Title: Just in Time
Location: Circle in the Square Theatre
Written By: Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver
Summary: The life of singer/songwriter/actor Bobby Darin as told through his music, in an intimate and immersive nightclub setting.
Highlights: Jonathan Groff's passion project opened last spring, with him as Bobby Darin, but I was never able to see it, despite multiple extensions. He left the show just last weekend, and Jeremy Jordan is taking over at the end of this month. But lucky for me, Matthew Morrison was (and will forever be) my Bobby Darin. A Broadway star (original casts of Hairspray, The Light in the Piazza, and the 2008 revival of South Pacific) long before he entered our living rooms as Mr. Schuester on Glee, he's playing the role for just three weeks between Jonathan and Jeremy, but he deserves to do it for much longer! He's an incredibly talented singer and dancer, with a charisma that sucks you right into his world, which is so needed for this role. I saw this show just to see him, but was pleasantly surprised that it's actually a really good show, and I learned so much about Bobby Darin, a talented performer with a too short life full of drama (family drama, relationship drama, a weak heart since childhood that eventually took his life at age 37). The show is cleverly written with Bobby narrating his own life, snapping his fingers to stop a scene and tell us a bit about it. But this is after Matthew (or in the original, Jonathan) begins the show by talking to us as himself, telling us it's been over ten years since he's been on Broadway, and talking about how much he loves performing and really lives for the stage, like Bobby did. Like what Jersey Boys did for Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Just in Time shows us the highs and the lows of a life of fame and constant touring and performing. We hear all of his big hits, from his original song "Splish Splash" to his reinvention of classics like "Under the Sea" and "Mack the Knife." But the best part of this show is that Circle in the Square, one of Broadway's smaller theaters at 800 some seats, has been transformed into a swanky nightclub, and I had front row seats (from the TKTS booth in Times Square). Other even more lucky people are seated at cabaret tables on the small stage in the in-the-round space (chairs glued to the ground and no drinks or Playbills allowed), with the performers walking between the tables from the big stage (where the "big band" style 11-piece orchestra is seated) on one end to a small stage on the other, sometimes sitting down at tables with patrons, looking us directly in the eyes. In fact that's key to this experience, which, as Matthew/Bobby explains, is all about the connection between performer and audience, the beautiful ephemeral experience that is theater, or any live performance. There is simply nothing like it, as this show, perhaps the most immersive and intimate experience I've had on Broadway, reminds us.
*Once again, I'm using an abbreviated Fringe-style summary for my NYC 2026 trip, since I am in the greatest city in the world with much more exciting things to do than write! Click here to see all of my Broadway-related blog posts.
