Bella Vita Entertainment - Glory Days Press

For many of us, the best days of our lives start after high school, and if anyone doubts this, a quick look at the thousands of It Gets Better videos available for online viewing on will correct that misperception. At the same time there are those like Will in the Broadway musical Glory Days, who may spend the rest of their post-high school lives remembering how much better things were back then.

Though Glory Days vanished from the Great White Way as quickly as it came a few years back, Nick Blaemire and James Gardiner’s slice-of-teen-life musical is showing signs of a thriving afterlife in regional theater, especially if future productions are as terrifically staged and performed as the one now gracing the stage at the Lillian Theatre.

It’s Will’s invitation to his three best friends from high school to get together a year after graduation that sets Glory Days’ ninety real-time minutes in motion. The trio that Will (Derek Klena) has invited to the informal reunion are his college roommate Andy (Matthew Koehler), Ivy Leaguer Skip (Alex Robert Holmes), and Jack (Ian Littleworth), who’s gone off who-knows-where. At first the trio are clueless as to why Will has summoned them to the football field, a curious choice given their complete lack of interest in the sport during their high school years. Soon enough, though, Will explains to his friends his plan—to pull one major prank on the football heroes who ostracized them throughout high school, a suggestion which prompts reactions ranging from approval to downright disinterest.

As they get ready to put the plan in motion, the boys catch up on the first year of their post-high school lives. Jack in particular lets drop a personal bombshell, one which will lead to major changes in how each friend sees the other and may quite possibly portend the end of their Four Musketeers Against The World camaraderie.

Younger audiences will likely respond more enthusiastically to Glory Days’ four heroes than over-thirties, who may wonder if these still-too-young-to-drink teens provide enough meat for a ninety-minute musical. After all, isn’t a year out into college rather too short a time to already be looking back at high school with the kind of nostalgia all four boys express in “The Good Old Glory Type Days”? At the same time, Blaemire and Gardiner have created four very real young men whom audiences of all ages will recognize and identify with, and by the time Will closes the show with the sadder-but-wiser (yet still optimistic) “My Next Story,” they are four teenagers we’ve come to know and to care about.

As a vehicle for Blaemire’s catchy, rock-tinged songs and a performance showcase for four up-and-coming musical theater talents, Glory Days is an all-around winner.

In the mere eight months since he made his adult professional debut in Cabrillo Music Theatre’s production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Klena’s trajectory towards stardom has been a swift one. Cast rather against type as Will (the UCLA sophomore’s football hero/prom king looks don’t match the social outcast with a “big Jew nose” sung about in “Good Old Glory Type Days”), Klena nonetheless makes an absolutely stellar impression, dazzling the audience with charm, charisma, and natural acting gifts. In addition, Blaemire’s songs give Klena the chance to show off a rocker’s voice quite different from the legit one his musical theater roles usually afford him. All in all, a star-making performance for the nineteen-year-old.

Supporting performances are equally splendid, Holmes, Koehler, and Littleworth revealing rich, powerful vocals skills and acting chops to match. Skinny shaggy-haired Holmes is a pitch-perfect choice to play group cynic Skip, his terrifically performed “Generation Apathy” an anthem for (and criticism of) the couldn’t-care-less teens of today’s privileged America. Spunky redheaded Koehler is another case of spot-on casting in the role of Andy, the actor revealing the complex mix of betrayal, anger, and confusion felt when a treasured friend turns out not to be the person he’d seemed to be. Recent USC grad Littleworth makes Jack a boy you can’t help but like, rendering Andy’s reaction to his news all the more cruel, and sings “Open Road” with sincerity and depth.

Calvin Remsberg’s incisive, ingenious direction not only brings out the best in his cast but insures that Glory Days never becomes static, the veteran director using Andy Hammer’s absolutely sensational football field set in a variety of inventive ways. Jeremy Pivnick’s gorgeous lighting design is one of his very best, enhancing each and every song and mood with vivid color changes. Costume designer Mara Bear has picked just-right gear for each of the guys to wear. Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski’s sound design is a textbook example of how to blend and focus voices and musical accompaniment to best suit each song. The latter comes courtesy of musical director extraordinaire James May, who not only conducts the offstage orchestra to perfection but plays bang-up keyboards as well, with the equally proficient Justin Smith on guitar, Ken Wild on bass, and Brian Boyce on drums.

