Glory Days, the latest gemstone on Signature’s string of world premiere musicals, is a diamond in the rough. It is 85 high-energy minutes of song with some of the smartest dialog and lyrics you’re likely to hear in any musical, let alone a pop-rock musical. 
The show is also buoyed by across the board strong performances from its four talented young actors.
The show might have an image problem and an uphill climb with people who find post-adolescent angst both overwrought and uninteresting and who tsk-tsk at the first chord of an electric guitar in an orchestra (Is nothing sacred!). The show is described as “the story of four high school friends who reunite one year after graduation only to discover how dramatically their lives have grown apart.” Dramatically, I ask you? Can the journey from 18 or 19 years of age to 19 or 20 years old – short of the characters ending up in fatigues in Iraq – help but seem callow? Nevertheless, Glory Days is not The Breakfast Club: The Musical goes to college. True, it’s about students who bond in high school owing to their outsider status. True, it’s about the jock, the brain, the princess, the basket case, and the criminal. Oh, that’s one too many characters; someone has to go. See, it’s NOT The Breakfast Club. Seriously, Glory Days is about two young writers, Nick Blaemire (composer and lyricist) and James Gardiner (librettist), who intentionally, unabashedly and unashamedly follow the dictum, “write what you know,” coming together with a gutsy regional theater with a commitment to nurturing new works. And it’s a delightful collaboration and a good beginning.
Steven Booth (as Will, the show’s lynchpin character) has a show-opening song, “My Three Best Friends,” that delights and surprises with Blaemire’s fresh, clever, narrative-driven lyrics and his music. That number had me recalling my first exposure to the pop-rock show songs of Jason Robert Brown (who proved his classic show music genius with his Tony Award-winning score for Parade). Along with “My Three Best Friends,” the songs “Generation Apathy,” “The Good Old Glory Type Days” and “The Thing About Andy” are solid book songs that will reward musical theatre fans who take a chance on Glory Days.
Overall, however, less than half of Blaemire’s songs have melodies that really hook the listener; the remainder are somewhat nondescript boy band fare, serviceable and often fun, but not memorable. (Important disclaimer: Yours truly found the critically-acclaimed, Tony Award winning Spring Awakening painfully sophomoric, while everyone else in the audience appeared to me to be in the throes of religious ecstasy. Go figure.) I did not find Blaemire and Gardiner’s work the least bit cloying. Yes, I did cringe on occasion: Was there no better rhyme for football team than social regime? Blaemire also has the occasional Dylan-esque lapse or two: way too many syllables in a verse. He gave this cast a real run for their money to learn their numbers. But simply put, this show is smart, smart, smart.
As Will, Steven Booth gives an open, honest performance; he’s vulnerable without being mawkish. Andrew Call plays the misbegotten jock, Andy, who goes from high school outcast to college frat boy. His character is stereotyped and disparaged by the others, though they claim to value his friendship. The part harkens back to characters such as Joey on Friends, only here Andy is given an increasingly unsympathetic portrayal as the story progresses. His confrontational song, “My Turn,” is full of bombast but not much substance as far as I could make out. I wasn’t at all clear what Andy wanted and needed to say in “My Turn.” Adam Halpin plays Skip, a military brat who’s come through his freshman year in college not quite radicalized, but certainly more cynical than his three friends.
Jesse Johnson plays Jack, a “younger brother” to his friends. Jack’s reunion with the others is a personal challenge. In his year of transition he has confronted his sexual orientation and now wants to be open and honest with his friends whatever the fallout. Jack’s “coming out” song, “Open Road,” seems half-formed because the melody doesn’t grip the heart as it should. If only Jack”s hejira was rendered with a fraction of the artistry of Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira.” When rejected by Andy, Jack and Andy’s duet, “Other Human Beings,” packs a visceral wallop but, again, the material doesn’t match the actors’ splendid emotions. I felt that “Other Human Beings” would have resonated more strongly had it been directed as a quiet and disappointed/regretful song, not raucously confrontational one.
On balance, I strongly recommend Glory Days. Is the show perfect? No. Oh, but the writing talent is palpable and the acting is terrific. Some day when Blaemire and Gardiner are collecting a Tony award for one of their future collaborations, you ARE going to want to smugly tell your friends, “I told you so.”
- Glory Days
- Music and Lyrics by Nick Blaemire
- Book by James Gardiner
- Directed by Eric Schaeffer
- Produced by Signature Theatre
- Reviewed by Gary McMillan
- Running Time: 1:25, no intermission
- When: Thru Feb 17. Tues & Wed at 7:30, Thurs – Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 7 pm, Matinees: Sat & Sun at 2 pm
- Where: Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave, Arlington, VA (in Shirlington Village)
- Tickets: $40 – $69. Youth tickets: $22 – $32.50
- Info: Visit the website.
DCTS Podcast: Glory Days authors James Gardiner and Nick Blaemire interviewed by Joel Markowitz. Listen here.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks for the catch. You are exactly. right and we have made the change.
Unless the show changed radically since I saw it, I think every “Skip” in paragraph 6 should be changed to a “Jack.”