Broadway's `Glory Days' opens and closes on opening night

NEW YORK — "Glory Days" didn't hang around Broadway long enough to gather much glory.

The $2.5 million musical about the reunion of four young men after their first year of college opened and closed Tuesday after one performance and 17 previews.

(enlarge photo) In this image released by Boneau/Bryan-Brown, Jesse JP Johnson, Steven Booth, Andrew C. Call and Adam Halpin in a scene from the Signature Theatre production of 'Glory Days.' . (AP Photo/Boneau/Bryan-Brown, Scott Suchman)

"We adore `Glory Days' and everyone connected with this production," producers John O'Boyle and Ricky Stevens said Wednesday in a statement. "Sadly, given the overnight reviews and our low advance sales, we believe it is prudent to close the show on Broadway immediately."

The show, the first Broadway effort by Nick Blaemire and James Gardiner (both in their 20s), received some of the most downbeat reviews of the season. While The Associated Press called it "a modest show ... with not much plot but plenty of emotion," the New York Post said it was a "self-indulgent hymn to the problems of early post-adolescence" and the Daily News sniffed: "Who cares? Who cares? Who cares?"

"Glory Days" originated at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va., where it received mostly encouraging notices, particularly from The Washington Post. Yet when the Post re-reviewed the show in New York, it said the musical had not been sufficiently reworked and at Broadway's Circle in the Square it "feels a bit undercooked."

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