The Only Thing

Making its way to Milwaukee after its debut in Madison last year, Eric Simonson’s Lombardi: The Only Thing arrives at the intimate Off-Broadway Theatre with an updated script and a stellar cast. Next Act Producing Artistic Director David Cecsarini stars as legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi in a story that mixes fact with fiction and drama with comedy. Next Act balances extremes in a thoroughly satisfying production to open to a promising season.

As the story opens, professional football is in a crisis of leadership. It’s 1965 and the league is changing. New money is flowing into game as popularity skyrockets and players pair up with high-powered agents who are pitting themselves against team coaches. The Packers have just lost another playoff game and the team is in disarray. Enter Cecsarini as Lombardi — a man wracked with stress who never seems to have enough Pepto Bismol on hand. Cecsarini may not have Lombardi’s physical bulk, but he carries himself with an extensively studied gait that feels remarkably true to the towering sports legend. The opening scene also features John Kishline as assistant coach and yes-man Phil Bengston, Mark Ulrich as sports reporter Bud Lea, an open critic of the team who needs them to succeed to advance his own career, John Taylor Philips as star player Jim Taylor, whose position with the team is on edge, and Reese Madigan as Paul Hornung, largely considered to be the heart of the team. Though some liberties are taken here, this opening is powerful in its gritty realism.

Things grow markedly more surreal after intermission as we see Lombardi at Mitchell Field preparing for a flight to New York. Ailing health finds him drifting off into hallucinatory conversations with his late father (John Taylor Phillips), military football coach Red Blaik (John Kishline), the late John F. Kennedy (Reese Madigan) and Saint Ignatius (Mark Ulrich). The five men have a discussion about leadership and the nature of winning over a game of sheepshead. It’s an inherently comic moment with layers of serious philosophical meaning. On the whole, this part of the play is charming and cleverly-written, but while there are some savvy performances from Cecsarini and the actors portraying the dream figures, there are moments when the lofty philosophy drags the action of the play. Had the sequence been cut just a bit shorter, it would’ve been flawless.

But the play in its entirety is an immense joy. Ulrich’s performance as Ignatius sparkles with wit. Kishline’s confidence as Blaik is every bit as effective as his passivity as Bengston. Phillips’ performance as Lombardi’s father carries a warmth that balances well with his cool portrayal as Taylor in the play’s beginning. Madigan renders a very deep performance as JFK. All of this is more than enough to keep the play together. With an inherent appeal to a far wider Next Act audience than average, this one is sure to sell out, and with a production this good, there’s a fair chance that many of these people will like the kind of experience unique to locally-grown studio theatre. More than simply putting-on a good show, this production could mean good things for local theatre as well. VS

Next Act’s Production of Lombardi: The Only Thing runs through October 25 at the Off-Broadway Theatre. For more info, call 414-278-0765 or visit Next Act online.