Bobby Darin Did It All And, In ‘Simply In Time, So Does Jonathan Groff

This June, Jonathan Groff may have the uncommon probability to win Tony Awards in two consecutive years. If he repeats final yr’s triumph for Merrily We Roll Alongside with one for this yr’s Simply In Time, he’ll be part of a really unique membership of six Broadway greats: Laurie Metcalf (2017, 2018), Judith Mild (2012, 2013), Stephen Spinella (1993, 1994), Sandy Dennis (1963, 1964), Gwen Verdon (1958, 1959), and Shirley Sales space (1949, 1950).

For Groff, the two-in-a-row chance, thrilling sufficient, even has a touch extra frisson: Simply In Time, a biographical musical of Bobby Darin, marks a profession first for the busy actor. “I’ve by no means been a part of a mission from its conception. Eight years in the past this month, truly, Ted Chapin requested me to do an evening of Bobby Darin music on the 92nd Road Y and I learn this guide referred to as Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee, written by Dodd Darin, the son of Bobby and Sandy, to prepare for the live performance. And there was this quote on the finish about how Bobby Darin was a ‘nightclub animal’ and I simply began to really feel like we might inform the story of his life within the context of a nightclub act.”

When he walked into Broadway’s Circle In The Sq. theater earlier this yr and noticed the famously in-the-round venue gloriously remodeled into the basic Copacabana nightclub of Darin’s period, he burst into tears. “I couldn’t imagine that this factor, this dream that we had had for thus a few years was truly coming to fruition.”

Groff was solely 21 when he landed the Broadway position that might make him a star – Melchior in Spring Awakening – and since then has appeared in Hamilton (as King George, 2015), final season’s Merrily We Roll Alongside reverse Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez and now Simply In Time. Every efficiency received over the critics, constructed a big base of devoted followers and, sure, included a lot of spit, however extra about that in a bit.

In Darin, who died in 1973 at simply 37 after a lifetime of well being issues, Groff has landed much less on a task than a showcase. Darin was one among present enterprise’ final shape-shifters who went from early rock-and-roller (“Splish Splash”), heartthrob crooner (“Dream Lover”), Sinatra-like swinger (“Mack The Knife”) and Dylan-esque folkie (“If I Had been A Carpenter”) earlier than lastly settling again into the “nightclub animal” he was meant to be.

Even Groff’s longtime followers could be shocked on the versatility he shows on that recreated Copa set (and its desk tops). With out doing a straight-up impersonation of Darin, Groff nails each tune type and dance craze.

This yr, Groff is nominated within the Finest Efficiency by an Actor in a Main Position/Musical, the place his fellow nominees might be Darren Criss, Perhaps Completely satisfied Ending; Andrew Durand, Useless Outlaw; Tom Francis, Sundown Blvd.; James Monroe Iglehart, A Fantastic World: The Louis Armstrong Musical; and Jeremy Jordan, Floyd Collins.

And for the Tony report, 4 different nominees this yr might pull off the two-in-a-row factor: Actress Kara Younger (final yr’s Purlie Victorious, this yr’s Objective); director Danya Taymor (The Outsiders/John Proctor Is the Villain), playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Acceptable/Objective); and choreographer Justin Peck (Illinoise/Buena Vista Social Membership).

Simply In Time, directed by Alex Timbers with a guide by Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver and music made well-known by Darin, is taking part in at Broadway’s Circle In The Sq.. Along with Groff, the forged consists of Gracie Lawrence, Erika Henningsen, Michele Pawk, Joe Barbara, Emily Bergl, Lance Roberts, Caesar Samayoa, Christine Cornish, Julia Grondin, Valeria Yamin, John Treacy Egan, Tari Kelly, Matt Magnusson, Khori Michelle Petinaud and Larkin Reilly.

This interview has been edited and condensed for readability and size.

DEADLINE: I believe it’s been nearly a yr to the day that we spoke about your Tony nomination for Merrily. Now right here we’re for Simply In Time. Ought to we go for the triple crown and simply plan on speaking subsequent yr about your third nomination?

GROFF: I fucking would, however perhaps I’ll nonetheless be doing the Bobby Darin present as a result of I’m not prepared to go away anytime quickly.

DEADLINE: Does getting nominated for one present really feel one way or the other totally different than for one more present? Simply in Time say in comparison with Merrily?

