Tony Ponturo Talks LOMBARDI

The new American play LOMBARDI is heading to Broadway after recently concluding its week-long, out-of-town engagement at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. LOMBARDI will begin previews at the Circle in the Square Theatre on Thursday, September 23, 2010 and officially open on Thursday, October 21.

Starring Dan Lauria and Judith Light as Vince and Marie Lombardi, LOMBARDI is written by Academy Award winning playwright Eric Simonson and directed by Tony Award nominee Thomas Kail. LOMBARDI is based on the best-selling biography When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi, by Pulitzer Prize winning author David Maraniss.

Joining producers Tony Ponturo and Fran Kirmser as special producing partner is the National Football League, marking the organization's first foray on Broadway.

The cast features Keith Nobbs as Michael McCormick, Bill Dawes as Paul Hornung, Robert Christopher Riley as Dave Robinson and Chris Sullivan as Jim Taylor.

The production was featured in the Sports section of USA Today this morning.

'Lombardi' comes to Broadway<http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/mccarthy/2010-07-29-lombardi-broadway_N.htm>
USA Today
By Michael McCarthy
July 30, 2010

The co-producer of the upcoming Broadway play Lombardi, about the life of former Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, is not a theater veteran but longtime sports TV executive Tony Ponturo.

Ponturo previously ran Anheuser-Busch's sports sponsorships and media buying. After leaving the brewer, he started Ponturo Management Group and then developed the play last year with co-producer Fran Kirmser.

Starring The Wonder Years' Dan Lauria, Lombardi opens Oct. 21. It's the start of a pop culture comeback for the charismatic coach, who won five NFL titles and Super Bowls I and II.

ESPN Films has cast Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro as Lombardi in a movie slated to open in late 2011 or early 2012.

Ponturo says late-blooming Lombardi's rise from obscure high school football coach in New Jersey to coaching jobs with Fordham, West Point, the New York Giants, Packers and Washington Redskins can provide lessons.

"At 35, he was still a high school coach at St. Cecilia. He didn't really get to the Packers until his mid-40s. Then by 57 he unfortunately passed away. So all of this aura that we think about with Vince Lombardi happened in this 10-year window," Ponturo says.

For more on LOMBARDI, log onto http://www.lombardibroadway.com>, or follow LOMBARDI on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LombardiPlay.

Photo Credit: BWW-Staff