Glory Days is produced by Anthony Gruppuso, Remsberg, and Tricia Small Stabile. Ronn Goswick is production stage manager.

Glory Days shows just how significant an hour and a half of life can be. With likable characters and songs that cry for a second listening, it makes for an entertaining evening of theater that will bring back memories of just how wonderful (or the opposite of wonderful) high school was for us all.

The thing about the Golden Age of one's life is that when it's happening you think it will never change — but somehow it always does, and rarely for the better. Composer Nick Blaemire and writer John Gardiner's unusually wise and energetic musical is all about the inevitability of growing up and how we frequently outgrow even our most valued friends. A year after high school graduation, four small town pals reunite on the local football field, intending to perform a silly prank at the next day's varsity game. Group ringleader Will (Derek Klena) is deeply nostalgic about his friendship with his old pals, all of whom remember him fondly but have moved on: Wisecracking cynic Skip (Alex Robert Holmes) is attending an Ivy League college, while strong, silent Jack (Ian Littleworth) appears to have lost his zest for the old pals. Only red-haired frat boy Andy (Matthew Koehler) seems to be interested in keeping the friendship going, and he's turning into a bit of a thug. Things take a turn when one of the pals makes an unexpected revelation that pretty much reduces the friendship to post-it-in-the-memory album status. Director Calvin Remsberg's brisk, vivid staging beautifully conveys the passion and vigor of youth — and musical director James May's lively interpretation of Blaemire's sometimes haunting, sometimes ferocious rock musical score, artfully captures that moment when silly teenagers suddenly realize they're becoming somebody else. This is indeed the sort of show in which the four characters, archetype man-boys all, could easily have strayed into sentimental cliché, but the ensemble limn the sort of tautly defined, personality-rich figures whom you will swear you recall from your own high school days. Klena, a likable young actor, possesses a powerhouse voice and his belts, particularly in the opening and closing numbers, show great range and harmony. Nicely sensitive turns are also offered by Holmes's sardonic, but warm Skip (a Jughead surrogate if ever there was one), and by Littleworth, whose rendition of "Open Road," a song about a year spent wandering the country, is the show's evocative highlight. (Paul Birchall).

There's bound to be curiosity about a musical written by two previously unknown 20-year-olds, which made a swift—albeit unsuccessful—journey to Broadway.

The enterprising youngsters from Washington, D.C.—songwriter Nick Blaemire and librettist James Gardiner—caught the attention of Eric Schaffer, artistic director of Virginia's Signature Theatre, who staged their creation at his venue in January 2008, then took it to New York, where it played 17 previews, closing following opening night. It's not surprising that this unpretentious portrait of 20-something angst proved out of its element on the Great White Way. In its premiere L.A. rendition as a bare-bones four-hander, the piece is modestly charming, enhanced by a quartet of winning performers.

Director Calvin Remsberg helms a lean 90-minute production, showing his eager young actors off to good advantage as they belt and croon their way through Blaemire's appealing pop-rock songs reminiscent of Jonathan Larson's "Rent" score. The mostly declaratory numbers, backed by a four-man combo under the expert music direction of James May, neatly dovetail into Gardiner's minimally plotted book.

A year following graduation, four pals reconvene at their high school football field. All had been ostracized by snobby classmates and arrogant athletes, thus forming a close bond among themselves. The boys discuss a revenge plot, but they get sidetracked as they reminisce and realize ways they have grown apart. A startling revelation from one lad becomes a catalyst for further ruminations on the durability of friendship.

As Will, a sensitive soul who keeps a diary, the superb Derek Klena belts out the exuberant introductory number, "My Three Best Friends." Alex Robert Holmes excels as the once-outspoken rebel Skip, who now has become more of a voice of reason. As the swaggering Andy, the character closest to being unlikable, Matthew Koehler brings welcome tension to the generally low-key proceedings. The engaging Ian Littleworth takes the pivotal role of sweet-tempered Jack, also upping the dramatic ante in his soaring ballad, "Open Road."

Andy Hammer's simple but evocative scenic design provides a credible background for the high school setting, and Jeremy Pivnick's fine lighting sharpens the dramatic transitions. Blaemire, Gardiner, and the excellent ensemble cast are budding talents worth watching.