GROFF: I’ve by no means been part of one thing from the conception earlier than, a part of a mission from its conception. Eight years in the past this month, truly, Ted Chapin requested me to do an evening of Bobby Darin music on the 92nd Road Y and I learn this guide referred to as Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee, written by Dodd Darin the son of Bobby and Sandy, to prepare for the live performance. And there was this quote on the finish about how Bobby Darin was a “nightclub animal” and I simply began to really feel like we might inform the story of his life within the context of a nightclub act.

And Alex Timbers got here onboard to direct that live performance and we’ve been growing this concept collectively ever since then. And so, eight years later to be doing this present on Broadway, like, once I walked into the Circle within the Sq. theater on the primary day of takes, I burst into tears as a result of I simply, I couldn’t imagine that this factor, this dream that we had had for thus a few years was truly coming to fruition. So, in that means for each different job I’ve ever carried out, I’ve been an actor for rent and this, that is totally different.

DEADLINE: Circle within the Sq., which has been rework into the Copacabana nightclub, has ever appeared higher. I believe the in-the-round construction may be problematic for some reveals.

GROFF: It’s humorous. There’s this report referred to as Darin on the Copa and we’d carry it round. Like I gave it as a present to our producers that we have been making an attempt to get to hitch us on the mission, and after we have been interviewing writers we had this report there. And while you take a look at the quilt of this report it’s Bobby Darin standing there along with his form of, like, iconic bent wrist, singing on this grey go well with, and he’s surrounded on the Copa by these tables the place folks might actually attain out and contact him or vice versa.

And proper behind him is the bandstand with the large band there behind him, and that report, the quilt of that report has been the inspo, just like the energetic inspo for the mission from the very starting. And Circle within the Sq., to begin with, when it was down within the Village, in Greenwich Village earlier than it moved uptown to fiftieth Road, it was a nightclub first. Circle within the Sq. as an entity was first a nightclub earlier than it turned a theater, and so there’s this power about that house, and the historical past of that theater. After which simply the logistics of how that theater sits, it simply feels precisely like the quilt of that report.

So, there couldn’t be a extra good marriage of present and theater. And Alex Timbers, after we did our March workshop of the present final yr, mentioned we are able to get Circle, like we have to get Circle. That was his imaginative and prescient that Circle within the Sq. was the theater to make this occur in. As a result of we had talked about doing it in a proscenium however taking out seats within the first 10 rows, , after which Alex landed on, “No we have now to have that thrust feeling and Circle is the right place.”

DEADLINE: Had been you a fan of Bobby Darin earlier than all this?

GROFF: I knew the music. I knew “Splish Splash,” I knew “Dream Lover,” I knew “Mack the Knife,” I knew “If I Had been a Carpenter,” however I didn’t know that they have been all sung by the identical particular person. I actually didn’t know that he was a songwriter as a lot as he was a performer. I didn’t know that he was an actor as nicely, Oscar-nominated actor, and so eight years in the past once I began the YouTube rabbit gap I used to be like, whoa. The factor actually, although, that was the revelation after Ted requested me to do that night time of his music is I went on-line and there’s all these superb clips of him on The Ed Sullivan Present, and all these locations he’s been performing reside and his TV specials, and on The Judy Garland Present.

And I used to be like, oh my God this man, he’s not simply singing songs he’s singing for his life. Like, I knew his music as like nice form of oldies music, however watching him carry out the music is a distinct expertise than listening to him sing the music. He was an animal when he was performing and that was the factor that I actually was like, oh, wow this man, this man is vibrating on an entire different degree.

DEADLINE: I’m a lot older than you might be, however I keep in mind him from once I was a child and my mother cherished him in order that was form of just like the kiss of dying. I wished to listen to Led Zeppelin. It wasn’t till years later I noticed how good he actually was. Mother was proper when she turned the channel each week to his TV present.

GROFF: The final yr of his life he shot a full season of like eight or 10 episodes of The Bobby Darin Present proper earlier than he handed. But it surely’s attention-grabbing you point out that about your mother and the type of music, as a result of Bobby was like a decade behind Sinatra and Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. So simply as rock and roll was beginning, so was he, however he was so actually passionate and love that form of old-school American songbook stuff, and Johnny Mercer, which I additionally actually relate too.

And he like he actually, actually revered the old-timers or the old-fashioned present enterprise vaudeville stuff. He was actually shut with George Burns. He truly slept within the mattress with George Burns for 3 nights after Gracie Allen died. That’s how tight they have been.

He wished to be a terrific entertainer, and I really feel like a part of that got here from his reverence for the generations earlier than, in the identical means that Girl Gaga spent these years creating with Tony Bennett. And it wasn’t that she was copying or imitating Tony Bennett, she was celebrating him and his music and doing it in her personal means. I can relate to Bobby liking the folks within the era earlier than him as a result of I’m such an enormous Bobby Darin fan now.

