Just In Time

Jonathan Groff in “Just In Time” is as good as
the Bobby Darin he creates

“Just In Time.”
March 31, 2025 - Open run.
Circle in the Square, 1633 Broadway (50th Street bet Bway & 8th Ave) NYC.
Presented by Tom Kirdahy, Robert Ahrens, John Frost and others.
https://justintimebroadway.com/
Reviewed by Lucy Komisar April 30, 2025.

Jonathan Groff starts this jukebox musical about Bobby Darin as himself, saying he will tell Bobby Darin’s story. “I’m Jonathan, I’ll be your Bobby Darrin tonight.” The show indeed shows off the voice and pizzaz of Groff as he recreates Darin. He is every bit as good a singer and performer.

Jonathan Groff as Bobby Darin. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

The link between fantasy and reality includes the set, with members of the audience seated at cabaret tables in the Circle in the Square center, lit with modern table lamps, cocktails, spindle-back chairs, facing an art deco style stage.

Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

He walks among tables as if this were real night club. One is a turntable atop which he stands and sings as it moves. Groff is a charmer.

The story is about his quest for success and a woman. He got the first, failed at second. Story corny but real. And common, because the self-absorption it takes for success in a show biz career often kills the attention to the partner needed in relationships.

PHOTO lk25067c Gracie Lawrence as Connie Frances, photo Matthew Murphy and Evan

Gracie Lawrence as Connie Frances. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

Darin’s iconic songs went from rock, which I’m glad he dropped, to pop ballads: The Sea, Splish Splash, Mack the Knife, Up a Lazy River, Dream Lover. He played the Copa.

But he couldn’t get Connie Frances to wed him, though she married four times. Frances is played by the terrific Gracie Lawrence, whose voice seems to have an embedded microphone.

He marries another singer, Sandra Dee (Erika Henningsen), who he met when they were filming a movie in Portofino, a gorgeous touristic port on the Italian Riviera. (Been there. Very romantic!) He was just 25, they have a child.

Erika Henningsen as Sandra Dee and Jonathan Groff as Bobby Darin. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

But he just wants another fan sitting at club tables; she ends up drinking. And he gets Charlie, (Joe Barbara), the brother-in-law who works for him, to tell her he wants a divorce. How tacky!

Also tacky, show girls with silver spangles and Elvis and Ed Sullivan impersonators to bring us back to the time.

Groff is a terrific performer – singer, actor, dancer. The script is clichéd; it’s Darin’s life but done cartoonishly. This show will do well in Vegas.

Jonathan Groff as Bobby Darin with Christine Cornish and Julia Grondin as showgirls. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

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