts and just barely.

 

Following suit, the show is unfortunately staged with the predictable, formulaic conventions of a one-man show.  

 

It uses technology-including rear screen projections designed by Jeffrey Cady-to create a sense of time, place, and transition to fill in the blanks in the narrative.  James Swonger's set pieces fly on, off and through the stage to attempt to make the production more visually stimulating than the script affords.  In an act of dramatic desperation, Lombardi comes on stage to deliver one last, inspirational speech after the reporter has already declared him dead.

 

Stangl keeps things moving on stage at a rapid clip, but the play's basic structure and uncompelling writing deprives it of any dramatic momentum.

 

One of the final lines in the play is from the reporter, who suggests that Lombardi was the "most imperfect perfect man."  It is fitting though unfortunate, then, that his story is depicted in an imperfect play.  

 

"Lombardi" continues through October 7 in Cleveland Play House's Allen Theater at PlayhouseSquare.  For tickets, which range from $49 to $69, call 216-241-6000 or visit www.clevelandplayhouse.com.   
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