JUST IN TIME - One of the Best Musicals of the Season

This review was written for the German magazine BLICKPUNKT MUSICAL for which Dan is the reviewer for productions in the USA.

The unofficial end of the New York theater “season” comes with the Tony Awards, annually scheduled in June. One of the best new musicals of the year, JUST IN TIME, a hugely entertaining jukebox, bio-musical about 1950s-60s composer/performer/recording artist Bobby Darin, opened late in the season. The Tony Committee nominated it in six categories, stunningly ignoring it for Best Musical. The irresistible Jonathan Groff (who won the Tony last year for playing Franklin Shepard in the splendid revival of “Merrily We Roll Along”) plays Darin, giving a knockout performance nominated for Best Actor in a Musical, that he deservedly should have won. Showbiz ain’t fair.

The score of JUST IN TIME incorporates Darin’s song hits - many of which he wrote, like “Splish Splash” - along with his “covers” of songs from other sources like “Mack The Knife” from “Threepenny Opera” which his bluesy-swing version affixed in the pop culture . Andrew Resnick has arranged nearly 30 songs in perfect balance and, with Michael Thurber, orchestrated them to bring-out the seductive blend of jazz, rhythm, swing, and early rock that made them so popular.

Derek McLane’s set design is a glamorous Copacabana-style nightclub that suits the music and storytelling. McLane uses The Circle in the Square layout to create nightclub table seating where there would be its thrust stage. Three glamorous show girls accompany Darin through many of the numbers, with dazzling choreography by Shannon Lewis. Darin and cast perform working around the nightclub tables; at one point, Groff jumps up on a table to perform.

Warren Leigh and Isaac Oliver have fashioned a book that observes Darin from his hardscrabble roots in East Harlem raised by a grandmother, to his infatuation with teen singer Connie Francis (Gracie Lawrence) then failed marriage to Hollywood teen star Sandra Dee (Erika Henningsen) with showbiz ups and downs along the way. But the book digs deeper, probing the creative drive of Darin, who carries questions about his background and a congenital cardiac condition. (Darin died from it at the age of 37). Mostly, it’s about how individual ego and force of talent can overcome the chances of making the big time.

JUST IN TIME works so well because of Ted Chapin’s concept for the show, Alex Timbers imaginative direction of it and the powerhouse performance of Jonathan Groff. Breaking the fourth wall Groff introduces himself as himself by reminding the audience this is theatre, that he will be playing Darin. JUST IN TIME transcends jukebox musical; it’s really a paean to the commercial best of American musical pop-culture. And Groff’s amazing performance lifts it beyond bio-musical; for Darin, for Groff, for anyone who’s “gotta sing, gotta dance” (whatever that is), there’s something else, something more.