Presented by Bella Vista Entertainment at the Lillian Theatre, 1076 Lillian Way, Hollywood. Mar. 19–Apr. 24. Thu.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (323) 960-7792. www.plays411.com/glorydays.

It’s a musical Nick Blaemire [pronounced BLAY-mire] began writing in 2003 as a freshman at the University of Michigan, where he was studying musical theater performance. “It’s about the experience I went through with my four best friends in high school, realizing we were going through our first major transition from being kids to actually taking responsibility for things. It was a really important juncture.”

Although Blaemire is a musician, the first chords he ever wrote, he says, were for the opening number in Glory Days. As he penned the music and lyrics, his friend James Gardiner wrote the book. “We started writing about that first transition when you become a man before you realize it. We showed it to [artistic director] Eric Schaeffer who was kind enough to help develop it with us at his Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. He fostered the hell out of it and gave us our world premiere in January 2008.”

The response, says Blaemire, was shocking. “We thought we’d get a sweet little response and we’d go back to our lives. Instead, we got this overwhelming sell-out, critical surprise.”

The interest was so intense, and the hope so high, investors opened their checkbooks and lines of credit. The result was a quick engagement at Circle in the Square Theatre on 50th Street in New York City. Only five months after the premiere, the show was on Broadway. “We wanted to get in under the Tony wire, which meant we had to open in May” — early in May. ”We rehearsed, went into tech and did 17 previews. Then our opening night [on May 6] was a fucking great show.”

Blaemire, who was 23 at the time, 24-year-old Gardiner and the cast were stoked. Simultaneously, Blaemire was acting in the musical Cry-Baby on Broadway, feeling pulled in all directions. The day after Glory Days opened, he was teaching a song to a group of college students. His phone rang. “I found out then that Glory Days was closing. It couldn’t have been more poetic. It was a bad situation and it was sad but I think it came out okay for everybody.”

The irony is not lost on Blaemire: He wrote a musical about the moment boys become men and, five years out of high school, he opened and closed on Broadway “in a minute and a half. Our reviews were tepid, and I think the producers figured they couldn’t get the money to continue through the summer. But to be honest, I wouldn’t change a thing about it.”

When it happened, Blaemire felt sad because he thought the cast had more to give. “But I was sadder for our actors because they’re my friends and I told them to leave jobs so they could be part of my thing, and I felt bad about that. But to be honest, nobody gets the chance we got.”

For Blaemire, his moment of realizing he had become a man occurred when his phone rang with the news the show was done. “I had been feeling really out of my league. I think James and all the other guys who were in the show — Steven Booth, Adam Halpin, Andrew Call and Jesse J.P. Johnson – all went through a big metamorphosis with me and we’re like, okay, we won’t take things as seriously from now on. There’s a way to do this that’s still fun. We learned to be careful about whom you trust and those are all good lessons. This show now has a special place in my heart because of it.”

The idea of writing about emerging from high school on the journey to manhood first occurred to Blaemire in 2003 when he was 18 and home from his freshman year in college. “Everything was different with my friends when I got home and it freaked me out, so I wrote a draft in three weeks. We did a reading at the end of the summer and realized there’s something here.” He previously had written only one other piece, a one-man high school senior thesis called When I Grow Up.

“I started writing songs [with no chords] about girls I liked at 15,” says Blaemire. “I didn’t really know what I was doing but taught myself guitar and piano when I started working on this show. My dad’s a huge Beatles and Bruce Springsteen fan and my mom’s a huge theater fan, so I got both and it’s a good mix. I feel very lucky in how I was brought up musically because it’s allowed me to have an open mind about what’s possible.”

The musical style, he says, is a tamer, more suburban version of American Idiot. “It’s not a particularly ‘cool’ show but I’d put it somewhere between Suburbia, the play by Eric Bogosian and, I guess, American Idiot. It’s a good mix of electric and acoustic guitars.”

He cites Jason Mraz as a good example of the style of music that Glory Days tries to embody. “We tell the actors, ‘the songs should feel like things you’ve heard on the radio but they’re speaking like the most important, most emotional moments in the scene’.”

He took cues from Kevin Williamson who wrote Sony Pictures Television’s Dawson’s Creek. “He had this erudite speaking voice for his teenaged characters. Aaron Sorkin is another one who does a good job portraying youth in an intelligent way. We tried to make sure we could do that. I certainly don’t want to see a bunch of whiny teenagers on stage and they start to sing, it’s like, oh God. We were careful to keep characters with a sense of integrity but who also have a lot to learn, which they learn over the course of a night.”

