JUST IN TIME Previews — Page 5

After watching a handful of various clips on social media, I'm avoiding this at all costs. The headlining cruise ship concept just doesn't do it for me, especially with Groff not making any effort to evoke Bobby Darin in any way AND let's not get me started on those backup dancers and their overzealous energy. Everything just looks so damn tacky and cheap - including the costuming for Sandra Dee and Connie Francis. Could they have not a least attempted to make THEM resemble the women they are portraying? This definitely is a missed opportunity and I think they could have honored Bobby Darin if they simply recreated the Copacabana night club with Bobby Darin telling his story and keeping the background dancers evoking that 60s night club performance style instead of the annoying perky high energy crap they're doing. And at least ook at actual photos of the people being portrayed and try to at least recreate the actual person and not some stereotype of anyone of that era and not that particular person.

BrodyFosse123 said: "After watching a handful of various clips on social media, I'm avoiding this at all costs. The headliningcruise ship concept just doesn't do it for me, especially with Groff not making any effort to evoke Bobby Darin in any way AND let's not get me started on those backup dancers and their overzealous energy. Everything just looks so damn tacky and cheap - including the costuming for Sandra Dee and Connie Francis. Could they have not a least attempted to make THEM resemble the women they are portraying? This definitely is a missed opportunity and I think they could have honored Bobby Darin if they simply recreated the Copacabana night club with Bobby Darin telling his story and keeping the background dancers evoking that 60s night club performance style instead of the annoying perky high energy crap they're doing. And at least ook at actual photos of the people being portrayed and tryto at least recreate the actual person and not some stereotype of anyone of that era and not that particular person. "

And we should care about your thoughts why? You haven’t seen the show yet, yet you write a 300 word treatise. Who cares?

All I know is the group I was with found it to be a hell of a good night out.

Jarethan said: "I assume that 90% of the audience is there to see Groff. I think that starting out as Groff and turning into Darin is something that would appeal to his fans. I would bet money that that is why they are doing it, and that they wouldn’t be doing it otherwise."

I ran across an old interview with Kevin Spacey last night from shortly after Beyond the Sea opened. He spoke about how he approached the film. For starters, he worked on it for 20 years, mostly based on hearing Bobby Darin recordings played over and over in his household by his mother. He worked on having his voice sound as much like Darin's as possible...even learned to play the drums (which was cut from the film because it didn't work to advance the story). He wanted the story to be about Bobby...not him. It was stylized and not a "this is absolutely the true" story, but it had the approval of Dodd and Sandra.

So that 10% of Groff at the beginning just shows where the ego lies and the show is about Groff not Darin. As I noted before, that's fine, but don't promote it as if it is about Bobby. Should have just been Groff sings Darin and left it at that. The show will be a hit with his fans and the box office will show if that's enough.

I'm sure Bobby would be pleased that he is still an influence and is being remembered.

Except it is not a concert of Groff singing Bobby Darin songs alone.

It literally enacts elements of Darin's career, including others who were a part of it.

The book is about Bobby Darin...from early childhood to death. It's actually a very enjoyable and very well done bio jukebox musical. I'm sure Alex Timbers will be nominated for the direction.



Love Theatre2 said: "Hello to all here,

To Brody Fosse123,Broadway Legend, message #100, THANK YOU. I too felt as you did in watching the previews. You put it into words, perfectly, what I was feeing but didn't know how to express it. I also feel that it should be billed differently if they are not trying to portray Bobby Darin. From what I can tell, it ought to be billed as a concert of Bobby Darin songs by Jonathan Groff. I was just in NYC, and skipped it for that reason. And your other comments were also, very valid. So, thanks for speaking up. And in the clips, it does feel like a cruise ship."

Kad said: "People are on a first-name basis with a performer who died in 1973?"



Why would you have a problem with that? Oh right -- you have a problem with everything.

Was there last night. While Groff, Gracie Lawrence, and (especially, in my opinion) Erika Henningsen give very good performances, this as a whole didn't work for me. The "I'm Jonathan Groff" device at the beginning felt like nothing more than an attempt to differentiate this bio-musical from something like Jersey Boys. And while there are a few great songs that we all know and love, I frankly don't think Bobby Darin's catalog is strong enough to warrant an entire musical like this. Also, the book was a mess. Bobby keeps telling us that he's failing time and again both musically and romantically, but then all of a sudden we get to a section of the show where multiple characters have the mantra of "Don't bet against Bobby!" Didn't you just spend the last hour and change telling us how he was such a failure? Why WOULDN'T I bet against Bobby?

Anyway, it's a perfectly innocuous night at the theatre, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who isn't a diehard Bobby Darin or Jonathan Groff fan (even though I think Erika's Sandra Dee was the highlight for me).

JSquared2 said: "Kad said: "People are on a first-name basis with a performer who died in 1973?"

Why would you have a problem with that? Oh right -- you have a problem witheverything."

Shouldn't you be off in Kansas somewhere, trying to shove a farmgirl's dog into a basket?

chrishuyen said: "Is this just one of those shows where they never expect to let the understudy actually go on or do they have a plan for if Groff is out? Would they be playing Groff playing Bobby Darin or get a separate opening of their own?"

I don't see this until this summer - but from what I've been hearing - I think this would be handled similarly to how they handled Hugh Jackman in Boy from Oz - they would cancel the show for that night if he was out. They haven't said that - but I feel that is what they would do. He's the only real star in the show and it's built around him.

Groff has a standby and it's probably TBD what his pre-show monologue will entail, I assume there will be some acknowledgement that he's not Jonathan Groff. But it's probably worth mentioning Jonathan missed a total of 3 shows in Merrily and they were ones production pressured him to take ahead of Tony season. No reason to think he won't have similar remarkable attendance here.

LOL! (case and point!)

Matt Magnusson is the Bobby Darin standby: