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Before David Bowie, Madonna and Beyonc\u00e9 made the idea of being a pop star synonymous with constant reinvention, there was Bobby Darin.<\/p>\n
He \u201ccould sound like anybody and sing any style,\u201d Bob Dylan wrote of the singer in his 2022 book, \u201cThe Philosophy of Modern Song.\u201d Not only was Darin \u201cmore flexible than anyone of his time,\u201d Dylan noted, but \u201ceven in repose he just about vibrated with talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neil Young, another rocker known for musical shape-shifting, expressed similar admiration. \u201cI used to be pissed off at Bobby Darin because he changed styles so much,\u201d he told Rolling Stone. \u201cNow I look at him and think he was a [expletive] genius.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that versatility, alongside his complicated life, that the new Broadway show \u201cJust in Time,\u201d in previews at Circle in the Square Theater, aims to explore through Darin\u2019s swinging hits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Developed and directed by Alex Timbers (a Tony winner for \u201cMoulin Rouge!\u201d) and starring Jonathan Groff (a Tony winner last year for \u201cMerrily We Roll Along\u201d), \u201cJust in Time\u201d is set in a nightclub, complete with an onstage band. While Darin is remembered for his magnetic performances, his story requires something more than a conventional jukebox bio-musical.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cHis whole journey is trying to figure out who he is,\u201d said Timbers, \u201cand that\u2019s paralleled in his artistic journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born Walden Robert Cassotto in 1936 in New York, Darin contracted rheumatic fever as a child, which weakened his heart and shortened his life. But that didn\u2019t diminish his musical aspirations: In 1958, he hit it big with the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll song \u201cSplish Splash.\u201d Before long, he began experimenting with different sounds, revising the French song \u201cLa Mer\u201d into the breezy \u201cBeyond the Sea\u201d and hitting No. 1 with his version of \u201cMack the Knife\u201d from \u201cThe Threepenny Opera.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon he was starring in movies, and in 1960, he met Sandra Dee on the set of \u201cCome September.\u201d They married and became Hollywood\u2019s It Couple \u2014 the Brangelina of their day \u2014 but the relationship was troubled, and they divorced in 1967.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Darin became more politically engaged \u2014 recording more folk-oriented material and working on Robert F. Kennedy\u2019s presidential campaign in 1968. That same year he discovered that the woman who raised him was not his biological mother, but his grandmother, while the woman he knew as his sister was his mother.<\/p>\n
The revelation sent him into an extended tailspin. Though he eventually began performing again, he died in 1973 at the age of 37 following open-heart surgery.<\/p>\n
All this triumph and trauma finds its way into \u201cJust in Time,\u201d which is based on a concept by Ted Chapin, inspired by a 2018 event at the 92nd Street Y. Timbers has been developing the musical \u2014 with a book by Warren Leight (\u201cSide Man\u201d) and Isaac Oliver (\u201cThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel\u201d) \u2014 for the past seven years.<\/p>\n
During a rehearsal break, Timbers, Groff, the choreographer Shannon Lewis and the music supervisor Andrew Resnick gathered to talk about six songs that are central to the show \u2014 and to understanding the layers and mysteries of Bobby Darin. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
1958<\/p>\n
TIMBERS<\/strong> It\u2019s delivered as a montage \u2014 you see him performing for the first time in a really lo-fi way, then he starts to get costumes and dancers, and by the end, we\u2019re recreating the \u201cEd Sullivan [Show]\u201d performance where he actually had the bathtub and the bubbles. We\u2019re embracing the kitsch of that but framing it in a way that you understand how it relates to Bobby\u2019s artistic journey and, ultimately, his rejection of \u201cSplish Splash.\u201d<\/p>\n GROFF<\/strong> On the \u201cDarin at the Copa\u201d record, you hear someone say, \u201cSing \u2018Splish, Splash!\u2019\u201d And he\u2019s like, \u201cOh, you\u2019re going so far back, I can\u2019t remember.\u201d There\u2019s obviously a period where he\u2019s trying to [distance himself], but when you listen to that original record, it\u2019s magic.<\/p>\n RESNICK<\/strong> Later in his career, it\u2019s even more unhinged. He speeds up the tempo and it\u2019s kind of insane, it\u2019s really raucous. I wanted to capture that energy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n LEWIS<\/strong> The music has this loose, careening-down-a-hill vibe, and the choreography does, too. I pushed it really far. It reminds me of \u201cHullabaloo\u201d [the \u201960s musical variety show], this crazy looseness and weird quirkiness, but also iconic, where everybody remembers certain moves.<\/p>\n 1959<\/p>\n TIMBERS<\/strong> A guy who finds out that he\u2019s supposed to die at age 15 is someone who is striving to make every day count. At the heights, he always wants more. He\u2019s climbed that mountain, and then there\u2019s a bigger mountain beyond that. And that\u2019s how \u201cDream Lover\u201d functions in our show.<\/p>\n RESNICK<\/strong> It\u2019s this pop-rock song that\u2019s based on a rumba, and then you have these singers with a high vibrato, almost operatic. If you take each individual element, you\u2019re like, what\u2019s happening here? For whatever strange reason, it coheres into this really delightful song.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n GROFF<\/strong> We forget that as incredible an entertainer as Bobby Darin was, he was also a really eclectic, phenomenal songwriter. Also, Bobby Darin is a creative persona that he made. He was Bobby Cassotto, but he would say, \u201cI put my toupee on and I walk out the door as Bobby Darin.\u201d So he\u2019s not looking for something real. He\u2019s looking for a fantasy \u2014 wanting not just a partner but wanting a dream lover.<\/a> And in walks the dream of America\u2019s sweetheart, Sandra Dee. Be careful what you wish for.<\/p>\n 1959<\/p>\n TIMBERS<\/strong> The woman he thought was his mother was a vaudeville star. She was obsessed with the theater and the Copa and nightclubs, and she instilled that in him as the artistic gold standard. \u201cMack the Knife\u201d is the page turn for him, and it\u2019s so unlikely, a European theater song, but putting his own spin on it. And it\u2019s the thing that all artists dream of: authentic and commercial.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n RESNICK<\/strong> He\u2019s not singing \u201cMack the Knife\u201d like a big band crooner, like Sinatra; he\u2019s singing like a rock star. His phrasing is much more rhythmic, much more percussive.<\/p>\n GROFF<\/strong> The song is about a man who doesn\u2019t appear to be murderous being the ultimate killer. Darin was the ultimate entertainer, but there\u2019s a lot of subtextual darkness. When you think of a killer, you think of this shark with teeth but actually it\u2019s just this guy that\u2019s got a switchblade in his pocket that you can\u2019t even see.<\/p>\n
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