Nick Blaemire in free concert at the Kennedy Center this Saturday

This Saturday night, November 7th on The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, musical theatre fans will get the chance to catch up with writer Nick Blaemire, whose career was launched at Signature Theatre with Glory Days in 2008.

Performing with him will be friends Emily Walton and Adam Chanler-Berat (Peter from the Original Broadway Cast of Peter and the Starcatcher) with music director Rich Silverstein on piano.

The free concert, which begins at 6pm, is part of Broadway Tomorrow, ASCAP’s weeklong tribute to emerging writers organized by Michael Kerker.

Glory Days, the after-high school pop rock musical written by Blaemire with his high school friend, Signature Theatre’s James Gardiner who wrote the book, received mixed reviews here, but became famous when its closing notices were posted on opening night in New York. Nevertheless, it’s done well for its creators having had more than 30 productions and a cast album distributed by Sh-K-Boom Records.

Blaemire’s musical Soon, about a love affair that blooms as the world faces extinction due to climatic weather changes, debuted at Signature this spring, and was embraced by audiences and critics alike.

Blaemire told us it can take up to 7 years to develop a new musical. “So it’s hard to write a musical that is still timely once it gets produced.” Blaemire expects the musical will have another production before heading for New York. And the premise has caught the eye of television producers. “Soon seems to be continually timely. It’s 65 degrees outside today in New York. And it’s November.”

Also on the playlist for Saturday’s concert will be songs from A Little More Alive, for which, as with Soon, he wrote both book and music. Emily Walton, appearing Saturday night, was in the cast for its first production last summer at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsburgh.

The audience will have a chance to hear songs from Blaemire’s newest musical Fallout! “It’s about two families from Westchester, New York. One of them builds a fallout shelter in their basement during the week of the Cuban missile crisis.” He is collaborating on this piece with Kyle Jarrow, both writers working on the book, music and lyrics. “Kyle is a wonderful playwright and song writer. It’s been very fruitful. This is the first time I’ve written with anyone since James Gardiner (Glory Days). I needed to learn about my strengths and weaknesses over these past 6 or so years. Writing alone became quite lonely.”

If you can’t make it to The Kennedy Center Saturday at 6pm for the free concert, you can watch its live stream anytime.
Click here to view and to see the full lineup for ASCAP’s Musical Theatre Week.