Theater overview
JUST IN TIME
Two hours and 20 minutes, with one intermission. On the Circle within the Sq. Theatre, 235 West fiftieth Avenue.
{That a} musical in regards to the too-short lifetime of Bobby Darin, the Nineteen Fifties and ‘60s crooner who notched a string of hits earlier than dying younger at 37, would change into 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 despite the fact that Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons got here shortly after him, their present “Jersey Boys” seems like a Broadway of a bygone period.
However director Alex Timbers and his irrepressible star Jonathan Groff have made magic with “Just in Time,” which opened Saturday night time on the Circle within the Sq. Theatre.
For a bit over two hours, there’s nowhere you’d somewhat 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 will need to have been fueled by the dire prognosis he acquired as a toddler: Darin wasn’t purported to stay previous 16.
“Just in Time” is a wallop of pleasure, although. And whereas it doesn’t shrink back from Darin’s coronary heart struggles, anatomically and romantically, the musical isn’t gloomy.
What’s astounding is how the present manages to be, directly, each jukebox retro and to-the-minute contemporary.
Too typically, onstage musician biographies are tethered to and restricted by twitch-perfect impersonations and the identical outdated scene-song-scene-song components. They’re judged, clinically, like Madame Tussauds wax replicas.
What Timbers, Groff and designer Derek McLane do as a substitute is conjure the electrical energy of a late, boisterous night time on the Copacabana.
The viewers is located in a sumptuously imagined, glowing silver nightclub with a number of levels and an excellent band in again. Groff spiritedly darts across the room, leaping on tables and dancing with ticket-buyers just like the consummate host. The actor, bursting with charisma, sweeps away the outdated radio static from Darin’s classics like “Mack the Knife,” “Dream Lover” and “Beyond the Sea” along with his silky tenor.
Groff, by the way in which, is launched as, effectively, Jonathan Groff.
“I’m Jonathan, and I’ll be your Bobby Darin tonight,” he publicizes. The actor additionally amusingly factors out we’re, in actual fact, within 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 guide writers Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver that enables Groff to turn out to be Darin in his vigorous essence somewhat than a pile of pat mannerisms.
“Bobby wanted nothing more than to entertain,” Groff provides. After which he fabulously follows in his footsteps.
A lot of “Just in Time” is a unbelievable celebration. Ditties resembling “Splish Splash” that the youthful set will assume is a mother or father’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 a few of the finest work of his profession, and simply what this limping style wanted — 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 massive, and his rocky marriage to film star Sandra Dee (Erika Henningsen) present the private toll of fame.
Lawrence — whose identify feels like she may’ve landed a document deal in 1965 — makes a terrific Broadway debut with a hanging voice belting out tunes like “Who’s Sorry Now?” And Henningsen has actual authority with the extra full-throated emotional arc as her marriage collapses within 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 whole life.
The darker second act, for sure, doesn’t fizz as a lot because the extra harmless first.
However, very like Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen in “The Boy From Oz,” the superb musical thrives on Groff’s pure 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 large 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 nice as ever then, however the gravitas and world-weariness of a person who’s absolutely conscious his time is brief weren’t there but.
Properly, they’re now. And the way.
The Broadway season ends at present. One among its most pleasing exhibits has arrived simply in time.
