Broadway Musical "Glory Days" Opens And Closes On Same Night

NEW YORK — "Glory Days" didn't hang around Broadway long enough to gather much glory.

The $2.5 million musical about the reunion of four young men after their first year of college opened and closed Tuesday after one performance and 17 previews.

"We adore `Glory Days' and everyone connected with this production," producers John O'Boyle and Ricky Stevens said Wednesday in a statement. "Sadly, given the overnight reviews and our low advance sales, we believe it is prudent to close the show on Broadway immediately."

The show, the first Broadway effort by Nick Blaemire and James Gardiner (both in their 20s), received some of the most downbeat reviews of the season. While The Associated Press called it "a modest show ... with not much plot but plenty of emotion," the New York Post said it was a "self-indulgent hymn to the problems of early post-adolescence" and the Daily News sniffed: "Who cares? Who cares? Who cares?"

"Glory Days" originated at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va., where it received mostly encouraging notices, particularly from The Washington Post. Yet when the Post re-reviewed the show in New York, it said the musical had not been sufficiently reworked and at Broadway's Circle in the Square it "feels a bit undercooked."

Comments

[IntrepidReader]

I have no idea what the authors did with it, but the idea of how much kids can change after they go away to college could be pretty interesting. Some kids reinvent themselves as soon as they get away from home, others do a lot of growing up in a hurry, while still others are overwhelmed and wind up drinking, drugging and partying until they flunk out. I have always felt that I did all my major changing (a combination of reinventing and growing up fast) during my freshman year and after that came a gradual process of the "new me" turning into the adult I became. I also know that in my case, friends from high school no longer fit in my life.

[foxflood]

It's really sad for the performers and all of the crew, who likely needed the work. I wish them the best.

[GayIthacan]

Jesus - why would anyone CARE about the lives of 4 college grads ONE YEAR after graduating? Who could possibly think ANYONE would pay to see such vapid nonsense? Even reading the premise nearly put me to sleep.

If it had concerned a group of 4 friends maybe 30 or 40 years after graduating - MAYBE (though that has been done in other forms many times before) - - but to think anyone would pay to see such a play is beyond me - and constitutes part of the argument that, while todays youth thinks the world revolves around them and their 'feelings', the sad truth is that it clearly could not possibly care less.

[moober]

(sorry, this was a reply to 'onedivasinger' below)

[moober]

Bullsh*t. Two of the best-reviewed musicals to open on Broadway this year are "In The Heights" with a mostly Latino cast and "Passing Strange" with a mostly African-American cast.

[TurgidCaterwauling]

Uh oh, sounds like Broadway is ready for another Disney cartoon, some more Mel Brooks, and a few more movie adaptations.

[onedivasinger]

Ah, yes, Broadway. One of the last places where almost total segregation and discrimination exists without legal consequences. Tons of opportunities as long as you are a young, thin white guy or an anorexic and shockingly thin young white woman. The powers that be wouldn't know a new, creative or great idea if one jumped up and bit them in the ass. The photo with this article says it all. The show closed because it mimics the thought pattern of those whose minds are as closed as the show.

[RedWhiteandBlueState]

"The $2.5 million musical about the reunion of four young men after their first year of college"

The producers of this ought to be run out of town. That premise is so soft I'm yawning already. More like Brokeback Summer.

[theidaexpress]

If it was that bad, what idiot put it on Broadway to begin with?

http://www.theidaexpress.com

[Paralogos]

Um, ever see "The Producers"?