On Stage: “Just in Time”

Photos: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman

Just in Time

Yay! Bobby Darin is back at the Copacabana nightclub … embodied by charming Jonathan Groff in “Just in Time,” a splashy, swinging Broadway tribute that just opened at Manhattan’s Circle in the Square.

Based on Ted Chapin’s original concept with a book by Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver, this exuberant jukebox bio-musical is presented cabaret-style, delineating Darin’s all-too-short life, beginning with the childhood rheumatic fever that permanently damaged his heart valves, prompting the family doctor to predict he wouldn’t live beyond his 16^th birthday.

Born in 1936 in Harlem as Walden Robert Cassotto, he was raised by his frustrated vaudevillian mother Polly (Michele Pawk). One of Darin’s biggest hits — “Beyond the Sea” — was based on the French song “La Mer” that Polly sang to him.

Local Note: the English lyrics of “Beyond the Sea” were written by Jack Lawrence, who lived in Redding, CT for many years.

Darin’s — and Groff’s — versatility is astonishing. Determined to achieve success as soon as possible, he refused to waste a single second, changing his name and song style to please various Tin Pan Alley rock ‘n’ roll music publishers.

Off stage, Darin’s love life was rougher, particularly his early adoration of Connie Francis (Gracie Lawrence), whose father refused to allow her to marry him.

Years later, Darin did marry 19-year-old “Gidget” star Sandra Dee (Erika Henningsen), whom he met in Portofino, Italy, where they co-starred in the movie musical “Come September” (1961).

Bobby expected Sandra to travel with him, putting her career on a back burner, attending his nightly Las Vegas shows and being ogled by the public. Sandra became the mother of his only son, Dodd Darin; they divorced in 1967.

There’s only a brief allusion to Dee’s emotional anguish — having been raped by her stepfather when she was eight — and no mention of Darin’s brief second marriage in 1973 to Andrea Yaeger.

Directed by Alex Timbers, Jonathan Groff — last year’s Tony-winner for “Merrily We Roll Along” — breaks “the fourth wall,” making an immediate, intimate audience connection and miraculously sustaining it for more than two hours, darting between two stages, dancing on cafe tabletops in between, crooning hits like “Mack the Knife,” “Dream Lover,” “Splish Splash,” “18 Yellow Roses,” “Once in a Lifetime,” “Rainin’” and the titular “Just in Time.”

Too bad the second act, covering the final third of his life, loses steam, skimming over his political and folk music letdowns, eventual bankruptcy and death at age 37 in 1973.

Kudos to co-stars Emily Bergl, Cesar Samayoa, Lance Roberts and Joe Barbara, along with and leggy back-up dancers Christine Cornish, Julia Grondin and Valeria Yasmin, cavorting on Derek McLane’s elaborate art deco set, complete with a bandstand to accommodate the lively 11-piece combo.