"It’s not whether you get knocked down," Vince Lombardi once said, “it’s whether you get up."
He was referring to football, but the famed coach could just as well have been referring to theatre. It’s no surprise, then, that he’s now the subject of a Broadway hit – the drama Lombardi, which opened on October 21, 2010 at Circle in the Square.
As much a philosopher and motivator as he was a brilliant coach, Lombardi is still a legend today, an object of mystique and admiration whose story is uniquely American, and uniquely suited to the stage. Bringing the story of Lombardi to the stage was a combined passion for producers Tony Ponturo and Fran Kirmser, and I recently had the opportunity to converse with the two via e-mail about their experiences, approaches, and recent successes – from last year’s Tony Award-winning Hair, to their latest touchdown with Lombardi.
