JUST IN TIME Previews- Page 4

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/7/25 at 11:40pm

Bringing to back to the show…

Good Lord. Not since GATSBY have I seen a show that was so flashy and yet so absolutely hollow and emotionally empty. 

First of all, if you are using the first 20 minutes of the show to set up this whole “Jonathan Groff as a character” premise, and then abandon it after, it needs to go. You can’t play both sides here and expect us to not be confused by the concept. If it was just Groff doing a tribute concert/moment in time play like Lady Day, it would’ve landed a lot better. Instead we get this speedy Wikipedia-style “and then I sang this…” journey through his life, part of which I nodded off because it was so dramatically inert that I couldn’t stay engaged. The intermittent bursts of light representing his heart failing were the only things that brought me back in.You also have a very talented supporting cast wasted on what feel like stock characters.
 

By the end, when it switched back to Groff-as-character again, I didn’t come away feeling like I knew anything substantial about Darin or why he needed to be the subject of a musical. He’s working his butt off, but the book fails him on what is otherwise an underbaked vanity project. The nightclub style set with multiple stages was fine and flashy, but also brought Gatsby back to mind. 

This is a show strictly for baby boomers and Groff fans. All others might prefer to go splish-splash in the bath with a toaster.

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 4/7/25 at 11:52pm

Groff is working his ass off, but, by the end, it seems to only exist as a vehicle for him to do what he loves night after night, which is actually spelled out, and not just implied.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/7/25 at 11:55pm

Getting home from tonight's show and I wish I had more to add from what others have already said. I didn't think the book was awful but it wasn't anything spectacular. The show exists and the reason to see it is to see Groff give, what I think is, a pretty wonderful performance. The music sounds great, everything looks great and the fact is, I'm at a bio jukebox musical. I knew it wasn't going to be the next "West Side Story". I didn't think Act Two was a total mess like others did but it was just an hour of "Ok, let's wrap this thing up". 

I'll have to think on the whole thing of Groff introducing it as himself. I expected him to go back and forth on it throughout the show but when he didn't I kind of wondered what the point was. He does make a joke about how much spit and sweat he'll get on everyone which made me chuckle. But anyways, I enjoyed myself tonight because of him. Groff would have to do something TRULY heinous to make me not enjoy him in it. He's just that likable. 

[Penna2]

Posted: 4/8/25 at 12:00am

quizking101 said: 
This is a show strictly for baby boomers and Groff fans. All others might prefer to go splish-splash in the bath with a toaster."

As a baby boomer I have no desire to hear Groff sing Bobby Darin. I can watch videos of Darin on YouTube or watch Beyond the Sea...Kevin Spacey actually sounds like him. I've pointed this out before, I know. I think any Boomers who do show up thinking they are going to get Darin, and his story will be disappointed. It's definitely a vanity project for Groff and I have no objection to that for Groff fans. Just don't promote it like it's a biography. That so many here are saying they don't understand why Darin's life is being made into a show only proves how far off base the book is.