For any theatre fan, getting spit on by Jonathan Groff can be considered a badge of honor. “I’m notoriously a sweater and a spitter on stage—an extremely wet performer, generally,� says the Tony winner jovially, without a hint of self-consciousness. Indeed, it’s become something of an in-joke that when you sit in the front row of a show featuring Groff, you may be hit with some moisture. So for Groff’s newest project�Just in Time, where the stage is transformed into a cabaret venue with audience members seated at café tables—the actor suggested waterproof ponchos: “We joked about calling it the ‘splish splash zone.’�
Though plastic ponchos may not fit the vibe of Just in Time, a “splish splash zone� is perfect. “Splish Splash� is the name of a famous song by mid-20th-century crooner Bobby Darin, who Groff is playing in the new musical Just in Time, currently running at Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre with an opening night of April 26. Directed by Alex Timbers, the musical (with a book by Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver) details the life of Darin, a singer/songwriter who rose quickly to fame in his 20s with hit songs such as “Mack the Knife,� “Dream Lover,� and “Beyond the Sea.� But Darin had a short life. The singer had a weak heart due to multiple bouts of rheumatic fever as a boy; he had heart surgery twice and died shortly after his second operation at the age of 37. For Groff, this story of highs and lows was filled with dramatic potential.
“He overheard the doctor telling his mom that he was going to die by the time he was 16. So from 16 to 37, the age he actually did die, it felt like borrowed time,� says Groff.
In fact, Darin famously said: “I want to be a legend by the time I’m 25.�
Adds Groff, with reverence: “It’s someone that lived at a breakneck pace and was living for the moment and extremely present…I do think that there’s something really powerful in shining a light on his story. And there’s a universality, because essentially, we’ve all got a ticking clock. We never know when the day is going to come for us, where we die. And so I think there’s something really life-affirming about his story and about his ambition and about his living for today and not for tomorrow.�
Playing a jazz singer may seem an odd choice for the Broadway favorite, who won a Tony Award last year for playing Franklin Shepard in the Merrily We Roll Along revival. On Broadway, Groff has mainly sung contemporary scores from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Duncan Sheik, and Stephen Sondheim. Singing big-band standards is new for the performer. But Groff is passionate about the show. Not only is he also a producer on it, but last March, he did a workshop for Just in Time while he was still doing Merrily. “This has been such a passion project. I touch my pulse, and it races when I think about this man and this show,� says Groff.
Groff has been working on Just in Time for eight years; the project began in 2018 when producer Ted Chapin asked if Groff would perform in a series of concerts called The Bobby Darin Story at the 92nd Street Y.
While Groff knew Darin’s songs (who doesn’t?), it was seeing videos of Darin performing—and how immediate and present he was—that inspired the actor to take on the role and try to get the story to Broadway. Darin had a clear love for live performance. “He had a love affair with the audience,� says Groff. “There’s this great song called ‘The Curtain Falls,� where he sings, ‘If I had this to do again, I would do it for you. I would do it for you, the audience.� That’s essentially what he’s saying. So we want the audience to feel like they had a great time, and we’re celebrating Bobby Darin. And in celebrating Bobby Darin, we’re celebrating the art and the unparalleled magic of live performance and the relationship between performer and audience.�
It’s a relationship that Groff knows well as a longtime performer himself—someone who is always enthusiastic about taking photos with fans and talking to them. In fact, Groff was just 21 when he made his Broadway debut in the original production of Spring Awakening; Darin was 22 when he had his first hit song. Looking back on his younger self, Groff admits he didn't take care of himself. "During Spring Awakening, four days before the Tonys, I collapsed on the street. I had, like, tension in my neck," he recalls. Because he never professionally trained as an actor and out of the gate, he was in a show for two years. Similar to Darin, he was also living at a breakneck pace. "Lea Michele [the co-lead of Spring Awakening] would laugh at me; I would eat, like, dessert before [a show]. I was not healthy at all."
But the Glee star has since learned that in order to sustain eight shows a week, and to not faint on the street, he needed to build healthier habits, including learning how to slow down. When he agreed to do Merrily We Roll Along with Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, "my goal was to leave the show stronger than when I went in, and to be really disciplined about what I was doing outside of the theatre," explains Groff. So he learned how to meditate and incorporated that into his performance routine. "Exercising and the meditation were a huge part of my success of that experience. And I was sharing so much of the time on stage and the press and everything with Dan and Lindsay. So it was, like, we really were holding hands, the three of us together through that whole thing. And it was the perfect way to get my body in shape and ready to step into something like this, which is more physically and vocally demanding than Merrily was."
For Just in Time, Groff is pushing himself yet again. He's dancing extensively on stage for the first time in his career ("it's so exciting to learn new things about my body"), and he's interacting with the audience. This is why Just in Time needed to be a live experience, versus a film (there was a 2004 biopic that received mixed reviews). Darin was hands-on with his audience members, taking their hand or even dancing with them as he sang. Groff will endeavor to give audiences at Just in Time that same attention, while singing the roughly �20 to 30� songs in the show. Yes, he does plan on picking a lucky audience member from the crowd and dancing with them.
And because the show is about that special connection between a performer and the audience, Groff actually starts the show as himself: "When we were developing the show over the last seven years, we kept asking this question: 'Could I start the show as myself and establish that connection, that true connection between performer and audience, without even the artifice of character between us, so that we begin connected?' That's the most important relationship to establish—if you're going to tell the story of Bobby Darin's life, it's that relationship with the audience." Not only will audiences learn about Darin, they'll learn a little something new about Groff as well.
So if you ever wanted to get up close with this Broadway star, now is your chance. “I’ll be taking my vitamins and trying to stay as healthy as possible,� teases Groff, “as we get up in each other’s grill on Broadway.�
Rehearsal scripts for Just in Time
Company of Just in Time
Company of Just in Time
Company of Just in Time
Rehearsals for Just in Time
Jonathan Groff
Erika Henningsen
Company of Just in Time
Alex Timbers
Robert Ahrens and Tom Kirdahy
