Frontmezzjunkies reports: Jeremy Jordan is taking over the role of Bobby Darin in Broadway’s Just in Time
By Ross
There are casting announcements that feel strategic, others that feel inevitable, and then there are the rare ones that feel like a gift to the people who have already fallen hard for a show. The news that Jeremy Jordan will step into the role of Bobby Darin in Just In Time on Broadway beginning April 21, 2026, feels very much like the latter. With Tony winner Jonathan Groff set to take his final bow on March 29, the baton is passing not just to another major Broadway talent, but to an artist whose vocal precision, emotional intensity, and restless charisma make him an inspired heir to this particular nightclub throne.
Just In Time, currently playing at the Circle in the Square Theatre, has thrived on intimacy and immediacy. As I wrote in my review of the show starring Groff, it “works far better than it should,” largely because of the magnetic performer at its center and the immersive, swinging world built around him. Groff’s performance was defined by a generosity of spirit, a willingness to let us see the man beneath the myth, and an open-handed invitation into the story. He “so warmly lets us in to the start of something big,” and that personal access became the show’s emotional engine. The idea that Just In Time will continue to live beyond Groff’s tenure already feels like a victory, and Jordan’s casting suggests the producers are intent on keeping that engine revving rather than simply preserving the show in amber.
Jeremy Jordan’s Broadway résumé reads like a catalogue of urgency. From Newsies to Floyd Collins to his current return engagement in The Great Gatsby, Jordan specializes in characters who burn hot and fast, men propelled by ambition, talent, and the sense that time is not on their side. Bobby Darin, famously told he would not live past sixteen and would be dead by thirty-seven, is cut from exactly that cloth. Darin’s need to push forward, to reinvent, to never settle, aligns uncannily with Jordan’s own theatrical instincts. This is a performer who understands what it means to sing like your life depends on it.
One of the great pleasures of Just In Time is how it embraces performance as communion. Set inside a meticulously designed nightclub space, the show blurs the line between concert, confessional, and biography. As I noted in my review, Groff “graciously ushers us into the show, without hiding himself, engaging us thoroughly and charmingly like few can.” Jordan’s version of that invitation will almost certainly look different, but that difference is part of the thrill. Where Groff radiates warmth and buoyant openness, Jordan tends toward intensity and drive. Watching how he navigates Darin’s charm, impatience, and vulnerability inside this uniquely intimate staging is reason enough to be grateful this production is getting a longer life.
There is also something deeply reassuring about this particular transition. Jonathan Groff and Jeremy Jordan are not interchangeable performers, but they share a seriousness about craft and a respect for audience connection that feels essential to Just In Time’s success. This is a show that thrives not on spectacle alone but on presence, on the sense that what you are watching is unrepeatable. As I wrote, the joy of Just In Time lies in “the live performance… giving us all the unrepeatable charm of being in this here and now theatrical moment.” Jordan, like Groff, understands that responsibility.
And yes, speaking personally, there is a selfish hope folded into all of this. I would love the chance to return to the Circle in the Square and see how this show evolves under Jordan’s command. If Just In Time is going to keep splashing, squishing, and swinging its way through Broadway, this feels like exactly the right kind of casting to ensure it does. The nightclub lights stay on, the band keeps playing, and Bobby Darin gets another voice daring enough to sing him into the now.
