I have been following Writer & Actor Nick Blaemire's career ever since Glory Days premiered on Broadway in 2008 & I can't believe it took 18 years for us to officially connect here, but I am thrilled it has finally happened!

Out of the Box Theatrics has also been on my radar for over a decade. I still remember getting to see Alice Ripley perform during their early programming.

So, when I read about Nick's new show, Soon, which was being presented by OOTB I was immediately taken in & my mind was running a mile a minute with things I needed to know about Nick & the creation of this show.

In this interview, Nick answered my call to share: 

• How Soon is getting a new life through Out of the Box Theatrics’ Loft Series
• The song that almost beat him before becoming one of his proudest moments
• Why Glory Days taught him that failure is part of the artistic journey
• The advice he gives young musical theatre artists who are waiting for permission
• The dream he still hopes to bring to life beyond the stage
• So much more

Connect with Nick: Instagram

Connect with Out of the Box Theatrics: Website, Facebook, Instagram

What do you do with the time you have left? While twenty-something Charlie waits for the end of the world, Jonah waits for her to start living. But before time runs out, Charlie must do the hardest thing imaginable: open the front door.

Nick Blaemire's Soon is an intimate, indie-pop chamber musical about finding the courage to pursue your dreams in an uncertain world.

Soon is currently playing at St. Luke's Theatre in NYC through November 8, 2026. Click Here for tickets!

Soon is part of OOTB’s Loft Series and Custom Work Program. Out of the Box Theatrics’ Loft Season is a new developmental production series that offers artists a vital next step for emerging works and new ideas, providing the opportunity to present and refine their stories in front of New York City audiences.

Featuring limited production elements in an intimate and immersive environment, the series embraces a story-first approach that prioritizes artistic development and inspires creative solutions to theatrical storytelling.

Soon was developed and premiered at Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA in 2015. The New York City pilot production was presented at the East Village Basement in October 2025.

1. This fall your new musical, Soon, is part of Out of the Box Theatrics's Loft Series and Custom Work Program. How do you feel this program will help further develop Soon? I trust Liz Flemming (artistic director of Out of the Box) implicitly, and she gave great surgical notes on the draft of the show we premiered downtown at the east village basement last fall.

That process was so fast and furious that it was a privilege to take a few months to look under the hood of what we'd made and stress test it before installing it into this brand new performance space.

2. How did you come up with the idea for this show? It's based on relationships from my life, and my first few years living in New York -- with a bit of dramatic licensing, of course, in the context of a world-ending event.

I've always been scared about climate change and have felt the futility of my posts, donations and hand wringing. So I thought it might be cathartic to write a musical about it to give us a place to be together as we wrestle with these big impossible questions the world is asking of us.

And it has been cathartic, in lieu of an actual solve to the world-ending event in question.

Ava Delaney and Mylinda Hull
Out of the Box Theatrics’ Soon, Photo Credit Valerie Terranova

3. What do you hope audiences come away with after seeing Soon? I hope it helps them cherish their lives more deeply. We're so lucky to have them.

4. What was the hardest scene or song for you to write & why was it so difficult? The song "Avoid the Apocalypse" took me up until about a week before we started rehearsal downtown last year. It's sung by Mike Millan in the show, who plays Steven, who is trying to get Charlie, played by Ava Delaney, out of the apartment they share.

And it was at the behest of our director, Will Blum, who felt like the song we had in that scene previously wasn't pulling together the themes, or pushing the characters forward enough.

He was right, as he usually is, and he helped/forced me to write a song that I'm now proud of, and that Mike absolutely nails. But it took getting past all of my resistance to write it.

5. Which part of the show or song just flowed out of you? There's a big turn I don't want to give away, but I kinda stumbled upon it while writing and really got to ride the wave of learning about it along with the characters.

That scene hasn't changed at all since I wrote it -- but I've worked hard to set it up in the preceding scenes and songs, which took a lot of finessing.

Oliver Richman and Ava Delaney
Out of the Box Theatrics’ Soon, Photo Credit Valerie Terranova

6. According to press notes, "While twenty-something Charlie waits for the end of the world, Jonah waits for her to start living. But before time runs out, Charlie must do the hardest thing imaginable: open the front door."

• What is the hardest thing you've had to do in your career or life thus far? Wait. I am not a patient person, and I've had years without work. But every time I've thought about quitting or doing something else an amazing opportunity has arisen to pull me back in. Thankfully, after 20 years in this biz I've come to see the pattern there. But it doesn't make unemployment any more comfortable. It's part of the reason I write -- to give my brain something to do besides wonder what was gonna happen next.
• When are you glad you said YES to something that you realize if you didn't "open the door," it wouldn't have happened? I've been teaching songwriting down at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in my hometown of Washington DC for a few years now. It's a daunting task to stand up in front of a group of genius high school students and tell them you know something they don't -- but the spirit of open-hearted collaboration I've found in those rooms has been humbling and life-changing.

7. Press notes also state the show is about "the courage to pursue your dreams in an uncertain world." What is one dream you still want to achieve? I want to write and direct a feature film.

Mylinda Hull and Mike Millan
Out of the Box Theatrics’ Soon, Photo Credit Valerie Terranova

8. Speaking of the courage to pursue your dreams, you wrote the score to Broadway's Glory Days, which closed after its opening night performance. Looking back, what do you think made you keep going & not give up your theatrical career? I just love what I do. Failure is part of the job. I learned that young and it was the best lesson I could have gotten. I had a very unique grad school -- a first hand crash course in showbiz. And it has proven very useful.

9. What did you learn from your Glory Days experience that you now impart onto others who want to pursue a career in musical theatre? Keep going. Keep making stuff. Don't wait for someone to give you permission, or pluck you out of obscurity. Put stuff out. Don't wait for it to be perfect. Theater is about a dialogue with an audience, and you don't know what you really have until you have an audience.

10. What is something we didn't get to talk about in this interview that you'd like my audience to know about you? Come see SOON at Out of the Box Theatrics! And after you see it, come see A FEW GOOD MEN at Lincoln Center, and we can talk about both!

Nick Blaemire

More on Nick Blaemire:

Nick Blaemire is a Brooklyn-based writer and actor.

He is honored to be working with Out of the Box Theatrics to bring Soon Off-Broadway, after a sold-out run at the East Village Basement last fall.

Nick has also written the book, music and lyrics for August Rush (Old Globe spring 2027, with Tom Kitt), Life of Newman (with Randy Newman), Safety Not Guaranteed (BAM, Signature Theatre, with Guster's Ryan Miller), Space Dogs (MCC, Other Palace London, with Van Hughes), Glory Days (Circle in the Square Broadway, with James Gardiner), Disney’s Descendants (2500 productions around the world), A Little More Alive (Williamstown, Barrington Stage, KC Rep), Edge of the World (with Ethan Slater), Quixote (with Daniel J. Watts) and Fallout (with Kyle Jarrow).

Nick has released three pop albums, all available online.

As an actor, he recently played Adolph Green in Bradley Cooper's Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro for Netflix, followed by a live run of A Party with Comden and Green at the Carlyle.

A University of Michigan graduate, he is repped by CAA and Entertainment360.

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