Comments on: Glory Days

By: Gary Lee Maker

Gary Lee Maker — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:18:12 +0000

I do not write very much any more regarding the things I see on stage. But after viewing the matinee of GLORY DAYS this past Saturday 1/26 I had to bring fingers to key board. … For anyone that enjoys musical theatre they SHOULD NOT MISS Glory Days. After being buoyed along for the shows eighty five minutes, I was certain that the crape of mourning for the future of the American musical can be tucked away in a draw for a good long time. … The quartet of talented & energetic young men that make up the cast are quite believable and likable. As mentioned in the review above, some of the songs resonate to a greater degree than others. But the fact that the composer & lyricist Nick Blaemire has managed to create some fine songs in his 1st musical effort is to be greatly applauded. I for one even enjoyed the songs that tended to annoy Mr. McMillan. The musical accompaniment to the guys was just fine for this particular show. … The basic story that the songs help drive worked very well for me. We all want to keep the favorite memories that helped us through the difficult adolescent years. This first post high school graduation gathering of these four male friends can be seen as the beginning of the reunions where the memories, like fish tales, will get taller & taller. …
All in all a fine entertainment that is one of the few
MUST SEE THEATRE attractions this season. … The extra bonus was the admission price. I took advantage of the Signature Theatre
RUSH TICKET policy to see GLORY DAYS. One half hour before show time Signature will sell unsold seats for $20. At my Saturday matinee there were many seats begging to be filled. I’d bet that you can score these bargain seats for almost any performance other than Friday or Saturday evening. Do call Signature to confirm the RUSH policy & for details. … There was a couple sitting next to me from Potomac, Maryland who had also picked up Signature RUSH tix.
This was their first visit to the new Signature space and they were as high on GLORY DAYS at conclusion as myself. … How can you not experiment with the show at the wonderful “Rush” price of $20.
Should you attend a performance of GLORY DAYS I hope you feel as rewarded as I did.

By: Kalyn

Kalyn — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:19:59 +0000

If you go, make sure you are seated in the center front section. The design is a thrust stage, and the blocking does not work at all for this set-up. I was terribly disappointed seeing this show as, being seated house left, I had to keep my head constantly cocked in order to watch the actors up on the bleachers, where most of the story is played out, with only occasional use of the “field” space in front. With all that blank space directly in front of me, I was constantly noting the folks sitting opposite (also with heads cocked in opposite direction), as well as the mass of audience tiered up to my right. You get absolutely no visual of the wall of stadium lighting behind the bleachers which, from all the press shots I’ve seen, creates effective silhouettes when viewed from the front, but is only a mass of light bulbs off to the side of what I could see. The blocking is completely done for the forward-facing audience, and I felt very gypped being seated off to the side. Also, I thought the sound quality at times was not good; fuzzy speaker above me; and I wonder if the mics were really needed in that size space. I found it distracting for their voices to be coming from overhead through speakers that buzzed at times. Otherwise, I enoyed the performances and thought it was well written. But the blocking most definitely needs to be tweaked, being more mindful of the sight lines.

By: Janet

Janet — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:50:27 +0000

I forgot to add that the cast are awesome singers. The audience probably doesn’t realize this because the cast make it look so easy. Thanks to Gary McMillan for his insightful review of this show. MetroWeekly also just posted their good review.

By: Janet

Janet — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:45:31 +0000

Glory Days is a very enjoyable show. I was at the first preview performance and the Sunday evening performance, the latter which was WOW. The casting could not be better. I highly recoomend this show. Too bad for the tragically hip such as buoy who are so jaded that they can’t just sit back and enjoy a delightful musical.

By: cheryl

cheryl — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:57:05 +0000

I’ve had the opportunity to see the show twice now- once during the Fringe and most recently during its current run at Signature. Is the show perfect - no (very few shows are) but it is very good. Even more importantly this work is by two young men (Nick Blamiere and James Gardiner) who are both just 23 years old. Nick and James have been working on this piece for the last five years. Its just amazing what these young men have accomplished….and like Gary indicated its going to be very exciting to see what lies in the future for the two of them. A good bit of the time that Nick and James have been working on this piece they’ve been mentored by Eric Shaefer and his colleagues at Signature. I think that Eric and the other folks at Signature should also be acknowledged for their contributions in this area…its wonderful to know that that they are providing such a rich environment for young artists to develop their talents.

By: lorraine

lorraine — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:26:04 +0000

Thanks for the catch. You are exactly. right and we have made the change.

By: Nevareh

Nevareh — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:38:01 +0000

Unless the show changed radically since I saw it, I think every “Skip” in paragraph 6 should be changed to a “Jack.”