Short-Lived Glory Days Will Get a Cast Album; Authors at Work on New Musical
By Kenneth Jones
18 Jun 2009
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Andrew C. Call, Jesse JP Johnson (top), Adam Halpin and Steven Booth.
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| photo by Scott Suchman | Glory Days, the pop musical about a reunion of four high school buddies, will get a cast album more than a year after its one-performance run on Broadway, the authors told Playbill.com.
The original spring 2008 Broadway cast of the musical by Nick Blaemire (music and lyrics) and James Gardiner (book) will reunite in a Manhattan studio July 2-3 to preserve the score for Sh-K-Boom's Ghostlight Records label. Jesse Vargas, arranger and orchestrator, returns as music director.
Glory Days premiered at Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, in early 2008, and an encouraging review in the Washington Post prompted commercial producers to take it to Broadway's Circle in the Square by spring. Discouraged by sour reviews, the producers shut it down the day after it opened. It played one performance and 17 previews.
The New York Times said the writers showed promise.
Blaemire told Playbill.com that the recording is in anticipation of an imminent licensing deal for the script and score. "There's been an overwhelming amount of requests for it from colleges and regional theatres," Blaemire said.
The show's first post-Broadway production was recently presented in Tokyo.
Blaemire said the album (and future productions) will include some material that had been cut prior to Broadway.
The album will feature performances from original Broadway cast members Steven Booth (Avenue Q), Andrew Call (High Fidelity), Jesse JP Johnson (Altar Boyz) and Adam Halpin (Rent).
According the writers, "Glory Days is the story of four best friends who meet on their old high school football field a year after having graduated and moved on to separate colleges. In the year they've spent away from each other, they've begun to grow apart in ways that they don't notice until they're finally back together, on the field that made them friends in the first place."
A release date has not been announced, but the recording is expected to be in stores and available online before the end of the year.
Blaemire & Gardiner are working on a new musical — a commission from Broadway Across America — about "two brothers who lose their mother and in the process of mourning her find out information that changes the way they view their family." The six-actor show has "a more acoustic sound, closer to folk" than Glory Days, Blaemire said. A fall reading is expected.
Signature artistic director Eric Schaeffer, who shepherded the show in workshops and directed in Arlington, directed the Broadway run.
For more information, please visit www.sh-k-boom.com or jamesandnick.com.
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Cast and creators of Glory Days: librettist James Gardiner, Andrew C. Call, Jesse JP Johnson, Steven Booth, Adam Halpin and songwriter Nick Blaemire.
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
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