Blaemire is humble in discussing what he has learned, including feeling his talent is far from fully developed. “I don’t know – I’m still waiting for it to fully begin, to be honest with you. I feel like I’m learning exponentially every day these days. But now I can work on new projects feeling like I cut my teeth on just an experiment.”

These days, Blaemire is able to earn a living writing music for others from his home in Harlem. “I am a self-sufficient composer. I’m able to pay my rent through writing. I’m doing two new projects. I got really lucky and I think one of the reasons why this show has been such an important thing, it has allowed me, in a not-so-glorious fashion, to sustain myself as an artist which is a great feeling.”

Glory Days opens in Los Angeles on March 19. The director is Calvin Remsberg, a former resident of Arlington, Va., where he used to live within two blocks of the same Signature Theatre that would later stage the Glory Days premiere. From his current LA home, Remsberg tracked the progress of the show in Arlington and in New York, although he didn’t see it.

The text hasn’t changed since that one performance on Broadway. “We actually had an offer to do the show at a really wonderful theater and to really re-open it, fix some of the things we didn’t have time to do during previews and to rewrite some songs,” says Blaemire. “It sounded really interesting and I started to really get into it. I talked to James [Gardiner] and he was like, ‘You know, we could work on that show the rest of our lives or we could go write other things’.” Blaemire, who’s an actor as well as a writer, will be in the cast of the tour of Bring It On, the high school-set musical that will play the Ahmanson Theatre next fall.

Blaemire says he and Gardiner agree they are proud of Glory Days, even though there are changes he would like to see. “I think the show could be better but, intrinsically, there are other things I would rather work on. It’s been nice to come back and see the show and see how others interpret what we wrote. I’ll come out for the opening and just take it for what it is.”

Glory Days, produced by Anthony Gruppuso, Calvin Remsberg, Tricia Small Stabile and Bella Vita Entertainment, opens March 19; plays Thur.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 3 pm; through April 24. Tickets: $32. Lillian Theatre, 1076 N. Lillian Way, Hollywood; 323.960.7792, plays411.com/glorydays or brownpapertickets.com/event/159876.

Producers Anthony Gruppuso, Calvin Remsberg, Tricia Small Stabile, and Bella Vita Entertainment have announced the Los Angeles premiere of Glory Days, a musical by Nick Blaemire & James Gardiner, directed by Calvin Remsberg, at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood for a limited engagement. There will be two preview performances on Thursday, March 17 and Friday, March 18 at 8pm, and opening is set for Saturday, March 19 at 8pm. Performances will continue through April 24 only.

Glory Days is a new musical with music and lyrics by Nick Blaemire and book by James Gardiner that premiered at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, on January 15, 2008. The production opened to enthusiastic reviews, including a rave in The Washington Post. The show then moved to the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway, where after seventeen previews, it opened … and closed … on May 6, 2008.

Glory Days is the story of four high school friends who, after a year away at college, reunite on the bleachers of their high school football field. We soon learn the purpose of the midnight meeting: the boys are planning a prank seeking revenge on their high school football team, who tormented the four during their school years. Things do not go smoothly, as the boys find they have grown apart … and their friendship is not what it was. Said Peter Marks in The Washington Post, “Glory Days is a fresh and vivacious one-act musical … real, and surprisingly moving.”

The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Alex Robert Holmes, Derek Klena, Matthew Koehler, Ian Littleworth, Jeffrey Scott Parsons, and Alex Martinez Wallace. The set design is by Andrew Hammer, lighting design is by Jeremy Pivnick, costume design is by Mara Bear, and sound design is by Joseph Slawinski. James May serves as musical director, and the production stage manager is Ronn Goswick.

Glory Days will play two preview performances on Thursday, March 17 and Friday, March 18 at 8pm, and opening night is set for Saturday, March 19 at 8:00. The limited engagement will continue through Sunday, April 24. Preview tickets are $20; all seats beginning March 19 are $32. Tickets may be purchased by visiting www.plays411.com/glorydays or www.brownpapertickets.com/event/159876 or by calling (323) 960-7792.

The Lillian Theatre is located at 1076 Lillian Way (one block west of Vine, just off Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood. Street parking is available.