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Vince Lombardi was a football coach known for his time spent leading the Green Bay Packers to two Super Bowl trophies and a number of league championships in the 1960s. He was enshrined in the NFL’s Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.
Lombardi never lost a season as a head coach in the NFL, and since his death in 1970, has inspired a number of books, movies, and performances, including “Lombardi,” which the Arizona Theatre Company is now producing on stage.
See also: – Jackalope Ranch’s “Curtains” archives – Opera Superstar Dmitri Hvorostovsky to Take Orpheum Stage – Desert Stage’s Tommy Makes Us Wish We Were Deaf, Dumb, and Blind
New Times contributor Robrt Pela saw the performance on a recent Sunday night. He writes:
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Eric Simonson’s play, which ran on Broadway two years ago to mixed reviews, offers a fly-on-the-wall week in the life of Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi during the 1965 football season. While Lombardi is attempting to bully his team into a championship, he’s being followed around by a Look magazine reporter, Michael McCormick, who’s doing a personality profile on Lombardi.But McCormick’s first assignment isn’t going so well: The footballers are refusing to talk to him, and Lombardi’s wife, Marie, is little help. Once he finally finds his angle, the reporter discovers that Lombardi has brokered a story-approval deal with McCormick’s editor — anathema to any journalist.
Read the full review, “Arizona Theatre Company’s Lombardi Leaves Little to Cheer About.“
Lombardi continues through Sunday, December 2, at The Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe St. Call 602-256-6899 or visit www.arizonatheatre.org.
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