Glimmer, Glimmer, and Shine

by Warren Leight, Evan Yionoulis (Contributor)

Warren Leight burst onto Broadway with the Tony Award-winning play Side Man. Now Leight returns to the broken lives of jazzmen with Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine, which Donald Lyons in the New York Post declared "a marvelous ... play ... of jazzmen who made a mess of their lives, and a new generation without their demons." At the height of the big-band era, no other horn trio could wail like Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine. The only thing that could break them apart was life on the road -- full of drugs, women, and alcohol. For thirty-five years secrets have been buried and enmity has simmered. It is only when Daniel Glimmer's sheltered daughter, Delia, who never knew of her father's illustrious past, has a chance encounter with Eddie Shine's son, Jordan, that the old comrades in music are reconciled and their resentment buried.

"Leight's writing remains quick, graceful and generous -- a worthy companion piece to Side Man." -- Linda Winer, Newsday

"A thought-provoking and evocative play, rich with substance and resonance." -- Ed Kaufman, The Hollywood Reporter

"Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine is like an evening of good jazz -- sometimes raucous, sometimes bubbly, but deeply affecting." -- Howard Kissel, New York Daily News

Genres: Plays

82 pages, Paperback

First published November 4, 2002

Reviews

[Aaron Thomas]

I bought this play probably around 20 years ago, and it has sat on my shelves forever. I finally got around to reading it, and... it's fine.

It's emotionally affecting, and it's the kind of male-focused (and casually misogynist) play about masculinity and brotherhood that people used to write in the 1970s. I think I must've seen Warren Leight's Side Man back in the day when it was a Pulitzer finalist and made a splash, and Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine is a mostly charming companion piece to it.

You know... what I think Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine is is kind of a more realistic, slightly sharper and more hard hitting Tuesdays with Morrie. It's a much better play than Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of Morrie, but it's in that vein of older man–younger man wisdom.

[Rahadyan]

A moving play about an aging jazz musician, one of John Spencer's last stage performances, which I saw at the Manhattan Theatre Club some years ago.