‘Just in Time' Review: Jonathan Groff's Playful Portrait of Bobby Darin
New York
An early death is tragic, but it has been mordantly—or morbidly—observed that it can spur enduring interest in a show-business career. Bobby Darin has been remembered as much for his early demise as for his work, which may in part explain the arrival on Broadway of 'Just in Time,' a glossy and vibrantly performed musical about the 1960s star, who died at just 37 years old in 1973. He had a string of hit singles and also appeared in films, but is hardly as well-known today as most of the performers previously lionized in musicals.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Glee Reunion: Chris Colfer and Darren Criss Bring #Klaine to the Tonys, 10 Years After Series Finale
The 2025 Tony Awards was a big night for a lot of people — but mostly for the cast of Glee. Where do we even begin? Perhaps with Jonathan Groff (aka Jesse St. James) getting everyone on their feet with a performance from the Bobby Darin musical Just in Time? Or maybe Lea Michele (Rachel Berry) presenting an award while celebrating her own impending return to Broadway in the revival of Chess? Or how about Darren Criss (Blaine Anderson) taking home his first-ever Tony Award for his role in this year's Best Musical winner Maybe Happy Ending? More from TVLine Ratings: Tony Awards Surge 38% to Biggest Audience Since 2019 Patti LuPone Skips Tony Awards Amid Audra McDonald Controversy - Watch Oprah Winfrey Joke About It On-Air Tonys 2025: Hamilton's Original Broadway Cast Reunites for Sleek Medley - Watch These were all very exciting moments, sure, but we're actually here to highlight an off-camera incident that will make you feel like you're living a teenage dream: Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummell) posted a picture on Monday from a Tonys afterparty where he celebrated Criss' big win alongside his former TV hubby, giving Gleeks one more sweet hit of #Klaine. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris Colfer (@chriscolfer) Several of Colfer and Criss' former co-stars chimed in to celebrate the reunion, as well as Criss' win. Heather Morris (Brittany S. Pierce) and Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones) were among those who dropped supportive emojis under the photo. Coincidentally, the 2015 series finale of Glee also took place at the Tonys, with Rachel's now-husband Jesse cheering her on from the audience as she took home her first statue. And did we mention that Rachel also became a surrogate for Kurt and Blaine? That finale really did give us everything. Did seeing Colfer and Criss together again give you — as we used to say back when Glee was airing — all the feels? Drop a comment with your thoughts below. Glee's Not-So-Guilty Pleasures: 10 Songs We Still Listen to Regularly View List Best of TVLine 'Missing' Shows, Found! Get the Latest on Ahsoka, Monarch, P-Valley, Sugar, Anansi Boys and 25+ Others Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?) The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Four-Time Tony Nominee Jonathan Groff on Eight-Year Journey to Become Bobby Darin and Spitting While Singing Quirk: 'Nothing I Can Do About It'
'It's my first love,' Jonathan Groff tells The Hollywood Reporter, on why he returned to Broadway so soon after winning his first Tony Award for Merrily We Roll Along last year. Now, Groff has received his fourth Tony nomination for playing singer-actor Bobby Darin in the jukebox musical, Just in Time. He has previously been nominated for his work in Hamilton and Spring Awakening. But this time, the experience is 'unlike anything' before, as he's been involved with the project for the last eight years and has learned how to embody the moves and persona of the legendary singer. More from The Hollywood Reporter Ike Barinholtz Jokes He's "Lucky to Be Alive" After Driving With 'The Studio' Costar Seth Rogen How 'Survival of the Thickest,' 'Mo' and 'Shrinking' Are Helping Destigmatize Therapy for Men of Color Tom Felton to Reprise Role of Draco in 'Harry Potter' on Broadway And the Mindhunter star is having a lot of fun doing it. At the top of the show, he introduces himself to the crowd as himself, which was Groff's idea, and even warns the crowd that he might spit on them while singing, poking fun at his saliva-based singing quirk that's become a running joke over the years. This year's best performance by an actor in a leading role category is also nostalgic because Groff is nominated alongside his former Glee co-star Darren Criss (Maybe Happy Ending), which he says is 'surreal' and the 'great gift of longevity with your peers.' Below, Groff tells THR about how he got in the best shape of his life by prepping for the show, his most memorable crowd interaction and how he creates the 'magic that happens between performer and audience.' This is your fourth nomination. What does this one in particular mean to you? I've never before been involved in a project from the conception. So, eight years ago, my friend Ted Chapin asked me to do a night of Bobby Darin music at the 92nd Street Y, and we've been developing the show ever since then. So to be nominated for this and for the show itself, to get six nominations after working on it for eight years, is unlike anything I've ever experienced. After , why did you want to return to Broadway so soon instead of taking a well-deserved break or focusing more on film or TV? (Laughs.) I love the theater, is the simple answer to that question. I just I love doing it so much. It's my first love. I didn't anticipate