Glory Days
Glory Days
By Nick Blaemire and James Gardner
Directed by Ryan Roberge
Musical Direction by John R. Mason III
Airhead Productions
Studio Theatre, Orlando FL</strong>
Not many shows set their emotional bar as low as “Glory Days.” Will (James Channing) reunites his other nerdy buddies a year after high school graduation. None of them made the cool football team, and he’s out for vengeance: he’s going to turn on the sprinklers during the “Senior – Alumni” foot ball game. Supporting him is frat boy Andy (Kyle Stone), the logical Skip (Ross Alagna) and ambiguous Jack (Sean Flynn). It’s good to hook up again, but no one shows much enthusiasm for the sprinkler prank and it fades when the keys don’t work, Will’s possibly imagined girlfriend “Horse face” Henrietta doesn’t have the real ones, and Skip brings beer. Eventually someone comes out of the closet, and we wonder if any other secrets lurk in this well adjusted group of ordinary guys. There aren’t.
The singing doesn’t always project to the back of the room, but theater are some nice songs – “We’ve Got Girls (by The Balls)” and “Open Road” have some legs, “The Thing About Andy” offers a smidgen of surprise, and “My Next Story” shows Will is over his plan to sprinkle a game that is often as not played on muddy fields. In the world of vengeance, Will needs to aim much higher, and while his other friends seem to have their lives in order, he feels at loose ends. Perhaps tonight’s failed prank will set him straight.
While the cast seemed nice enough, there was little audience involvement beyond the director. The story and people in it are flat and thinly drawn, and what conflict arises never seems important on stage. Some background checking shows this Broadway one night stand had a solid four week run in the DC area, and then a short preview run followed by a cancellation. It’s not a bad show; it’s just not an interesting one.
