6 Songs From ‘Just in Time' That Capture Bobby Darin's Versatility

New York Times

07-04-2025

Before David Bowie, Madonna and Beyoncé made the idea of being a pop star synonymous with constant reinvention, there was Bobby Darin.
He 'could sound like anybody and sing any style,' Bob Dylan wrote of the singer in his 2022 book, 'The Philosophy of Modern Song.' Not only was Darin 'more flexible than anyone of his time,' Dylan noted, but 'even in repose he just about vibrated with talent.'
Neil Young, another rocker known for musical shape-shifting, expressed similar admiration. 'I used to be pissed off at Bobby Darin because he changed styles so much,' he told Rolling Stone. 'Now I look at him and think he was a [expletive] genius.'
It's that versatility, alongside his complicated life, that the new Broadway show 'Just in Time,' in previews at Circle in the Square Theater, aims to explore through Darin's swinging hits.
Developed and directed by Alex Timbers (a Tony winner for 'Moulin Rouge!') and starring Jonathan Groff (a Tony winner last year for 'Merrily We Roll Along'), 'Just in Time' is set in a nightclub, complete with an onstage band. While Darin is remembered for his magnetic performances, his story requires something more than a conventional jukebox bio-musical.
'His whole journey is trying to figure out who he is,' said Timbers, 'and that's paralleled in his artistic journey.'
Born Walden Robert Cassotto in 1936 in New York, Darin contracted rheumatic fever as a child, which weakened his heart and shortened his life. But that didn't diminish his musical aspirations: In 1958, he hit it big with the rock 'n' roll song 'Splish Splash.' Before long, he began experimenting with different sounds, revising the French song 'La Mer' into the breezy 'Beyond the Sea' and hitting No. 1 with his version of 'Mack the Knife' from 'The Threepenny Opera.'
Soon he was starring in movies, and in 1960, he met Sandra Dee on the set of 'Come September.' They married and became Hollywood's It Couple — the Brangelina of their day — but the relationship was troubled, and they divorced in 1967.
Darin became more politically engaged — recording more folk-oriented material and working on Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968. That same year he discovered that the woman who raised him was not his biological mother, but his grandmother, while the woman he knew as his sister was his mother.
The revelation sent him into an extended tailspin. Though he eventually began performing again, he died in 1973 at the age of 37 following open-heart surgery.
All this triumph and trauma finds its way into 'Just in Time,' which is based on a concept by Ted Chapin, inspired by a 2018 event at the 92nd Street Y. Timbers has been developing the musical — with a book by Warren Leight ('Side Man') and Isaac Oliver ('The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel') — for the past seven years.
During a rehearsal break, Timbers, Groff, the choreographer Shannon Lewis and the music supervisor Andrew Resnick gathered to talk about six songs that are central to the show — and to understanding the layers and mysteries of Bobby Darin. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
'Splish Splash'
TIMBERS It's delivered as a montage — you see him performing for the first time in a really lo-fi way, then he starts to get costumes and dancers, and by the end, we're recreating the 'Ed Sullivan [Show]' performance where he actually had the bathtub and the bubbles. We're embracing the kitsch of that but framing it in a way that you understand how it relates to Bobby's artistic journey and, ultimately, his rejection of 'Splish Splash.'
GROFF On the 'Darin at the Copa' record, you hear someone say, 'Sing 'Splish, Splash!'' And he's like, 'Oh, you're going so far back, I can't remember.' There's obviously a period where he's trying to [distance himself], but when you listen to that original record, it's magic.
RESNICK Later in his career, it's even more unhinged. He speeds up the tempo and it's kind of insane, it's really raucous. I wanted to capture that energy.
LEWIS The music has this loose, careening-down-a-hill vibe, and the choreography does, too. I pushed it really far. It reminds me of 'Hullabaloo' [the '60s musical variety show], this crazy looseness and weird quirkiness, but also iconic, where everybody remembers certain moves.
'Dream Lover'
TIMBERS A guy who finds out that he's supposed to die at age 15 is someone who is striving to make every day count. At the heights, he always wants more. He's climbed that mountain, and then there's a bigger mountain beyond that. And that's how 'Dream Lover' functions in our show.
