By Kenneth Jones
09 Nov 2009

Vince Lombardi

Lombardi, a new play about the famed American football coach Vince Lombardi, will open on Broadway in fall 2010, producers Tony Ponturo and Fran Kirmser announced.

The multi-character script play by Oscar winner and Steppenwolf Theater Company member Eric Simonson is based on the best-selling biography "When Pride Still Mattered," by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss.

According to the Nov. 9 announcement, "This original work will bring the audience into the life and times of one of America's most inspirational and mercurial personalities, Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi."

The play was seen under the title Lombardi/The Only Thing in fall 2007 at the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, WI. Madison Repertory Theatre, which commissioned the script and developed it during the company's fourth annual Madison New Play Festival, produced. At that time, Jeff Still played legendary Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi. The Lombardi play coming to Broadway will be different from the one that premiered in Madison. Simonson is reapproaching the material.

Additional Broadway production information, including director, casting for the multi-character roles, design team and production schedule, will be announced shortly.

Ponturo (head of Ponturo Management Group LLC, the New York-based sports and entertainment management, investment and marketing company) and Fran Kirmser (a producer of commercial and not-for-profit works) partner to bring the play to Broadway. They met while collaborating on the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Hair.

"Sometimes we need to go back in our history to learn lessons for today," Ponturo said in a statement. "Vince Lombardi's name is on the Super Bowl trophy, but many young people do not know the story of this man. In a time where people continue to look for the shortcuts to success, Vince Lombardi's story teaches that hard work, discipline, respect and time are the elements needed to succeed. I expect Lombardi to entertain those who love the stage with the classic tale of triumph by a very diverse and sometimes misunderstood soul, while also bringing in those who enjoy sports but never thought that such drama could be played out on the stage."

Kirmser stated, "Vince Lombardi — his inspiration, passion and ability to drive people to achieve what they never thought they could — is more relevant now, in these challenged times, than ever before. Sport produces great human drama, and there is no better dramatic character from sport to bring to life in theater than a man who overcame great obstacles to become a success and is always identified as one of America's most inspirational leaders."

Biographer Maraniss stated, "Vince Lombardi was not just a great coach. He was one of the most compelling individuals in American popular culture in the 20th century. I am very pleased to bring the essence of my work and his life to Broadway in this play."

Maraniss won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his reportage on Bill Clinton, was part of a Washington Post team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy, and has been a Pulitzer finalist twice more for his journalism and once in history for his Vietnam work, "They Marched into Sunlight."

Playwright Simonson is an ensemble member of the renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company, a post he maintains while working as a writer and director for film, television, theatre and opera. Most recently he completed a documentary for HBO called "Studs Terkel: Listening to America." His documentary "A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin" won the 2006 Oscar for Documentary Short. That film also received a nomination from the International Documentary Association (IDA) for Distinguished Achievement. He was also nominated for an Oscar for his documentary "On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom" in 2001. Other films include "Hamlet" (co-directed with Campbell Scott) for Hallmark Entertainment, and an independent feature, "Topa Topa Bluffs." His directing and writing credits in theatre include work at Steppenwolf Theatre, The Huntington Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Kansas City Rep, The Kennedy Center, Pasadena Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Milwaukee Rep, Arizona theatre, San Jose Rep and Court Theatre in Chicago. His work at Steppenwolf includes premieres of his plays Carter's Way, Honest and Fake; and Nomathemba (co-written with Ntozake Shange and Joseph Shabalala), and The Song of Jacob Zulu, which was invited to the Perth International Arts Festival, ran on Broadway, and received six Tony nominations including Best Director.

His several plays include published works Bang the Drum Slowly and Work Song (co-written with Jeffrey Hatcher) and the adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, all of which have been produced at theatres across the country.

For more information on Lombardi, visit www.lombardibroadway.com.