that the timing would work out. We've been trying to make the Bobby Darin musical happen for so many years that I never anticipated it would happen, timing-wise, like this. But there is an inertia and an energy and an acceleration to the vibe of Bobby Darin that it ultimately felt like the right thing. What's crazy is, the day after the Tonys last year, which is the last time you and I spoke, the next day, I went with our producers and Alex Timbers, our director, and Shannon, our choreographer, and Andrew, our music supervisor, to the Circle in the Square to do a site visit for the show. This is just the way it worked out, honestly. It was not something that I intentionally planned or scheduled on purpose. It just sort of shook out this way. What do you appreciate about playing someone who was actually alive? And how is this experience different from some other roles you've done? Over the last eight years, I have become such a deep, deep Bobby Darin fan. By all accounts, he was this Oscar-nominated actor and this Grammy-winning recording artist and prolific songwriter and producer, but everyone says he was at the height of his powers when he was at the center of a nightclub floor working the audience. So the most important thing for me, as I was doing the research on him, and for all of us as we were putting the show together, was to honor the spirit of that, of that energy, of that magic that happens between performer and audience. And this was the jumping off point for this conceit of our show that we turn Circle in the Square into a nightclub and where we've got tables on the floor level that you can reach out and touch the performers from where you're sitting, because that's what it was like when Bobby was at the Copa. Also, this conceit that I start the show as myself, so I establish this relationship between myself and the audience in the present moment, and give everybody the sense that like, let's all be here now together and travel back in time with each other to experience the story of Bobby Darin, while never losing that invisible thread between performer and audience that makes you feel when you're an audience member and as a performer like anything can happen on any given night, it's always different. So in playing Bobby Darin, that energy felt like the most essential thing to bring spiritually into the theater. I also took piano lessons. He was a prolific artist in so many ways. He played seven instruments in the show. I played the piano, I played the drums. I have been trying to embody him as much as possible physically as well, in addition to playing the instruments and then working with the writers Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver. There's so much story in his life. You could do a whole TV series about him. He has many books written about him, and so much went on in his life, so [it was about] trying to distill his story down to the most essential beats to really honor and celebrate who he was. You mentioned you're yourself at the beginning of the show. And you do introduce yourself by saying, 'Hi, I'm Jonathan Groff,' before devolving into Bobby Darin. Whose idea was that and what do you think it brings to the show? Yeah, I asked from the beginning if I could do that. It felt like the opportunity to tell the story of Bobby Darin's life in front of a live audience, that's where he was, at the height of his powers. That is the place to tell his story. Even removing the artifice of character at the very beginning and really establishing this connection between performer and audience was the most effective way to celebrate what he did to a room when he was in it. So I wanted to start the show as myself, and we spent years trying to figure out how we would make that work and how we would it. And really, it wasn't until our co-book writer Isaac Oliver came on board, because it's one thing for me to be myself at the top, but someone needs to write that. (Laughs.) A talented writer needs to articulate that. You don't want to just see me talking out my mouth at the beginning of the show. It's actually quite specifically constructed. What I say, how I say it and how I transitioned then into becoming Bobby Darin took a lot of writing and a lot of tries. [Oliver] really cracked the code with this opening monologue that he offered over the summer when we were doing a workshop as well as with this monologue at the end that I also delivered to the audience as myself, once the show is over, as sort of bookends of the experience. That was Isaac's idea. I think it really honors the spirit of who he was as one of the greatest entertainers of all time. You do a lot of dancing, which requires a lot of stamina. How did you prepare for that? And is it still challenging? Shannon Lewis, our amazing choreographer, she [worked with] me three times a week for 10 weeks before the first day of rehearsal. We were in the studio, and she taught me her physical warm-up, which is a 30-minute warm-up, which I still do every day before the show, to get my body ready. It's like training for a marathon physically, this role, and I'm learning a lot about my body, and I'm in the best shape I've ever been in my whole life. (Laughs.) And like you said, it's a daily, I would say it's a daily practice to check in with your body, find out where it is. I've like become friends with our physical therapist at the theater (laughs) who helps me with issues and small injuries as they come up. But it's like being an athlete, kind of, you know, you have to really take care of yourself. I've learned in the