RESNICK It's this pop-rock song that's based on a rumba, and then you have these singers with a high vibrato, almost operatic. If you take each individual element, you're like, what's happening here? For whatever strange reason, it coheres into this really delightful song.
GROFF We forget that as incredible an entertainer as Bobby Darin was, he was also a really eclectic, phenomenal songwriter. Also, Bobby Darin is a creative persona that he made. He was Bobby Cassotto, but he would say, 'I put my toupee on and I walk out the door as Bobby Darin.' So he's not looking for something real. He's looking for a fantasy — wanting not just a partner but wanting a dream lover. And in walks the dream of America's sweetheart, Sandra Dee. Be careful what you wish for.
'Mack the Knife'
TIMBERS The woman he thought was his mother was a vaudeville star. She was obsessed with the theater and the Copa and nightclubs, and she instilled that in him as the artistic gold standard. 'Mack the Knife' is the page turn for him, and it's so unlikely, a European theater song, but putting his own spin on it. And it's the thing that all artists dream of: authentic and commercial.
RESNICK He's not singing 'Mack the Knife' like a big band crooner, like Sinatra; he's singing like a rock star. His phrasing is much more rhythmic, much more percussive.
GROFF The song is about a man who doesn't appear to be murderous being the ultimate killer. Darin was the ultimate entertainer, but there's a lot of subtextual darkness. When you think of a killer, you think of this shark with teeth but actually it's just this guy that's got a switchblade in his pocket that you can't even see.
TIMBERS It's about death, and his life's obsession was death and mortality.
LEWIS But it's like showbiz death. It's very pizzazz-y.
'Beyond the Sea'
GROFF We watched Bobby Darin's TV special from 1973, the year that he died. He's singing 'Beyond the Sea,' but he's doing random jokes, kibitzing with musicians. So what could we take from that in the development of this number? We involve the members of the band and the actresses, name-checking them and making jokes and dancing with them. All inspired by his commitment to making things feel fresh every time he did them.
LEWIS There's an aspirational quality. It's kind of a miracle that it works, because there are these long, held notes, and then these unexpected percussive breaks. But it doesn't take you out of the song, it just gets you further in.
RESNICK The sense of longing comes out, for something that's not necessarily tangible. It's poetry, as opposed to — well, 'Splish Splash' is poetry, too.
'18 Yellow Roses'
TIMBERS '18 Yellow Roses' is autobiographical, about meeting Sandra Dee and falling in love. It's great musical-theater storytelling. Sometimes people talk about jukebox musicals like 'Well, it feels like the song is grafted on' — no, he wrote this song about this moment.
GROFF He's starting to shift genres toward the folk sound, like a first dipping of the toe. We tie this period to the dissolution of his marriage; this incredible, gigantic family secret that sends him into a mental breakdown; and his earnest engagement in civil rights and politics. He was fearless in his ability to strip it all down and offer something completely different.
RESNICK It's almost a fulcrum. We start with rock 'n' roll, you get to the big band swing, and then in the early '60s, these new sounds and textures start to enter, moving toward simplification. He thought he was going to die young, so as he heads into his late 20s, early 30s, there's surely a sense of 'How long is this going to last?' There's something about the honest expression of a folk song that speaks more to someone who is asking those questions.
'If I Were a Carpenter'
GROFF It's the ultimate entertainer asking, 'If Bobby Darin didn't exist, this thing I created for your entertainment — if all of that was gone, would you still love who I am? Would I still love who I am? Would I still be who I am?'
LEWIS It's a quiet moment. There's a tenderness onstage and a grounded-ness. Our show moves and moves and goes and goes, with urgency, because he had urgency in his life. And then he kind of stops — not completely, but slows down.
GROFF Singing it is therapeutic. The show is so relentless, his life is so relentless, and when we get to that point, it feels like oxygen, like meditation. There's also something bittersweet about it. There's a bit of regret, like he chose to go this one direction and had great success, but there was a big part of him that got neglected. That period of his life was a real turning point for him. He was learning that as much as he was doing it for the audience, he had to do it a little bit for himself.