[title]
Broadway review by Adam Feldman
Rating: ★★★★ (four stars)
Ticketing: Buy tickets to Just in Time
“This can only happen in this room, right now, with you, and it’ll never happen quite the same way again,” says the actor playing pop singer Bobby Darin at the end of the hit biomusical Just in Time. When the show premiered last spring, the actor in question was Jonathan Groff; now, Darin is being portrayed by Jeremy Jordan, another of Broadway’s most appealing leading men. I recently revisited the Circle in the Square Theatre to see Jordan in the role and, true to the show’s word, it is not happening quite the same way as it did with Groff. But that, in a sense, is the point—and Just in Time, happily, still happens to be great fun.
Of the 14 new musicals that opened in the overcrowded 2024–25 season, Just in Time is one of just four that remain open. Long runs mean new casts, and that can be complicated. In some productions, the change is not hugely consequential. Sometimes that’s because the production itself is the star; individual actors in The Lion King, say, will always be overshadowed by that show’s gorgeous design. Or sometimes it’s because the material doesn’t permit much variation. I returned to the futuristic romantic fable Maybe Happy Ending a few weeks ago and found it more or less exactly the same as when it opened; its two new lead actors, Zachary Noah Piser and Hannah Kevitt—joining original supporting players Marcus Choi and Dez Duron—are excellent, but because they are playing androids, there’s only so much distinct personality they can display. And that’s fine; the show remains gorgeous. It’s designed to work like a fine-tuned machine.
Just in Time is just about as far from that model as can be. The actor playing Darin is onstage for nearly the entire show, tracking the singer’s evolution over the course of two decades and performing more than a dozen songs, including Darin’s signature hits “Splish Splash,” “Beyond the Sea,” “Dream Lover” and “Mack the Knife” (and also engaging with audience members seated at cabaret tables that evoke Darin’s apotheosis as a nightclub performer at venues like the Copacabana). That requires charisma to burn. But as I analyzed in my original review, that same actor must also, in the musical’s metatheatrical framework, literally play himself—in this case, Jeremy Jordan—which requires something more: star personality, because Just in Time is explicitly personal about its star.
That makes the task of replacing Groff especially challenging, not least because—as I discussed with director Alex Timbers on the podcast Sitting Ovations earlier this year—the musical was developed around Groff from the start. Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver’s script for Just in Time has been adjusted, at times, to suit the show’s new star. (Jordan doesn’t speak, as Groff did, of twirling in his mother’s heels in Pennsylvania Amish country.) For the most part, though, the difference is in the actors’ overall onstage personae. Jordan and Groff are very much in the same cohort as the preeminent musical-theater twunks of our time (see also: Aaron Tveit), and they have quite a lot in common: Both are handsome tenors who are Broadway mainstays despite prominent roles on television (Groff on Glee, Looking and Mindhunter, Jordan on Supergirl and Smash); Jordan has even filled Groff’s shoes once before, succeeding him as Seymour in the long-running Off Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors. But whereas Groff radiates lovable sincerity—employed to marvelous effect in Merrily We Roll Along—Jordan is slicker and a little more guarded. In contrast with the famously perspiration-prone Groff, he almost never lets you see him sweat.
The resulting performance feels less vulnerable at the show’s beginning and end, when Jordan is being Jordan, but is sure-footed when he's playing Darin in the middle. Jordan has proven his Broadway chops many times over: In 2012, he became the first actor in decades to originate two leading musical roles in the same season (in the short-lived Bonnie and Clyde and the well-delivered Newsies), and he was affecting as a Kentucky spelunker trapped underground in Floyd Collins. After that mostly immobile performance, his Darin gives him the chance to stretch his legs and then some. He’s a marvel of stamina, bringing strong vocals and a touch of Rat Pack suavity to his musical numbers even as he invests his dramatic scenes with more intense emotionality. That changes the balance of the Just in Time; the bookends used to seem like the point, but the show now leans toward the biography between them. (It feels rather like Jordan is playing Darin where Groff was playing at playing Darin.)
The production around Jordan is in very fine shape. Carrie St. Louis and Olivia Holt are persuasive as Darin’s two great loves, Sandra Dee and Connie Francis—former Vanderpump ruler Ariana Madix takes over for the latter on September 12—while Broadway vet Debbie Gravitte gives the role of Darin’s mother a warmer coloration than before, and original cast member Emily Bergl remains grounded and touching as his sister. I’ll admit to missing the sense of personal self-exposure that Groff brought to the central role, but Time marches on. “I hope you’re smilin’ / As you’re filin’ out the door,” sings Jordan in his closing number. “As they say in this biz / That’s all there is / There isn’t any more.” Everyone really does leave this show smiling, and if that’s all there is, it’s plenty.
Just in Time. Circle in the Square (Broadway). Book by Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver. Music and lyrics by various writers. Directed by Alex Timbers. With Jeremy Jordan, Carrie St. Louis, Olivia Holt, Debbie Gravitte, Emily Bergl. Running time: 2hr 20mins. One intermission.
Buy tickets to Just in Time: Broadway.com
Follow Adam Feldman on X: @FeldmanAdam
Follow Adam Feldman on Bluesky: @FeldmanAdam
Follow Adam Feldman on Threads: @adfeldman
Watch Adam Feldman's theater podcast on YouTube: Sitting Ovations
Follow Time Out Theater on X: @TimeOutTheater
Keep up with the latest news and reviews on our Time Out Theater Facebook page