last, like, two months that cross-training is really essential for me. Earlier today, I was at the gym doing light weight lifting in order to counterbalance the repetitive motions I do every night while we're dancing. It's a real discipline. You acknowledge that part of the audience may be hit with spit during the performance. What went into that decision to mention that? Yes! (Laughs) This is the brilliance of Isaac, our co-book writer. He really cracked the code with that one. It's an interesting experiment to play one's own self (laughs), and he really helped. He did many things and wrote many amazing parts of the show, as did Warren, who gave so much to the show in so many different ways. But one of the contributions that Isaac made was finding the sweet spot of me, sort of like taking the piss out of myself and declaring who I was at the same time. I'm so grateful that he wrote me in the way that he wrote me. That was all his genius. People online have noticed that you do spit a bit when you sing, what do you make of the attention that it's gotten? It's funny, it started with back in the days of Spring Awakening. People used to ask if I would spit in their programs after the show, because I had spit on them on stage. And then years later, when the Disney+ version of Hamilton came out, and I was playing King George, and I was spitting kind of on myself, like, drool, like it was coming down my face, that became a whole thing. And then last year, during Merrily, Dan [Radcliffe] and Lindsay [Mendez] and I were joking and laughing about it a lot on the press tour. At this point, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm just sort of letting it happen at this point. Fortunately, all of my fellow actors that I've been on stage with are incredibly patient and like loving with me about that, and they don't make me feel too bad about it. What's been your most memorable dance and crowd member interaction so far? Good question. Oh my gosh, it's really fascinating because we're learning with these audiences that it's quite multigenerational. It's really like eight year olds and 80 year olds are both enjoying the show in equal measure. A couple of performances ago, this probably eight-year-old girl was in the front row, and I noticed her at the very beginning. I was sort of like winking at her and smiling at her, and you could tell she felt a little scared or a little nervous, and so I was trying to make her feel relaxed throughout the show and smiling at her. And then at the very end, I reached out my hand to ask her to dance, and she lit up like a light bulb. Her face got so excited, and she took my hand and immediately started spinning around in circles. I wanted to cry. It was so cute. Have you found any similarities between you and Bobby that helped you to understand and connect with him? There's this line I have at the end of the show when it's like in the middle of the very final song that I sing, called 'The Curtain Falls,' which was his famous closing song in his act at the end of his career. And I say, 'doing this,' meaning connecting with the audience in this way, 'Doing this was when he felt the most alive.' And then I say, 'honestly, same,' (laughs) that's the next line. And I really feel that connection with him. This great, deep, profound, primal passion for performing and for sharing that experience with the artists on stage, the cast and the band, and sharing that with the audience, is one of my favorite things in in my whole life. I just I love it so much. That love, I would say, is the thing that I have the most in common with him. This year you're also nominated alongside your former co-star Darren Criss. What does it mean to you that you're both nominated for Tonys in the same category? It's so awesome. It's so surreal. I remember him making his debut on that show, and creating such a sensation, and being such a like fresh, new, exciting talent, and to now see him be a real like, I mean, he's done many Broadway shows. I saw him do Hedwig [and the Angry Inch]. He was one of the replacements in Little Shop of Horrors. I saw him in Maybe Happy Ending, he's exceptional in it. This is the great gift of longevity with your peers, is that we get to go through all these experiences together. Lea Michele came to opening night, and brought her four-year-old son a week and a half later, and he was sitting on the aisle, beaming. It's a gift to be able to go through life and share these experiences with your friends. It's incredibly special. Looking back on your time on that show made so many more people knowledgeable about theater and made it accessible to people who don't have the opportunity to come to New York to see Broadway shows. Have you found that to be true, or have you heard of fans who became interested in musical theater through the show? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, Gracie Lawrence, who is Tony nominated in our show, playing the role of Connie Francis and is a supernova talent. She told me during rehearsal, she was like, 'Oh my gosh, Jonathan, I can't believe I'm doing a musical on Broadway with you, because I used to come home after high school and watch you on Glee and now we're singing together duets on a Broadway stage show. So it's an example of a former Gleek that now we're co-starring in a Broadway musical together. It's so cool. We're coming up on the 20th anniversary of . Reflecting on all that's happened in your career since, what would you tell your younger self? I did that when I was 20 years old, and I guess the short answer is, I would tell him to keep following his passion and the thing that makes your heart race. Once you're doing that, once you're locked in with that, it doesn't matter if it's a success or a failure, because I've had both of those experiences throughout the years, highs and lows. But when I'm in touch with what is making my pulse race and what I get excited about, just personally, outside of anyone's perception of what might be good or bad, but just for my own self, the things that make me excited, that's when I'm my happiest. That's how I feel inside of Just in Time. I love Bobby Darin, and I love this experience so much. And getting the chance to live inside of his music and his life, it's pure joy. Just in Time is playing at the Circle in the Square Theatre. