Teamwork, Timing, Teachable Moments; Why “Lombardi” Worked On Broadway, Others Less So…

Last Sunday my friend and colleague Dave Siroty went to see “Bull Durham” at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. It was not the dramatic play off of Ron Shelton’s memorable screenplay of the trials and tribulations of the Durham Bulls from 1988 , it was a musical adaption telling the same story.

His reaction when we spoke this week? Fun if you knew the story beforehand, because there wasn’t that much time to go into the development of Annie Savoy or Crash Davis or Nuke Lalloosh that people loved in the film. If you didn’t know going in you may have missed a great deal, for as good as the songs and the story was.

While I haven’t yet seen the musical yet, it didn’t surprise me that much, because we have been a part of the rare elements that make a success on Broadway tied to storytelling and that element of sports…teamwork, timing and teachable moments.

Having worked on three dramas about sports brought to the Broadway stage between 15 and ten years ago. Of the three…”Lombardi,” “Magic Bird,” and ‘Bronx Bombers”…  the story of not just the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame coach, but of the deep personal relationships he had with his players, and with his wife Marie, told through the writing of Eric Simonson, the directing of Thomas Kail and based on the text of the luminous book on the coach by David Maraniss, was easily the biggest hit, and to this day people come up and say how much they enjoyed it during its eight month run (it was the longest running drama on Broadway that season) because they said that they walked away learning something more about the life and relationships of Vince Lombardi that they didn’t know, and that was reflected not just in the production but in the cast led by Dan Lauria and Judith Light. They taught even the biggest football fans something they didn’t know, or hadn’t seen before, and that, perhaps more than anything, is what great storytelling does.

Now how and why did “Lombardi” make it not just to Broadway but to such acclaim? Well, that started with the producers, Fran Kirmser and Tony Ponturo, who had a vision of finding a story that could not just bring the same crowd to a Broadway show, but it could identify a new audience…sports fans, especially men of a certain age…who would find the experience worthwhile and fulfilling, and, like any major live event from sports to Cirque de Soleil, would bring them back for more. That’s the topline as to the why. The secondary level of success came from the buy in of cast and crew, the support of the NFL, the risk taking of a theater owner, the authenticity of the storylines and even the luck of timing, brining the play to stage during football season.

It all worked well, and the results, spoke for themselves, culminating with a Tony Award nomination for Light, an amazing next step for a director in Tommy Kail who has gone on to superstardom, a great re-introduction of Lauria as an actor to a new generation who may have primarily known him as in “The Wonder Years,” and the growth of a slew of actors on the rise in Rob Riley, Keith Nobbs, Chris Sullivan and Bill Dawes, all of whom have carved such amazing careers post “Lombardi.” It was like any team success, talent and timing hit at the same time.

Now while the other plays were ambitious with similar vision, neither hit the high notes that “Lombardi” did, and no other dramatic plays have seemed it make all the pieces fit, at least on Broadway, just yet. Lots of great ideas? Sure. Musicals with a bit of a sports theme? Absolutely some success. But a drama that did what it said it was going to do and not only survived but thrived longer than an NFL season? None like the work…or the teamwork…of the story about The Coach did for those eight amazing months.

Now going back to where we started, and “Bull Durham” the musical. Will it find its way to the bright and expensive lights of Broadway? Maybe. I hope it does, as the film remains such a treasure. But what made the film was the cast in front of and behind the camera as much as the storyline. That’s what made “Lombardi” thrive as a property.

All about the team.