Walden Robert Cassotto = Bobby Darin (1936-1973) = was a successful, multi-genre pop singer, songwriter, and occasional actor for about 15 years of a life cut short by early rheumatic fever. He fell in love with Connie Francis, married Sandra Dee, and, unknown to most, worked passionately for Bobby Kennedy. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the artist was a blip on your memory.
Bobby Darin 1959 (Public Domain)
Alex Timbers has nonetheless crafted a better-than-jukebox musical that erupts as a highlight of the Broadway season due to the electrifying Jonathan Groff. The talented triple threat even plays piano as well as drum and xylophone riffs. You may never see a thespian work harder.
Timbers’ irreverent signature format drops a fourth wall from the get-go. “I’m Jonathan. I’ll be Bobby Darin tonight.” Curiously it creates intimacy rather than distance. Emulating the entertainer’s 1973 television special, Groff/Darin name-checks performers and band members, offers asides, refers to similarities of ambition, and welcomes us back to Act II.
Jonathan Groff (Bobby Darin)
Groff has a warmer voice than Darin. The latter didn’t dance. He had rhythm, swagger, and stage presence, but no choreography. Nor did Darin perform with back-up, except on the occasional variety special. It doesn’t matter. Groff excels at Shannon Lewis’ exuberant choreography; the ladies are decorative and splashy.
Two lively production numbers are followed by introductions to Darin’s back-up “sirens”: Christine Cornish, Julia Grondin, Valeria Yamin. Audience that entered distracted or fatigued now sits at the edge its seat. Even having repeatedly seen Groff, he’s a revelation here.
Valeria Yamin, Michele Pawk (Polly) and Julia Grondin
We retreat to the past: Raised in East Harlem by former vaudevillian Polly Walden (Michele Pawk – fine vocals, powerfully maternal), identified as his mother, Cassotto grew up sickly. He suffered three bouts of rheumatic fever and was not expected to live past 16. Polly and the boy’s apparent sister, Nina (Emily Bergl) doted upon him. Years later when considering entering politics, he was told that Polly was his grandmother, Nina his mom. (Jack Nicholson was raised under the same circumstances.)
Then an aspiring songwriter, Cassotto sells a pop song to rising star Connie Francis (marvelous, new to me Gracie Lawrence who should have her own musical). The couple sneak around her overprotective Italian father (Caesar Samayoa). When he comes after Darin with a gun (true story), Francis breaks it off, later admitting she regretted it the rest of her life.
Gracie Lawrence (Connie Francis)
Her manager signs the young man as singer/songwriter Bobby Darin. Bound to bubblegum pop of the era, his first hit is “Splish Splash” I was taking a bath/ bath/Long about a Saturday night/Rub, dub, just relaxing in the tub/ Thinkin’ everything was alright…written with radio DJ Murray the K. aka Murray Kaufman. (Lance Roberts who sings, dances and credibly plays head of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun.)
We see the song evolve to an amusingly staged appearance on The Ed Sullivan show replete with a tub, bubbles, rubber duckies, and the artist in his skivvys. His record goes gold, but Darin disparages it as “One step from a jingle.” “They play it a lot at the bank,” Polly notes. “Not a good sign.”
Jonathan Groff (Bobby Darin)
To assuage the worried Nina, Darin takes her husband Charlie (mercurial Joe Barbara) on the road as an ersatz valet. “Om gonna be a legend by the time ‘om 24. I wanna pass Sinatra,” the vocalist declares determined to headline The Copacabana.
Here’s the second thing we overlook. Bobby Darin was an egotistical narcissist. He swatted Nina away like a mosquito, all but ignored wife Sandra Dee, and was at least partially responsible for authoring his own career demise. The musical rationalizes behavior as hyper awareness of mortality.
Intent on singing standards, Darin himself pays for the breakaway record featuring a jazz/pop interpretation of “Mack the Knife” (from Threepenny Opera) which earned a Grammy for Best Album.”Beyond the Sea”, an English version of Charles Trenet’s “La Mer” came next. As we watch his rise, intermittent doubling over foretells increasing heath issues. He’s booked at The Copa.
Erika Henningsen (Sandra Dee), Jonathan Groff (Bobby Darin)
Darin meets and doggedly pursued America’s Sweetheart, 18 year-old Sandra Dee (Erika Henningsen), on his first film shoot. Though married seven years, sharing a son, he ignores her even when traveling together. Neglected, yet publicly scrutinized – front and center every night – she turns to alcohol and drugs. (Dee had been sexually abused by her stepfather starting at age eight – not the stuff of musicals.) Her husband is harsh. They divorce.
Portrayal of Dee, especially in songs, might’ve offered realistic contrast. Instead of being soft, conservative and wary, the actress is directed to appear brassy and sure. Not everyone will recall or care. Henningsen is capable. (Darin had a brief second marriage.)
During the 1960s, the artist becomes politically active. Perhaps partly due to musical tastes veering from his style, he spends time campaigning for Robert Kennedy. (In 68/69 he wrote and recorded two albums covering Civil Rights, poverty and the Vietnam War.) The senator is assassinated the same year Polly dies sending Darin into a tailspin and retreat.
Jonathan Groff (Bobby Darin)
There’s one more parentheses of palpably manic appearances here provoked by Polly’s ghost. Darin dies at 37 after six hours on the operating table. We see the protagonist in front of a make-up mirror.
Despite divergence and occasional detail, Just in Time, is tremendously entertaining as a concert show with story. Scenes flow smoothly one into the next. Both unexpected humor and inevitable dark trajectory are apparent in the Warren Leight/Isaac Oliver book. Multi-talented Director Alex Timbers uses stage levels and accessible theater to imaginative advantage.
Actors appear on and off Derek McLanes’s spectacular Art Deco nightclub stage (look up as well as forward) – among tables (there’s central cabaret seating) and up aisles. Were this only a “real” club! Justin Townsend’s lighting and Peter Hylenski’s sound design, are terrific in a challenging performance area. Catherine Zuber’s costumes suit period and (sometimes purposefully tacky) glamour.
The musical is a showcase for its lead actor, the extraordinary Jonathan Groff. Soaked in self-acknowledged sweat, the actor gives 150 percent.
Photos by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee’ by Dodd Darin
Beyond the Sea 2004 Film starring Kevin Spacey – not very good
Just in Time
Book- Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver
Based on an original concept by Ted Chapin
Music Supervision/Arrangements – Andrew Resnick
Choreography – Shannon Lewis
Directed by Alex Timbers
Circle in the Square
235 West 50th Street