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Seeing Double? 25 Pairs of Celebrities Who Look Nearly Identical From 'Lady in the Lake' to 'It Ends With Us': 29 New and Upcoming Book Adaptations in 2024 Meet the Superstars Who Glam Up Hollywood's A-List
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Sadie Sink, Cynthia Erivo and Nicole Scherzinger Attend Official Tony Awards After Party at the MoMA
The Museum of Modern Art was the first stop of the night for the Tonys crowd. Just after the Tony Awards 78th annual ceremony ended, guests quickly made their way from Radio City Musical Hall to the museum, where the official after party was being held for the first time, sponsored by City National Bank. It was clear celebrations were in order, as many entered the venue already on the hunt for a stiff drink. Just after making it through the revolving door, one partygoer immediately shouted to her group, 'I need the bar,' while another struggled to carry three glasses of Champagne through the crowded venue. More from WWD How Nicole Scherzinger's Hairstylist Created Her Slicked Updo Inspired by 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' for the 2025 Tony Awards Katie Holmes Goes for Color Contrast in Prada, Danielle Brooks Shines in Stephane Rolland and More Looks From the 2025 Tony Awards George Clooney, Sarah Snook, Nicole Scherzinger and More Stun on the Red Carpet Ahead of the 78th Tony Awards Guests included Sadie Sink, who was nominated for her role in 'John Proctor is the Villain'; singer/songwriter Laufey; Tony Awards host and 'Wicked' star Cynthia Erivo; 'Sunset Blvd.' star and Tony winner Nicole Scherzinger, and Gracie Lawrence of pop band Lawrence who is also starring in 'Just In Time' on Broadway. Immediately after walking into the space Lawrence, who attended with her brother, found her 'The Sex Lives of College Girls' costar Alyah Chanelle Scott, who also starred in the play 'All Nighter' this season. After posing for several solo shots, Lawrence asked 'But are they good?' Other winners in attendance included Natalie Venetia Belcon, who took home the Tony for featured actress in a musical for her role in 'Buena Vista Social Club,' and Kara Young, who won for her role in 'Purpose.' Upon entering the venue, partygoers were met with flashes from photographers and blaring music, which was decidedly not Broadway themed…at least to start. Sink danced her way into the venue, shimmying to Beyoncé Knowles-Carter's 'Cuff It' blasting over the speakers. Julianne Hough, who later hosted her own party alongside Darren Criss at the Crane Club, bounced in, spinning to showcase her dress when photographers found her. When asked her favorite part of the evening, she responded: 'Nicole [Scherzinger] winning, absolutely.' Erika Henningsen, who recently starred in the Netflix show 'The Four Seasons' and is now in 'Just in Time' on Broadway, seconded that Scherzinger winning the Tony for best actress in a musical for her role in 'Sunset Blvd.' was the highlight of the evening. 'My theater kid came back out tonight,' Henningsen joked, adding that her hot pink dress was a nod to her former role in 'Mean Girls' and her current role as Sandra Dee in 'Just in Time.' Scherzinger made it into the party very briefly, seemingly just entering to take a few photos and head on to her next celebration. However, guests flocked to the entrance to see her pose with her Tony and share a heartfelt moment with host Cynthia Erivo. The duo held each other's hand — Scherzinger, of course, clutched her Tony in the other — and giggled before posing for a few shots, sneaking out as quickly as they had entered. While to kickstart the night, the music choices avoided any sort of showtimes, special performances by Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow of Barlow & Bear, Loren Allred, Casey Likes, Dylan Mulvaney, Solea Pfeiffer and Jessica Vosk proved that theater nerds cannot be stopped. A rendition of 'Waving Through a Window' from the musical 'Dear Evan Hansen,' in particular, had attendees singing and dancing. Before and after the performances, many flitted over to a section sponsored by Korean beauty brand TirTir, where they could pop into a photo booth with friends or try their hand at a claw machine to win a lip gloss keychain or Labubu doll keychain — the Labubus were hard to come by and guests were limited at two tries each to many's chagrin. Following their first stop of the night, the Tonys crowd hit their next round of parties, including private cast celebrations and nominee-hosted bashes. Launch Gallery: Inside the Tony Awards Official After Party 2025 Best of WWD A Look Back at SAG Awards Best Dressed Red Carpet Stars SAG Awards Wildest Looks of All Time on the Red Carpet, Photos From the Archive: A Look Back at Marc Jacobs Annual Holiday Party [PHOTOS]