DEADLINE: His first huge hit was the early rock and roll “Splish Splash” in 1958 which might show to be form of an anomaly for him.

GROFF: Are you able to think about being 22-years-old and also you’re like a rock and roll international sensation with a tune that you just wrote, after which saying to Ahmet Ertegun of all folks, “I wish to do requirements and if you happen to’re not going to pay for it, I’ll pay for it myself, which he did. That’s how a lot he believed in what he was wanting to place on the market on this attain again to the requirements. I imply, it was an actual danger.

DEADLINE: In Simply In Time, the very first thing the viewers hears is your introduction as Jonathan, not Bobby. What was your considering to take that method, to primarily seem as Jonathan-as-Bobby?

GROFF: Sure, we determined to try this early within the improvement course of. A part of the rationale I felt strongly about making it like a nightclub setting was as a result of by all accounts, , he was this Grammy successful recording artist, and an Oscar-nominated actor, and a prolific producer and author, however he was on the top of his energy when he was on the middle of a nightclub flooring. And in all the movies and clips that I watched, and by all accounts of everyone speaking about what it was wish to see him reside, it was electrical as a result of he was so within the second, and he was so current, and also you felt like while you have been watching him something might occur.

And so, I raised my hand early on, as we have been growing it, and I requested might I begin the present as myself in order that we create this invisible thread between performer and viewers and we’re not forcing folks to be like extras within the 1958 Copacabana once they’re sitting at tables. To ultimately say, like, right here we’re in a nightclub setting, in a nightclub house, there’s a band onstage. It’s 2025, you’re right here to see a present, I’m right here to do a present for you, and let’s all be right here on this current second now, which was, which actually to me, if we’re going to inform the story of Bobby Darin’s life or we’re going to attempt to shine a light-weight on who he was, that’s the most important piece of who he was, which was proper now, proper right here within the current second with you the viewers and this love affair forwards and backwards.

I wished to ascertain that with out even the artifice of character earlier than we obtained into the telling of his story. That felt like crucial factor to push to the entrance energetically in invoking the spirit of who he was and sharing with the viewers what his story was.

DEADLINE: And it doesn’t constrain you into doing an outright imitation. We all know you’re Jonathan Groff onstage on this house, and you might be singing the songs of Bobby Darin, however it’s not a dead-on imitation.

GROFF: Precisely. And this works for his story as a result of while you hearken to “Splish Splash,” and “Mack the Knife,” and “If I Had been a Carpenter” it appears like three totally different folks as a result of he was such a chameleon. So not like, , taking part in Michael Jackson or Dolly Parton or Frank Sinatra even…

DEADLINE: Or Frankie Valli of the 4 Seasons in Jersey Boys.

GROFF: Frankie Valli, precisely. There may be such a particular means that these performers sound that, that actors need to imitate, however with Bobby Darin he was imitating everyone else round him. It kind of opens up this chance to have the ability to form shift and such as you mentioned I don’t need to do an impersonation of Bobby Darin as a result of he was such a chameleon as an artist. He was doing so many several types of music and singing in so many various kinds that having the chance to start out as myself after which sing all these totally different kinds feels, in a means, honoring who he was.

DEADLINE: Are you able to decide one favourite tune of his both to hearken to or carry out?

GROFF: Oh, wow. I went down this rabbit gap with Bobby Darin eight years in the past and I’m actually nonetheless in it, and much more so now that we’re within the present I can’t cease taking a look at clips of him. The clip that I’m loving most just lately of his is him singing, “I Want I Had been in Love Once more.” I don’t even know what TV look that is on, it’s in colour, however watching him sing that proper now’s my favourite factor to look at. And I might say performance-wise there’s this like sequence on the finish of the primary act when there are two songs back-to-back that I like doing and its “Lazy River” into “Mack the Knife.”

And we kind of like constructed this sequence the place his mom, or the lady that he thinks is his mom, has handed and he or she comes again and he decides to carry out that tune impressed by her and for her [“Lazy River”], after which that form of dovetails into “Mack the Knife.” And it’s like medication for me, I’m on such a excessive on the market, it truly is such an epic excessive. And so, going from that form of dramatic low all through to “Look out outdated Mack, he’s again!” on the finish of act one is actually simply so enjoyable.

