Alumnus James Gardiner’s musical Glory Days, which premiered on Broadway May 6, might have had a more appropriate title: Glory Day.
The play, which Gardiner began writing in the summer of 2003 after his freshman year at the university, received positive reviews during its run at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va., earlier this year, but closed on Broadway just a day after its opening night performance.
The show’s producers, who decided to gamble on Glory Days – a low-budget musical about four high school pals reuniting after their freshmen years of college – and move it to New York’s Circle in the Square Theatre, issued a statement citing poor reviews and low advance ticket sales as the reasons for the immediate closing. Tickets cost between $97.50 and $201.50.
Though Gardiner declined to comment for this story, he did discuss the possibility of Glory Days’ failure in an April 29 interview with The Diamondback – in the midst of the musical’s run of 17 preview performances in New York before the official opening.
“There have been several people that have come up to me and said this is a breath of fresh air. And then there are other people that you can just see based on their reaction and they go, ‘What is this? This doesn’t seem like a Broadway musical because it doesn’t have all the underlines of a Broadway musical,'” Gardiner said. “That’s a risk that [the producers] took. Hopefully a New York audience will love it for what it is.”
While audiences were given an extremely limited opportunity to discover Glory Days, reviewers needed only the opening night performance to make a collective decision.
A May 7 New York Times review by Ben Brantley called the play “callow” and “stale,” writing the producers “have done this little, hopeful show no favors by dragging it into a spotlight that invites close and unforgiving inspection.”
Washington Post reviewer Peter Marks, who gave Glory Days a mostly positive review after its Arlington premiere last January, was less appreciative this time around, writing, “And while I stand by my endorsement of the promise and talents of the creative team, the show at this point comes across as something less a musical than a song cycle about the disintegration of childhood ties.”
Gardiner said in April that he is working with his Glory Days co-writer Nick Blaemire on a new play, but he admitted his ability to find more work in New York would be largely dependent on Glory Days’ success.
Gardiner, who regularly acted in university productions at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, was a member of the improv troupe Erasable Inc. and graduated in 2006, said he has acting gigs lined up in the Washington area for most of next year, preparing for the possibility that his play’s New York run could end early. He also said he plans to continue work on a production company he started with four other alumni.
“I’m trying to keep my eggs in as many baskets as possible,” Gardiner said.
penndbk@gmail.com
