Last season I saw Lombardi, a play about legendary Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi. It was pretty great stuff but both Mrs. Wife and I couldn’t imagine who, other than myself, would be interested in both football and plays.
Well, Lombardi is an unexpected hit. The fact that the Packers won the Super Bowl was an unforeseen bit of good fortune. This might have encouraged the Producing Powers That Be because I just saw another drama that drips testosterone. This time, they’re mounting a production that doesn’t include any female characters! At least Lombardi’s wife was major role.
That Championship Season is still in previews and has not been reviewed yet, so I don’t know what I should think.
Just kidding. It was pretty great stuff. A championship-winning basketball team reunites and every one of them is living a deeply flawed life—especially the coach, who is supposed to be their moral compass and mentor. Anti-champions. There’s copious amounts of drinking—an amount that stretches credibility.
Keefer Sutherland plays against type as a milk toast junior high school principal. I’m not a huge Chris Noth fan—he tends to be kind of flat—but he showed some real fire. Stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan embodies the soft victim. (Although, he couldn’t come up with real tears when the script called for it. I hate fake crying on stage. Amateur!) Brian Cox is a British national treasure. He’s never bad in anything. [He pulls off an authentic American accent. The next night, I saw him in the movie Red where he dons a convincing Russian accent. What a champ!]
Jason Patrick is also stellar. The added dimension is that this play was written by his father, Jason Miller. Imagine being on the big stage speaking dialogue that your father wrote. It’s a thrill that not many will experience. It’s a shame his dad isn’t alive to see it.
Trivia factoid: Sutherland and Patrick are reunited from the vampire film The Lost Boys, which my brother cleverly rechristened The Lost Boy Models.
Exile on Pain Street 
Put a picture of me at the end of that line-up and you got six handsome men! :¬)
sounds like yet another fabulous play with a cast like that.
No wonder the coach was a troubled drunk, he had only four players!
i would want to sit up front – all of that testosterone is certain to get me wound up! but would have to wear a rain poncho – there has to be a lot of the ol’ “grung, scratch, spit” thing going on…
You know how lucky you are, don’t you? Lots lucky. How’s your head?
map: I’ve often wondered how you would perform on stage in a play. You can certainly project as a singer. Ever think about it?nurse: I was worried because the play itself has been mounted in the past with middling success. But they pull it off. XL: That’s one of the plot devices! The fifth player is too ashamed to attend the reunion. Rent the film to see why!daisy: There IS a lot of Neanderthal scratching. Especially by Brian Cox. But it’s all withing the context with the story. None of it is gratuitous. dolce: Thank you for asking, dear. My head is healing quite nicely. I am sorry to report that the scar won’t be as pronounced as I had hoped it would be.
Brian Cox – a Dundee treasure and he looks like ma auld Grandpa the street fighter.Cheers, Sausage…
Interesting that this makes for a good play!You can always drag a fork over that scar if you want to make it more noticeable! 😉
Sausage: He looks a little like my Polish grandma (also a fighter).Ponita: I was considering revisiting the dermatologist and insist he reopen the wound and do a less professional job stitching it up.
Gaffigan needs to spend some time in the corporate world. Then his tears would be real.
Some cast!
kykn: One brainstorming meeting with middle management would give him enough bad memories for a lifetime of tears.Pat: All top-notch actors. Although, again, Gaffigan could have used more depth to his character.