B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: Just in Time; Floyd Collins; All the World's a Stage

Jonathan Groff in Just in Time.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

The 2024-25 Broadway season closes out with a pair of wildly divergent musicals featuring stunning star turns by two of the musical theater’s brightest stars. Jonathan Groff is a true triple threat, singing, dancing, and acting his ass off as the tragically short-lived legendary crooner Bobby Darin in Just in Time while Jeremy Jordan goes to the opposite extreme, delivering an inspiring vocal and dramatic performance as a Kentucky cave explorer trapped in one position underground in Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of Floyd Collins. While Groff and Jordan are flawless, their shows vary in intent and execution. Just in Time is pure entertainment while Floyd Collins is muddled in its messaging.

Christine Cornish, Jonathan Groff,
and Julia Grondin in Just in Time.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

The creatives behind Just in Time could have built the show following a familiar blueprint. Bobby Darin was a magnetic pop superstar who briefly challenged Sinatra and Presley as king of all media. He was a teen-idol recording and movie star in his 20s, but his weak heart lead to an early death at 37. Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver’s book is somewhat melodramatic, but focuses on celebrating Darin’s phenomenal talent, largely with humor. Their clever format stages Darin’s meteoric rise and tragic fall as a floor show (Ted Chapin is credited with the original concept). Set designer Derek McLane has exquisitely refitted the Circle in the Square as a glamorous 1950s nightclub complete with cabaret-style tables. Director Alex Timbers and choreographer Shannon Lewis have staged the proceedings with speed and ingenuity. Scenes of Darin’s chaotic show-biz and personal life are interspersed with spectacular numbers he made famous such as the title tune from Bells Are Ringing, “Mack the Knife,” “Splish Splash” and “Dream Lover,” beautifully orchestrated by Andrew Resnick and Michael Thurber. 

In order for this gimmick to work, you need a supremely gifted star and Groff is it. He grabs the audience from his first breathtaking entrance, emerging from beneath McLane’s gorgeous bandstand on an elevator. He is introduced not as Darin, but in his own person. Then he jokes about the setting (“I love playing the basement of Wicked”), explains the premise, and then seamlessly launches into the first exuberant number, establishing this will be a fun evening, not a dark dirge. Groff is amazing, soulfully and energetically putting across song after song, executing Lewis’ razzle-dazzle dance steps and delivering a fully-realized portrait of the charming, brash, arrogant, yet lovable Darin.

B'way Update: Groff as Bobby Darren in Just in Time

Tony winner Jonathan Groff (Merrily We Roll Along) will return to Broadway playing pop singer Bobby Darin in Just in Time, a new bio-musical employing Darin's songbook. The Circle in the Square Theater will be converted into an intimate nightclub of the 50s and 60s with a big band for a total immersive experience. Previews begin Match 28, 2025 for an April 23 opening. The book is by Tony winner Warren Leight (Side Man, Law and Order: CI) and Isaac Oliver (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). Tony winner Alex Timbers (Moulin Rouge) directs and developed the show. Groff leads a cast of 16, TBA. In addition to his Tony for Merrily, Groff was nominated for Hamilton and Spring Awakening. His TV and film credits include Mindhunter, The Matrix Resurrections, Frozen, Glee, and Doctor Who.

“Bobby Darin worked across many genres of music, but he was most alive performing in intimate nightclubs,” says director Alex Timbers.  “And so, it was vital to Jonathan and myself that we stage Just In Time at Circle in the Square.  This is where we could build an environmental nightclub setting including a live, onstage big band that will allow the same sort of intimacy and electrifying audience connection that both Bobby and Jonathan are known for.”

Bobby Darin

“Bobby Darin was a supernova. He blazed his way through every corner of the entertainment industry, but his enormous talent, charisma, and pure genius were most on display when he was letting it rip in front of a crowd. This primal passionate love affair he had with the audience was the inspiration for our show's conceit,” says Groff, who is also serving as a producer on the project. “Alex Timber's distinctive ability to make going to the theater an unforgettable event and Bobby's signature musicality and explosive fleeting life make Broadway the perfect place to experience the story and essence of this once in a lifetime talent.”

Darin was an acclaimed singer, songwriter and actor. He performed jazz, pop, rock, folk and country. His hits included "Splish Splash," Dream Lover," "Beyond the Sea" and "Mack the Knife." He was nominated for an Oscar for Captain Newman, MD. Kevin Spacey, using his own singing voice, played him in the 2004 biopic Beyond the Sea.

B'way Update: Mattress Casting; New Group Season; Etc.

Ana Gasteyer, Will Chase, Nikki Rene Daniels, 
David Patrick Kelly, Brooks Ashmanskas, and 
Daniel Breaker will headline
the Once Upon a Mattress revival.

The complete cast has been announced for the Broadway transfer of the Encores! presentation of Once Upon a Mattress. In addition to Sutton Foster as Princess Winifred and Michael Urie as Prince Dauntless, the cast will include Ana Gasteyer (SNL, The Threepenny Opera) as Queen Aggravain, Tony nominee Brooks Ashmanskas (Fame Becomes Me, Bullets Over Broadway), Tony nominee Daniel Breaker (Shrek) as the Jester, Tony nominee Will Chase (Kiss Me, Kate) as Sir Harry, Nikki Rene Daniels (Company) as Lady Larkin, David Patrick Kelly (Once) as King Sextimus, and Kara Lindsay (Wicked, Newsies) as Winifred's standby. The role of the Minstrel has been eliminated from this version which features a revised book by Amy Sherman-Paladino (Gilmore Girls, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and direction by Lear deBessonet (Encores' Into the Woods). Mattress begins previews July 31 at the Hudson Theater with an Aug. 12 opening. A Los Angeles engagement at the Ahmanson Theater follows from Dec. 10-Jan. 5, 2025. 

Marisa Tomei, Calista Flockhart,
Cooper Hamilton and Christian Slater
will star in The New Group's upcoming season

New Group Season: The New Group has announced the 2024-25 season, its 30th. The season launches with the New York premiere of Babe by Jessica Goldberg (fall 2024), followed by Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class (winter 2024) and the world premiere of a new musical The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse (spring 2025), with book by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley, music and lyrics by Michael Breslin with additional music and lyrics by Patrick Foley; and as previously announced, the world premiere of by Nazareth Hassan’s Bowl EP, a co-production by Vineyard Theatre and National Black Theatre in association with The New Group. The first three productions will play the Pershing Square Signature Center and Bowl EP will play the Vineyard Theater.

Babe will star Oscar winner Marisa Tomei and centers on a husband-and-wife grunge and punk music producing team faced with a challenge from a new A&R hire. Curse of the Starving Class is Sam Shepard's 1977 Obie-winning examination of a shattered American family dealing with encroaching creditors and internal dysfunction. The cast includes Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal, Feud: Capote Vs. the Swans), Cooper Hoffman (son of Philip Seymour Hoffman), and Christian Slater. The Last Bimbo of the Apocalyspe follows a search for a missing pop icon. Bowl EP is about a rap group seeking a name and an identity.