Jonathan Groff parties like its 1965 in stellar…
Theater review
JUST IN TIME
Two hours and 20 minutes, with one intermission. At the Circle in the Square Theatre, 235 West fiftieth Street.
That a musical concerning the too-short life of Bobby Darin, the Nineteen Fifties and ‘60s crooner who notched a string of hits earlier than dying younger at 37, would become one of probably the most wondrous of the season was not on my Broadway bingo card.
He wasn’t a Michael Jackson or a Tina Turner. And regardless that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons got here shortly after him, their show “Jersey Boys” feels like a Broadway of a bygone period.
But director Alex Timbers and his irrepressible star Jonathan Groff have made magic with “Just in Time,” which opened Saturday evening on the Circle in the Square Theatre.
For a little over two hours, there’s nowhere you’d relatively be than at this dazzling dream of a New York that actually by no means slept, presided over by a Harlem-born singer whose output was so wealthy and rapid-fire that the person should have been fueled by the dire prognosis he acquired as a little one: Darin wasn’t purported to stay previous 16.
“Just in Time” is a wallop of pleasure, although. And whereas it doesn’t draw back from Darin’s coronary heart struggles, anatomically and romantically, the musical is rarely gloomy.
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What’s astounding is how the show manages to be, without delay, each jukebox retro and to-the-minute recent.
Too usually, onstage musician biographies are tethered to and restricted by twitch-perfect impersonations and the identical previous scene-song-scene-song method. They’re judged, clinically, like Madame Tussauds wax replicas.
What Timbers, Groff and designer Derek McLane do as an alternative is conjure the electrical energy of a late, boisterous evening on the Copacabana.
Jonathan Groff performs singer Bobby Darin the new Broadway musical “Just in Time.” Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
The viewers is located in a sumptuously imagined, glowing silver nightclub with a number of levels and a good band in back. Groff spiritedly darts across the room, leaping on tables and dancing with ticket-buyers like the consummate host. The actor, bursting with charisma, sweeps away the previous radio static from Darin’s classics like “Mack the Knife,” “Dream Lover” and “Beyond the Sea” along with his silky tenor.
Groff, by the best way, is launched as, nicely, Jonathan Groff.
“I’m Jonathan, and I’ll be your Bobby Darin tonight,” he broadcasts. The actor additionally amusingly factors out we’re, in truth, in the basement beneath “Wicked.”
The self-reference (he even jokes about his well-known behavior of spitting when he speaks) is a shrewd transfer by e book writers Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver that permits Groff to turn out to be Darin in his vigorous essence relatively than a pile of pat mannerisms.
“Bobby wanted nothing more than to entertain,” Groff provides. And then he fabulously follows in his footsteps.
Erika Henningsen performs Darin’s spouse Sandra Dee. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Much of “Just in Time” is a incredible occasion. Ditties comparable to “Splish Splash” that the youthful set will assume is a father or mother’s baby-talk turn out to be shock showstoppers.
Timbers, who additionally directed the atmospheric ragers “Moulin Rouge” and “Here Lies Love,” brings his distinctive sense of enjoyable to materials that doesn’t clearly scream out for it. Lo and behold, it’s some of the best work of his profession, and simply what this limping style needed — like Baz Luhrmann and “Elvis.”
Darin’s turbulent life offstage is roofed, too, although not exhaustively or exhaustingly. His relationship with Connie Francis (Gracie Lawrence), who he wrote songs for earlier than he hit it large, and his rocky marriage to film star Sandra Dee (Erika Henningsen) show the personal toll of fame.
Michele Pawk’s Polly performs a main position in the darker second act. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Lawrence — whose title sounds like she may’ve landed a file deal in 1965 — makes a terrific Broadway musical debut with a putting voice belting out tunes like “Who’s Sorry Now?” And Henningsen has actual authority with the more full-throated emotional arc as her marriage collapses in the public eye.
Bobby additionally loves and spars along with his mom Polly (Michele Pawk) and sister Nina (Emily Bergl), who hid an existence-altering secret from him for nearly his total life.
The darker second act, for sure, doesn’t fizz as a lot because the more harmless first.
Emily Bergl’s Nina has stored a secret from Bobby for a lifetime. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
But, a lot like Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen in “The Boy From Oz,” the wonderful musical thrives on Groff’s natural effervescence and skill to attach so deeply and personally with audiences.
“Merrily We Roll Along,” which he received a Tony for final 12 months, was a giant leap in his maturity as an actor. I’d truly seen him play Bobby in an early model of this musical seven years in the past on the 92Y. Groff sounded great as ever then, however the gravitas and world-weariness of a man who’s absolutely conscious his time is short weren’t there but.
Groff nails the half of a proficient entertainer who is aware of he’s operating out of time. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Well, they’re now. And how.
The Broadway season ends in the present day. One of its most gratifying reveals has arrived simply in time.
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