'Just in Time' Broadway review — Jonathan Groff is an exuberant Bobby Darin
Read our review of Just in Time on Broadway, a new musical about the life of singer Bobby Darin starring 2024 Tony Award winner Jonathan Groff in the role.
Just in Time doesn’t aim to reinvent the jukebox bio-musical wheel, but it deploys something fresh to its audience anyway. The show is blessed to be not in a conventional Broadway proscenium theatre but the Circle in the Square Theatre, where the audience surrounds the stage. Scenic designer Derek McLane transforms the venue into an immersive nightclub, resplendent with lit cafe tables for the premium-paying audience in the center. It’s a stage that evokes the halcyon days of 1950s and 1960s singer Bobby Darin.
Seeing Jonathan Groff as Darin is not a surprise if you bought the ticket for him. What is surprising is the ease with which he introduces himself as Jonathan Groff before he plays Bobby Darin. This may hit as preemptive, as Groff is not bidding to be a replica of Darin, but Just In Time proceeds to be subtextually about Groff’s versatility as a maturing performer.
With an exuberant band, Just in Time rides easy on Groff’s waves of showman charisma while paying tribute to the era-specific music and other singers, especially the women in Darin’s life who inspired his performance, starting with Michele Pawk as a parental figure with a vaudevillian past. The book seamlessly weaves in how other stars like Connie Francis (a blazing, must-see Gracie Lawrence) and Sandra Dee (a commanding Erika Henningsen), the latter of whom witnessed his fallible humanity, were integral to his life.
Although Groff informs us early on that Darin died young at age 37, the show does not depress itself over his impending demise, although his overexertion becomes a ticking time bomb throughout the second act. This production chooses to celebrate Bobby Darin as a consummate artist who kept pushing the envelope of his career.
Just in Time summary
Bobby Darin (played by Jonathan Groff) is one of the most famous American artists of the '50s and '60s, renowned for performing hits like “Splish Splash” and covers of “Mack the Knife” and “Beyond the Sea.” Groff, as Darin, introduces him as a sickly child with a grave prognosis that he wouln’t going to live past adulthood.
He lived life to its fullest through his music, ascending from a furniture-store jingle writer to nervous television performer to a breakthrough musician thanks to “Splish Splash.” That song's success led to further fame with his career-turning platinum cover of “Mack the Knife,” but what also followed was a failed marriage with movie co-star Sandra Dee, a career hiatus, and a resurgence.
With a book by Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver, the musical is based on an original concept by Ted Chapin.
What to expect at Just in Time
Considering the tendency of bio-musicals to avoid acknowledging the actors playing their subjects, it’s a breath of fresh air that Jonathan Groff introduces himself at the beginning. It sets up audience expectations that they’re going to get Jonathan Groff playing Bobby Darin, not an exact impression of Bobby Darin.
On the opposite side of the main thrust stage (decked out with McLane’s industrial art decor) is also a square platform for other performers, so Darin can mirror other influences — from Elvis Presley to The Threepenny Opera — of his time. The flickers and gleams of Justin Townsend’s lighting design freshen up the stage with floods of color. Darin is flanked by his vibrant “Sirens” — backup dancers and singers Valeria Yamin, Christine Cornish, Julia Grondin — who impress by performing Shannon Lewis's choreography with versatility.
Frequently, when Bobby snaps his fingers, he soliloquizes to the audience. When Bobby loses the reins on his story, Erika Henningsen’s Sandra Dee takes over — also adopting the finger snap. It’s a smart storytelling device that allows Dee her own agency in telling her background and the less savory parts of Darin's.
What audiences are saying about Just in Time
As of writing, Show-Score accumulated a 86% average based on 38 member reviews, summing up the musical as “Great singing, Entertaining, Delightful, Great acting, Charming.”
- “Jonathan Groff at his very best. Excellent supporting cast, live band, and dazzling set. Great for Boomers and anyone loving music from the 60s and 70s.” - Show-Score user Linda 22
- “With his impeccable voice, perfect delivery and abundance of charm - he leads this joyous evening surrounded by a great cast.” - Show-Score user GreatAvi
- “I really enjoyed it! The story that takes itself seriously but not too seriously. It’s a musical about how you don’t know how much time you have left? But it just celebrates him.” - My +1 at the show
Read more audience reviews of Just in Time on Show-Score.
Who should see Just in Time
- I leaned to my seatmate and whispered, “The production really knows how to use Jonathan Groff’s sex appeal.” Groff’s fans will feel his charm strongly in this musical, especially as he playfully careens from playing the piano, banging the drums, and rocking the xylophone in “Multiplication.”
- Some theatregoers will walk in curious about the life and showmanship of singer Bobby Darin and then walk out knowing more about him.
- Just in Time is one of the heightened displays of director Alex Timbers and Justin Townsend’s maximalist lighting design, which repeatedly transform the space. For those who have seen their work in Here Lies Love, you should see it in Just in Time .
- Gracie Lawrence practically melts into the era and role of singer Connie Francis, rendering an unmissable Broadway performance.
- If you’re familiar with Erika Henningsen work in the Mean Girls musical or Hazbin Hotel, close proximity to Henningsen’s performance as the radiant, but also vulnerable, Sandra Dee would not disappoint you.
Learn more about Just in Time on Broadway
The meta-theatricality of Just in Time, exemplified by Alex Timbers's direction and Jonathan Groff's performance, injects freshness into the jukebox bio-musical.
Photo credit: Just in Time on Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
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