The Broadway Theatre Review: Just In Time
By Ross
The thing that makes Jonathan Groff (Broadway’s Merrily We Roll Along) as Bobby Darin, eventually, work so well is the same thing that makes Just In Time, the new Broadway musical, based on an original concept by Ted Chapin (“Everything Was Possible – The Birth of the Musical Follies”), sparkle so bright and so damn charming. Developed and directed with finesse by Alex Timbers (Broadway’s Beetlejuice) with a book by Warren Leight (Side Man) and Isaac Oliver (“Étoile“), Groff leads us in dripping with more charm than many a star could garner, starting from the actor’s boyhood experience of connecting to Bobbie Darin’s croon while singing and dancing in his mother’s high heels in his childhood home, fantasizing about the similar desire that drove Darin with such impatient determination to stardom. Channeling the great Bobby Darin, Groff elevates this whole standard scenario, of rising record sales, gold records, romantic love, and the eventual loss of it all, that happens when a star keeps thinking it’s the road that is the problem, when it really isn’t.
None of the story, albeit charming, is as captivating as those first few moments when Groff, as Groff, so warmly lets us in to the start of something big, and to the parallel aspects of Darin’s career and life that he finds himself connecting to. That honest invitation is as invigorating and charming as it is vulnerable, letting us see inside the actor and his love of connecting to an audience with such sparkly clarity. Groff is a true star, maybe in a way that Darin always dreamed of, and with his performance in Just In Time, Groff, the wettest and most wonderful man on Broadway, may well have moved up and beyond the character he is embodying in this bio musical. Groff graciously ushers us into the show, without hiding himself, engaging us thoroughly and charmingly like few can. That smartly dressed, personal reveal makes the whole portrayal all the more captivating and honest than if he tried to stay masked the whole time from beginning to end, just presented this story from birth to Darin’s early death at the age of 37.
Backed by three of the most talented sparkly goddess-sirens I’ve ever seen and heard; Christine Cornish (Broadway’s Kiss Me, Kate), Julia Grondin (Muny’s Dreamgirls), & Valeria Yamin (Broadway’s Moulin Rouge!), kicking high and prancing like Vegas showgirls across and about from all angles and entrances that grace this shimmering stage, Just in Time rises up filling the golden framing with aplomb. Within minutes, we have been let in to the medical diagnosis of Darin’s that unleashed a “Dream Lover” at the age of 16, who was determined to rise as fast as he could, as told to us most engagingly by his Copa-loving mom, Polly, powerfully and emotionally portrayed by Michele Pawk (Broadway’s Seussical). Born Walden Robert Cassotto in East Harlem with his first breath, a cough, he was told he wouldn’t live past the age of 16 because of his faulty heart. But never bet against Bobbie, he reminds us, over and over again, just as often as the idea of always wanting more, regardless of how fantastic his life appears from the outside.
But as presented most gloriously at the reframed and bedazzled Broadway theatre, Circle in the Square, designed impeccably to resemble a period perfect nightclub of Bobby Darin’s dreams by Derek McLane (Broadway’s Death Becomes Her), with superb costuming by Catherine Zuber (Broadway’s My Fair Lady), show-stopping lighting by Justin Townsend (Broadway’s Here Lies Love), and a two-framed sound design by Peter Hylenski (Broadway’s Maybe Happy Ending), the joy of Darin’s life, to connect with an audience in the Copa Nightclub, or any nightclub really, with show after show of engagement and entertainment, plays out in the most intimate of ways. This expert cast of super talented stars moves and snakes their way through the crowded main floor of nightclub tables and chairs as smoothly as can be navigated, thanks to the fine work of choreographer Shannon Lewis (“Don’t Go“) backed by the most spectacular on-stage swing band one can imagine, thanks to music supervision, arrangements, & orchestrations by Andrew Resnick (Broadway’s Parade) and orchestrations by Michael Thurber (Public/SITP’s Twelfth Night). And we are dutifully and nostalgically hypnotized.
Just In Time spins itself most beautifully, like any “nightclub animal” would want, squishing and splashing forth in charming abundance, but the whole thing works far better than it should, given the straightforward material it has to work with. This is all because of the magnetic Groff and the talented cast that surrounds him. Pawk, as the maternal, former vaudeville singer who coached and prodded her son into his illustrious showbiz career, is an emotionally engaging wonder, playing forceful and commanding with a loving, maternal edge with ease. She gives the show its complicated, strong heart, a push that the show truly needs, much like his older and overly doting sister, Nina, passionately embodied by Emily Bergl (Broadway’s Good Night, Oscar) – who also does a great job playing the mother of Sandra Dee, lovingly portrayed by Erika Henningsen (Broadway’s Mean Girls).
And then in walks Connie Francis, beautifully embodied by Gracie Lawrence (Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls“), as Darin’s first love. Doomed by an overly-protective gun-totting father, the ’50s singer and chart-topping star finds the exacting formula in this connective unpacking to enrapture us with that showstopping voice of hers, matched only by Henningsen’s truly inspirational turn as Darin’s second love and first wife, Sandra Dee. Darin and Dee became, for a moment or two, Hollywood’s most famous it-couple in the early 60s after meeting on Darin’s first foray into movie acting. Darin had it all planned out, his rise as a crooner who would take over the screen like many of the Elvis idols he tried to mimic before him. And his plan for Sandra Dee from the first moment he laid eyes on her is just as determined.
Dee and Darin’s rise and fall story is the “same ol’ love story we’ve heard before.” Yet somehow, Groff and Henningsen find their way to make it emotional and engaging within a few well-performed, cheeky “18-roses” love songs. It’s quite the feat; to keep us so tuned in as we watch Groff’s Darin play out the role of bad entertainment husband who loves the spotlight more than his wife and family. By then, the story is zooming fast through Darin’s pivots and failed projects that take us from glitsy nightclub to denim Big Sur decampment and back again in record time. We know where this is going, as we were told by Groff as Groff within the first few minutes of the show. And Just In Time magically delivers the finale as scheduled, at the age of 37. And although it’s exactly as you imagine it would be; a celebrated, cliché-ridden ode to the magic of Darin, the show doesn’t linger too long before driving us back to the what makes Just In Time so magical; the live performance of Groff and crew, giving us all the unrepeatable charm of being in this here and now theatrical moment. The show is as exciting and completely rousing as both of these consummate showmen, Groff and Darin, would have wanted and dreamed it to be. So get yourself there, and embrace it.
