Lombardi

Vince Lombardi was a coach for the Green Bay Packers.  He was such a great coach that they decided to make a broadway play about him.  Well at least the part of how Lombardi led The Green Bay Packers to several victories.  For me I had no idea who Vince Lombardi was.  All I knew was that Judith Light and Dan Lauria were both starring in the play.  When I found that out I knew I had to go because I loved their shows Who's The Boss and The Wonder Years.

I was lucky to get tickets because when I found out about this play, the play was about to end in about 2 and a half weeks or so.  Luckily I got tickets to see their final performance.  I have never seen the last show of any broadway play or musical before so I was pretty psyched to go see it.  I remember May 22, 2011 was the day I went to see the play with my sister Brooke.

The show started at 3pm and we had gotten to the city sometime around the morning because we had plans before we went to go see the play.  But I remember I wanted to get to the theatre around 2pm because for one we had to pick up the tickets and two I wanted to make sure there was enough time to get to the place if we got lost.  Luckily we got to the theatre pretty quickly.  I remember standing on line waiting to get my tickets.  It wasn't a long wait.  I got the tickets and I looked at them to see where we would be sitting.  Honestly I couldn't tell if they were good or bad seats.  They just looked confusing and Brooke didn't know either.  Instead we decided to just find out when we got into the theatre.  It was about 2:30 when they started letting people downstairs into the lobby.  They had a stand where they were selling souvenirs of the show.  I decided to get a poster so I could get it signed by the cast, and I got the last teddy bear they were selling.

20 minutes later the doors opened and we could get our seats.  When I walked into the theatre I was surprised that there was only a small stage and it was in the center of the room.  Around the room were all the seats circling the stage.  I have never been to a theatre like that so I wasn't sure how they were going to do the play.  Brooke and I got to our seats.  I had an aisle row and Brooke was sitting right next to me.  10 minutes later there was a lady who was with her elderly father.  When she arrived at the aisle which we were sitting in, she was upset to know that she had ordered aisle seats and didn't get them.  I felt bad and so did my sister so we decided to move down the row and take their seats so her father could sit in the aisle.  I didn't mind moving and actually I'm glad we did because they were better seats.  We got to see one of the doors leading to the stage and we were above the other door.  I couldn't wait for the play to start.  I really wanted to see Judith Light and Dan Lauria live on stage.

By the time 3pm came around people were still coming to their seats.  The play didn't start until 10 minutes later.  The place was packed with football fans, and people who just came to see the show.  I felt a little bit out of place because I had no idea who Vince Lombardi was, nor am I fan of football.  But when the show started I didn't care about that.

The play was incredible.  It actually made me want to become a fan of football.  Everyone who was apart of the play got on stage.  Everyone stood up and applauded everyone on the show for the amazing job they did.  It last for about 15 minutes because they also made a few short speeches.  I found it to be pretty cool.  As the crowd started to empty out of the theatre there was one  actor who didn't go backstage yet.  Brooke and I walked down the stairs to see if we could speak to him and to give him a rose.  Luckily we got to meet him, Robert Christopher Riley who played Dave Robinson.  He was very kind, and he let us talk to him.  I gave him a rose and he signed my poster.  We then headed upstairs to wait for the other stars to come out.  I was really shocked that only a few people were there waiting.  I figured it was their last show a lot more people would be waiting.

After waiting for about 20 minutes Bill Dawes who played Paul Hornung came up to the lobby.  At first Brooke and I weren't sure if it was really him, and Brooke said go ask and so I did.  I didn't actually ask if that was him because luckily someone else went up to him before I did.  I handed him a rose and asked if he would sign my poster.  He was cool about it.  He even made a joke about me giving him the rose saying "Oh now I see what you're doing.  Your bribing me with a rose".  I laughed I then tried to play along.  I forgot what I said but it was so bad it was funny.  After me a few more people asked him to sign their playbills. Then Keith Nobbs came out to the lobby and he played Michael McCormick.  He was a nice guy.  He signed everybody's playbill and poster in a line.  Brooke even handed him a rose. As a joke I started to give him a sales pitch on the rose.  I said "It's a fake flower perfect if you have allergies and you don't have to water it". He laughed then thanked her and then he had to leave.  Chris Sullivan who played Jim Taylor came to the lobby.  Brooke handed him a rose when he came by us because he had been signing autographs in a line.  I want to add that we were lined up that way and nobody told us where to stand.  He was a sweet guy because he said thank you and he just seemed down to earth when you spoke to him.

Me and Dan Lauria

Finally one of the people I had been waiting to see was less than a foot away from me.  I was very excited and there were moments when I forgot to breathe.  It was Dan Lauria. He was the lead of the play because he played Vince Lombardi.  He then walked over to the fans and started signing autographs.  I kept saying "OMG OMG!! He's COMING".  I think Brooke thought I was acting insane but I didn't care.  He first met Brooke and she started talking about The Wonder Years.  She said she really liked it.  Dan Lauria said "it was all because we had such great writers". So I said "Well I'm not a fan of the writers because they killed you off on the last episode.  I just thought that was just not cool.  Especially when they announced it in the last 3 minutes of the show".  He found it a bit funny and he laughed.  I asked him if he could sign my poster and he did.  My sister then asked him if he could sign her notebook which is technically mine.  He said "Why don't you get your playbill signed"?  Brooke said "This is just a book full of autographs its basically of every famous person we meet".  He understood.  I then asked him for a picture and he said sure.  I was like OMG this is awesome.  Brooke then asked for a picture and she got to take one with him.  He was very down to earth while talking to us.  He also seemed very tired, and I don't blame him because he just performed in a play.   Now the last person who was left was no other than Judith Light who played Marie Lombardi.  I didn't care how long it took to meet her I wanted to wait.  It was about 15 minutes we waited until she got into the lobby.  Then about 4 older guys came out of no where into the lobby and tried to cut me and Brooke in line to get an autograph.  I was annoyed about that because we waited and then they just come out of no where.  It's just disrespectful to do that.  Judith Light was walking and signing autographs all at once because she was in a hurry to get somewhere.  I tried getting my poster closer to get her to sign it and I just became star struck.  All I could think is that I am meeting Angela Bower from Who's the Boss.  It didn't seem real.  I was glad that she could sign my poster.  I wanted to yell out "You were awesome in Who's the Boss".  I'm not sure if I said it because I was too star struck to realize what I was saying.  I did hear Brooke yell out "You are amazing on Law and Order SVU".  Judith Light eventually made it out of the door and I met up with Brooke and we walked out behind her.  I wished I could of gotten a picture with Judith Light but just getting to watch her on Broadway and to sign my poster was good enough for me.  I really enjoyed the experience and normally I don't like plays or football.  But this play got me to like plays and I liked football a little bit.  I'm still not a huge fan of football.