One-Man Play ‘Vince’ Fumbles Its Message

Is it possible? Was Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, a fascist?

As Richard Clayman’s and John Pinero’s often rambling one-man show, “Vince,” meanders along its course at Two Roads Theatre, your mind meanders too--sometimes riveted by actor Pinero’s uncanny resemblance in sound, image and spirit to the fiery football genius, sometimes making connections Pinero and Clayman (who also directed) may not have considered.

As the script alternates between a direct-address description of his career and a 1969 retirement speech in Milwaukee, we hear a repeated refrain of Lombardi’s values: devotion to discipline, loyalty, victory, church, family, state--and a deep skepticism about what he calls “the excess of individual freedom.”

Put these words in the mouth of another famous Italian speaker--Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, then take away the football context. What you have left is the unadulterated voice of fascism, which, ironically, many of Lombardi’s generation fought against in World War II.

Or, “Vince” makes us wonder, is there something in NFL football that brings out the fascist mind?

Or, as the program notes suggest--in reference to his “stirring” retirement speech--do Pinero and Clayman agree with the Lombardi ethic, which the coach meant to apply to life off the gridiron?

All of this brings a thoroughly unexpected weight and disturbing quality to the evening, and lends “Vince” a far darker hue than you expect from sports-hero theater.

After all, Two Roads earlier hosted the peppy “Matty,” the solo show about ace pitcher Christy Matthewson, which producer Edmund Gaynes subsequently took to an off-Broadway theater. Yet while “Matty” was fun and subtly theatrical, “Vince” is off-putting and theatrically uninspired.

Dragged down by the script’s flashback/flash-forward structure, the play feels longer than its hour running time. It trips over the cliches of the solo stage biography, and predictably wants us to feel that Lombardi is just a little bit better than everyone else around him.

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Granted, when it came to coaching, no one else was better. He blew into lowly Green Bay before the NFL had become a national phenomenon, and shaped the Packers into the awesome winning machine that ultimately nabbed the first-ever Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs. (No man was more hated by Los Angeles Rams fans in the ‘60s, for example, than Lombardi, who always managed to hammer the Rams on the frozen tundra of Green Bay’s Lambeau Field.)

But when he is a character declaring himself before us, Lombardi is downright scary--and deep down, you feel, wrong. Like a true actor believing his character, Pinero embraces all of Lombardi. You sense that his sudden angry outbursts, or his generous laugh, are absolutely true to the real man. They may not be part of what Lombardi literally was, but Pinero makes it feel true.

The performance, in fact, is the only thing you want to take away from this show. The part that is boring stagecraft is dull but harmless. The part that seems to celebrate Lombardi’s fascist tendencies is so creepy that you wish you’d never heard it--especially if you’re a fan of the Packers, who may be on their way to Super Bowl glory again.

DETAILS

* WHAT: “Vince.”

* WHERE: Two Roads Theatre, 4348 Tujunga Ave., Studio City.

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. Runs indefinitely.

* HOW MUCH: $12.50-$14.

* CALL: (818) 766-9381.