Watch out, Hugh Jackman! Jonathan Groff is coming for your crown as Broadway’s greatest showman.
And he’s got the slickest attraction in town as ammo.
Groff’s new vehicle, “Just in Time,” a jukebox trot through the life of mid-century crooner/songwriter Bobby Darin doesn’t tread new formative turf but benefits exponentially from some major advantages over your common or garden variety Broadway biography.
Number one: Darin’s life is far more interesting than most.
He had fast, fraught relationships with two very famous women in Connie Francis (Gracie Lawrence) and Sandra Dee (Erika Henningsen). And having long suffered from a weak heart, he was dead at 37, still in his prime. Ergo, there’s a baked-in sense of urgency to the show and no slow decline with which to wrestle. And there are more surprises in his life story that those who know Darin only as the man who sung “Mack the Knife” — if at all — won’t likely know.
Number two: Groff is working at Circle in the Square and he has combined with director Alex Timbers to emphasize the intimate possibilities of that unique Broadway space. High-priced cabaret tables are in the middle of the room upon which Groff/Darin can sit, preen and even twirl to the palpable delight of the fat-cat customers.
Number three: Nothing says classy, big Broadway night out like art deco, still, and the designer Derek McLane has created a simply gorgeous environment for this show, oozing glamor from every bandstand, sheer drape and chandelier. The effect is to summon a retro room so rich in hue and seductive in ambiance that you find yourself not wanting to go back outside.
They tried and failed to do this at “Cabaret.” Here, every sequin shimmers. You could see dates all over the place warming up to whoever paid for their tickets.
I wouldn’t claim there is anything extraordinary about Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver’s book, which starts out by embracing Groff’s own identity (“I’m Jonathan”) and then mostly, and mostly weirdly, drops that convention as Darin takes over. Might have been fun to go all the way with the fusion.
But aside from offering lots of stage time to the excellent Lawrence and Henningsen, not to mention Michele Pawk, who essays the woman who raised the star, the show also plays to Groff’s unusual strengths. He’s a dynamic, live-in-the-moment actor, far more so than many of his peers, and as anyone who saw him in “Merrily We Roll Along” well knows, he has more than a passing acquaintance with life’s darker tones. He doesn’t brood as Darin, which is just as well, but he also doesn’t deify either, and neither does the show as a whole.
Add in exceptional arrangements of the Darin songbook from Andrew Resnick, a stunningly extensive parade of fashionista costumery from Catherine Zuber and some high-energy choreography from Shannon Lewis (who concentrates her work on three killer-glam back-up dancers, sizzlingly played by Christine Cornish, Julia Grondin and Valeria Yamin) and you have the kind of show that can please with its pizzazz but also make the average Broadway punter feel like they had a more personalized kind of experience than is on offer down the street.
It’s hard to convey cabaret-style intimacy with this level of production values and that sweet spot will be very much occupied by “Just in Time,” most likely for as long as Groff is willing.
In the end, people will come mostly to see Groff, as well they should. He’s fabulous. Plus the timing is just right as this musical theater actor, shy all those years ago in “Spring Awakening,” now takes up the vital mantle of big Broadway star, a status he has approached before but never fully inhabited. Not until Bobby Darin came along to help.
Toward the end, Darin, having been through the wringer but not quite yet met his maker, takes his preferred stage at the Copacabana and shouts, with the cathartic joy of a man who has found his way home, “I am a creature of the nightclub.”
On the night I was there, the audience roared, thinking that also of Groff and yet also well aware he’s a talent who will just as easily roam elsewhere.
