Five months ago, when Signature Theatre in Arlington
gave this small musical an intimate premiere production,
it was an example of the truism that, as with many things in life, the magic of live musical theater works best
when all the elements are in balance. The story fit the stage. The songs matched
the characters. The set felt right, as did the costumes, and the
performances were as clean and clear as the storytelling techniques of its
young authors, a pair of (then) 23 year olds who hail from Montgomery County.
Signature's Eric Schaeffer kept everything in balance in the 250-seat
theater called "The Max" in the building they share with the County Library
in Shirlington. Now, Schaeffer takes the show to Broadway. With the same cast and essentially the same design, no changes have
been made to account for the fact that the theater they now occupy is more
than twice as big, or that it shares a building not with a county library,
but with the 2,000 seat theater where Wicked
pulls in nearly $1.5 million a week. The choice to resist change may have
been artistically correct, for the musical's strengths were its scale, its
intimacy and the balance of all the pieces. It may also have been incredibly
financially risky. Of course, any transfer to Broadway is a big financial
risk, with this "simple transfer" requiring millions of dollars.
This reviewer liked the show at Signature and I still like it at the Circle
on the Square. Still, what
seemed oh-so-right at the end of the two-block shopping village of
Shirlington seems somehow skimpy when simply tucked into a corner on "The Great White
Way." After all, at $97.50, the ticket for Glory Days is just $22.50
less than the top price and, believe it or not, $42.50 more than the
cheapest seat for the extravaganza upstairs. |
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Storyline: Four friends gather in the bleachers of the high school
football field as they approach the first anniversary of their graduation.
They used to be fast friends, bound together by the shared experience of
having been rejected for the football team that played on this very field.
They haven't seen each other in that year and each has grown up a bit, and,
as a result, they have grown apart.
The 23 year olds who wrote this musical are Nick
Blaemire and James Gardiner. Nick who? James which? You might recognize
Gardiner, but as a performer, not a book writer. He appeared at
Signature in, among other musicals,
The Witches of
Eastwick (he was the young man Mark Kudisch tried to teach how to
"Dance With The Devil"). Blaemire did a wonderfully droll rendition of "Mama Says" in the production of
Footloose at
Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia and now, not only does he have a musical
playing on Broadway, he's in the cast of another Broadway show just a few
blocks away, having just opened in Cry-Baby at the Marquis.
As it did at Signature,
Glory Day's book and pop-rock score seem a bit
wordy in the early going, but settle into a highly effective pattern by the
time the big numbers such as "Things Are Different," "The Good Old Glory
Type Days" and especially "Other Human Beings" come along.
The four lads at the end of their freshman year of
college are played by the same four fresh faces who originated the roles at
Signature. Three are making their Broadway
debuts, including Steven Booth who leads the pack as a writer who convened the reunion.
The one cast member with Broadway credits (ensemble work in
Cry-Baby and
High Fidelity) is Andrew C. Call
who delivers a more impressive, deeper performance now than he did in
January as a frat boy whose self assurance is shaken by
developments revealed by Jesse JP Johnson. Johnson delivers the powerful
ballad, "Open Road," beautifully, while Adam Halprin provides a dash
of maturity as the one former high school kid who seems to have matured the
most in the first year of college. Each character is clearly drawn and fully human,
with weaknesses as well as strengths you might expect from young men of this
age.
Schaeffer keeps everything in the show in
balance even if it is in a bigger house in a more competitive environment.
The set design is simple ... a platform painted to simulate turf,
eight rows of bleacher seats and a bank of stadium lights as a backdrop that
can change color with the mood of the moment and create patterns and
movement when that will help get the message across. The costumes clearly
match the characteristics of each character and the lighting subtly segues
into night as the evening progresses. A band of four (keyboard, guitar, bass
and drums) sits behind the backdrop. Most notable, however, is the way the
entire production moves. James Gardiner's twin brother, Matthew,
was credited at Signature with "assistant direction and musical staging."
No such credit appears on the front page of the program now, but back in the
biographical sketches you can still find his labeled "assistant director." How much of the
energetic romping up and down the bleachers and the reclining over and
sprawling on the benches is Schaeffer's blocking and how much is Gardiner's
contribution isn't clear. But whoever saw to the pent-up energy of the
movement and the youthful posturing that marks the entire performance
deserves great credit.
Music and lyrics by Nick Blaemire. Book by James
Gardiner. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Musical direction by Ethan Popp. Music arranged and orchestrated by Jesse
Vargas. Design: James Kronzer (set) Sasha Ludwig-Siegel (costumes) Mark
Lanks (lights) Peter Hylenski (sound) Gregg Kirsopp (production stage
manager) Jess W. Speaker
III (stage manager). Cast: Steven Booth, Andrew C. Call, Adam Halpin, Jesse
JP Johnson. Musicians: Damien Bassman, Alec Berlin, Gary Bristol, Ethan
Popp. |
