Tackling a legacy

It's Super Bowl Sunday, and the Green Bay Packers are back in the spotlight. So, too, is their former coach, Vince Lombardi.

The late Hall of Fame coach's legacy lives on in the sterling silver Vince Lombardi Trophy, which may return to the Packers tonight for the first time since 1997.

But it's the man himself, a hard-driving workaholic who turned a losing franchise into a dominating force, who has taken center stage on Broadway.

Dan Lauria ("The Wonder Years") portrays the iconic Packers coach of the 1960s, and Judith Light ("One Life to Live," "Who's the Boss?") is his hard-shelled but devoted wife, Marie. The show's been scoring big with audiences since "Lombardi" kicked off at Circle in the Square Theatre on Oct. 21.

Timing is everything, and the Packers' return to the NFL championship showdown during the play's inaugural season is just too perfect, Light says.

"What I like to call this is divine choreography. Can you imagine anything better than having this be the year that they're going to the Super Bowl? It's kind of magical. We all think it's pretty well designed."

The 95-minute docudrama may be green on the Great White Way, but it lures men who would have to be dragged six blocks south to the Majestic Theatre, where "The Phantom of the Opera" has entered a record 24th year.

Count among them Packers fanatic Steve Bachman, who caught the show last week on the quietest Sunday of the NFL season.

"This was great. It's awesome," said the Milwaukee suburbanite.

"Lombardi" also receives accolades from theatergoers uninspired by football. That's in part because the title character's gridiron exploits share significant playing time with his volatile marriage and touchy relationship with rookie magazine reporter Michael McCormick (Keith Nobbs), a fictional house guest who doubles as the play's narrator.

Bachman takes his wife, Amy, to games in Green Bay twice a year and longs for the day she too will bleed green and gold.

"I'm not the biggest fan," she said.

But the play?

"Loved it."

The story is set primarily in 1965 during the seventh of Lombardi's nine consecutive winning seasons in Green Bay. Star players Paul Hornung (Bill Dawes), Dave Robinson (Robert Christopher Riley) and Jim Taylor (Chris Sullivan) complete the six-member cast.

The set designs are bare bones - except for an overhead screen that displays classic game footage; with authentic audio; and a ring of stadium lights.

The production, a joint venture with the NFL, flashes all-pro credentials. It was written by Academy Award winner Eric Simonson, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Maraniss' bestseller, "When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi." Tony Award nominee Thomas Kail ("In the Heights") is the director.

A bonus for patrons is the assortment of memorabilia on display in the lobby. The exhibit includes footballs used in title games, jerseys worn by Packers greats, an array of photographs and more. The centerpiece is a team bench from the historic "Ice Bowl" victory against the Dallas Cowboys on New Year's Eve 1967, which marked Lombardi's final game at Lambeau Field.

Lauria, a former college player and high school coach, bears a striking resemblance to Lombardi, right down to his menacing demeanor. The coach's mood swings are reminiscent of the character Lauria played for six TV seasons as hard-working Jack Arnold on "The Wonder Years."

With one notable exception.

"I think with Jack Arnold, he was more responsible to his family than his personal quest," Lauria said. "He wasn't working at something he loved."

Lombardi went the opposite direction. "The team became closer to him than his family," Lauria said, "and Marie always said that."

Vincent Thomas Lombardi, a devout Catholic who studied to become a priest, inherited a downtrodden Green Bay team in 1959 and molded it into a perennial powerhouse. He produced five league champions, including the first two Super Bowl winners, before stepping away from the game for a year.

Like Lauria, Lombardi was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was 57 when he died in 1970 of colon cancer in Washington, where he finished his career with the 1969 Redskins. His funeral Mass was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, less than a mile from where his passion and fury have been resurrected on a circular stage.

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