Saturday, February 12, 2011
'Lombardi' playwright, Eric Simonson, hoping Packers' win gives ticket sales a kick
Post-Gazette.com: "For winning the Super Bowl, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers got to raise the Vince Lombardi Trophy and a trip to Disney World. For starring in 'Lombardi' on Broadway, Dan Lauria got to appear in-character on 'Late Night With David Letterman,' adding coaching witticisms to the Top 10 countdown.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I love football and actually cheered for the Packers this year at the Super Bowl party I was at just to be contrary. I am familiar with "Lombardi" because last year in my consumer behavior class it was an example in my final project about how theatre can reach out and show audiences who normally wouldnt consider themselves theatre peoople that it can actually be very entertaining. So I am glad to hear that the show is still running and that it 'isnt the normal theatre crowd'. I think that that is a good thing in order to expand people's horizons. I hope that the same reason that the not normal fans are coming to see this isnt keeping normal theatregoers away. Because that would be a shame, though I have not read the script or know anyone who has seen it, I know that Vince Lombardi was a very influential and good man who impacted the lives of many. Regardless, I hope the ticket sales do increase even if it is just by word of mouth
On Sunday I was amazed at how much crossover I heard about between Glee and the superbowl. Sports fans who normally wouldn't be caught dead watching a show about singing high schoolers were watching because they heard about it via sports. The crossover between theater and sports can be greater. Reaching out in each others direction is the first step.
I agree with Elize that it's great to see theatre and sports crossing over more and more. I got to see "Lombardi" while I was home for break and actually really enjoyed it! The story was uplifting, well-written, well-acted, and the sports scenes flowed in such a way that I who don't understand the first thing about football still followed every detail and understood when a certain play or player raised the stakes or changed something. While I was rooting for the Steelers on superbowl sunday, it will be fascinating to see if the Packers' win does bring more folks to the show, which when I saw it seemed to be drawing about 60% traditional "broadway audience members" to 40% "sports fans". It would be a great way to introduce sports people to theatre and vice versa, just as "glee" seems to be doing now by airing right after big highly-watched TV events like football games.
Besides this article throwing salt in the wounds of Pittsburgh's recent loss, it provided some interesting insight into Lombardi. Lombardi has fascinated me for a few months. I knew very little about it except that it was a football show about the packers. It was the only show that opened this season that was able to survive the January closures of all the other shows that opened early this season. In my mind it seemed like the last show that would be successful but they are managing to put butts in seats and it will probably be a little easier with the outcome of the Super Bowl.
Post a Comment