May 9, 2008
Glory Days' Broadway Shot Ends In One Night
Signature Theater's Glory Days was only the second show in history to transition from D.C. to Broadway - and its run only lasted one night.
The musical both opened and closed its doors this Tuesday, after running for 17 preview performances.
What happened? Producers attributed the show's short shelf life to poor advance sales and negative overnight reviews. We didn't get the chance to catch the show when it was in D.C., but SanDiego.com theater critic Frankie Moran saw the NY version in previews, and told us the work's slight story - about four high school friends who grow apart after graduation - didn't make for particularly compelling theater.
"A valiant first effort by two young writers eager to tell their story, 'Glory Days' should find a nice home on high school and colleges across the country, but its quick and heady transfer to the commercial world of Broadway was an ill-conceived and expensive mistake," Moran said.
It's been a while since a musical has had an opening night bow - the last to do so was Dance a Little Closer in 1983, though it was a lot more commonplace before Broadway musicals became such expensive undertakings.
Still, Signature's work over the past few years has been stellar; we're sorry to see the show didn't work out, but in the meantime, we're still psyched to get to see Chita Rivera come to town next week for their production of The Visit.
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ouch, that sucks
This does not bode well for "Jack and Diane," my musical about adolescence in the Midwest showcasing the music of John Cougar Mellencamp.
Or my tribute to the musical Chess called "One Night in Bang-cock" featuring a serial pedophile shrimping fetishist and ABBA stalker.
...and if you're lucky the fetishist's a "she".
shouldve called it glory holes. wouldve lasted longer than cats.
still, a valiant effort for two young composer/writers! bravo, kids, for making it that far.
You're talking to a tourist whose every move's among the purest.
I get my kicks above the waistline, Sunshine.
Of course, let's not forget that NYC export that only made it One Night in DC (tm). Of course, her three acts were probably seen by a few more people.
Couldn't be any less entertaining than One Night in Paris.
To quote Rick Deckard, "How can it not know what it is?"
I did not see this at Signature because the subject (4 guys out of HS?) did not appeal to me whatsoever, but I read a lot of reviews (not just The Post, but City Paper, online ones, etc) & none of them were raves. Most of them were "nice try for new authors - needs work." So I was quite surprised that IT was chosen to send up to NYC very quickly.
The problem was that it SHOULD SHOULD SHOULD have been sent to an Off-Broadway or even OFF OFF Broadway theatre to fix up & build up word of mouth - tix would have been MUCH less expensive too. This s what happened to Rent & Spring Awakening - they both opened off-B-way first. "Glory Days" (do they play the Brooce tune?) does not appeal to wealthy midle-aged folks who can afford $80-100 B-way musical tix, but to young folks who may not be able to.
Another problem - Signature really crowed about this move publicly this past spring, got cocky. It's bad enough it closed early but after official opening night??? Embarrassing! It came back & bit them on the ass - shows you you should value the bird in your hand & not 2 in the bush, and don't get too big for your britches. Now people are lamenting "Spare criticizing the 2 young authors, it's not all their fault." Well these guys are not babies - they need to learn "the Biz" good & bad. This was a valuable lesson - don't spare them any criticisms or bad news, they were involved in the decision too.
In the end - poor choice for a show to send so fast to Broadway, instead of off-B-way, and a little longer after the DC run so they could improve it. Sorry Eric, I have NO idea what you were thinking except you took a huge risk & it backfired. Better luck with a better production - even Kathie Lee's evangelistic musical might have worked better, you would have at least got curious folk to attend...