DEADLINE: Whose concept was it to do the Lotte Lenya bit, when she, or somebody like her, sings a little bit of ‘Moritat vom Mackie Messer,” the unique Threepenny Opera model “Mack the Knife.” It’s very humorous but in addition reveals how radically he developed the tune right into a pop hit.

GROFF: We discovered that on the Y after we carried out seven and a half years in the past. We have been simply doing a lecture about Bobby Darin, , kind of saying he was born right here after which he did this. Nobody was truly like taking part in any characters, so to talk, however that was a part of what we have been making an attempt to point out within the lecture, the artistry of Bobby Darin and the way he would hear these songs and discover a new means in.

And so we had the ensemble at that live performance sing a part of that [original version] after which I went into “Mack the Knife” to kind of illuminate how that occurred.

DEADLINE: I requested you what your favourite tune was. However what’s your favourite dance within the present?

GROFF: Shannon Lewis, our choreographer, she’s been in 10 Broadway reveals as a dancer. She was within the authentic forged of Fosse, and he or she’s carried out quite a lot of choreography, so much for like movie and tv, and he or she’s carried out stuff regionally, however that is her choreographic Broadway debut, and he or she gave me 10 weeks of dance classes, thrice per week, earlier than the primary day of rehearsal. As a result of I by no means danced like this earlier than and it’s like coaching for a marathon so I’m in a position to do eight reveals per week.

I nonetheless on a regular basis do her 30 minute warm-up earlier than the present, in order that I could make it via with out injuring myself. However what she opened up for me, regarding the choreography, is there may be, the entire tapestry from old-school vaudevillian showbiz mixed with stuff such as you’d see on Hullabaloo.

DEADLINE: I used to be simply going to say Shindig.

GROFF: Precisely, sure. And so, not solely do I get to bop, however I additionally get to bop in these totally different kinds, which can be reflective of his artistry, I imply, he did so many various issues. And on the finish within the closing sequence, in kind of a nod to his Vegas period, we’ve obtained the women with the followers, and I’m standing on the desk and doing a form of like showbiz, nearly like All That Jazz adjoining form of motion along with the followers.

And so, the reward of the dance is all the totally different corners from “Queen of the Hop,” for instance, which is available in a spot within the present the place Bobby is over form of like being a rock and curler. He needs to be taking part in in nightclubs, he needs to play the Copa, however right here he’s on the highway doing this rock and roll kind of like teen children stuff, , teen music. And so, Shannon has constructed on this kind of like Hullabaloo dance that is also a strategy to categorical his anger and aggression. I’m doing these kind of strikes however it’s filled with rage.

And there’s the dance duet that Erika Henningsen, as Sandra Dee, and I do in Act Two for “Irresistible You,” kind of a nod to the White Christmas however on the identical time there’s quite a lot of sexual stress as a result of our characters haven’t had intercourse but, so there’s quite a lot of like sexuality being expressed within the dance, and form of a cat and mouse taking place. Shannon’s an actual storyteller as a choreographer, so with the ability to inform the story by way of totally different kinds of dance is actually the reward of getting to bop on the present.

DEADLINE: Firstly of the present you get an enormous snicker while you reference how moist your co-stars are going to get. When did the spitting grow to be such a factor?

GROFF: That goes all the best way again to Spring Awakening. Individuals would ask me to spit of their packages on the stage door as a result of I had spat on them through the present they usually’d requested if I might spit of their program. Then it advanced additional once I was taking part in King George in Hamilton and I used to be spitting however unable to love wipe it off my face as a result of my fingers have been underneath this big cape. When the Disney+ model throughout Covid got here on the market are, like, close-ups of me dribbling throughout myself.

After which final yr throughout Merrily when Dan [Radcliffe], and Lindsay [Mendez], and I have been on our press tour throughout that present we did this lie-detector check interview the place I talked about being moist onstage and it turned this like complete factor. So, it’s adopted me my complete profession and now I’m lastly proudly owning it.

DEADLINE: I noticed you in Little Store of Horrors and I keep in mind considering these folks within the entrance row are going to be soaked.

GROFF: It’s humorous you say that as a result of at Little Store that theater doesn’t have any spotlights. When a highlight is shining on you onstage you’ll be able to’t actually see something, you’ll be able to’t see the folks within the viewers. However on the Westside Theatre, which is a really tiny theater and there aren’t any spotlights, for the primary time I might actually clearly see the primary three rows, and for the primary time I might see folks lifting their packages in entrance of their face once I would stroll down stage.

DEADLINE: No.

GROFF: Sure. They coated their faces to maintain me from spitting on them.

DEADLINE: Or perhaps they only wished your spit on their packages.