I rarely review Broadway plays because, sadly, I rarely go to them. But my wife thought going to see Just in Time -- a musical about Bobby Darin at the Circle in the Square theatre -- would be a great way to help celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary, and she was 100% right. The play is a tour-de-force -- a wonderful and meaningful bio-story, with superb singing, acting, and staging.
I was two degrees of separation, in two different ways, in the 1960s and 1970s, from Bobby Darin. In the late 1960s, I sold a song I wrote to Irwin Schuster at TM Music, a company owned by Bobby Darin in the Brill Building. The song, "Unbelievable, Inconceivable You," was recorded by The Vogues, but never released. (You can hear it here.) Then, in 1972, I sold an article to The Village Voice about the return of New York DJ Murray the K to New York. Murray read it and hired me to assist him with his new show on WNBC Radio. Murray and I talked a lot while the music was playing, and he told me every time he played a Bobby Darin record -- which was often -- that Murray's mother had said that "Splish Splash" would be an impossible title for a song, Murray had passed this challenge along to Bobby Darin, and that's how the path to his first hit record began.
Murray the K was in Just in Time (played by Lance Roberts, who also plays Ahmet Ertegun, co-owner of Atlantic Records), Irwin Schuster was not, but everyone in the play gave sterling, memorable performances, chocked full of vitality and passion, and, when called for, humor and tugging on the heart strings. Jeremy Jordan as Bobby Darin is a dynamo with a powerful voice. Darin's repertoire went from rock 'n' roll ("Splish Splash" and "Queen of the Hop") to pop ("Dream Lover" and "Just in Time") to jazz ("Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea"), and folk ("If I Were a Carpenter"), and Jordan does them all with a sparkling zest. Isa Briones (yes, she's doing a fine job as Dr. Santos in The Pitt on HBO Max) has a remarkable voice and all the power and Italian gravy of Connie Francis. Carrie St. Louis conveys a Sandra Dee with perfect spunk and sensitivity. And the band and the background singers were just right, a real pleasure to hear and see.
We also loved the way the "stage" is set, with seats all around cafe tables with patrons (who are theatre patrons not actors), two stages, and a band on two parts of the main stage. At times, Jordan asks a lucky lady patron at one or two of the tables to dance. Jordan, by the way, at the beginning and at times in the show, talks to the audience as himself, Jordan. Warren Leight (Law and Order!) and Isaac Oliver (a Fordham University grad, I'm a prof there, but, alas, never had him in a class) wrote the book for the musical. If you enjoyed Bobby Darin's music and personna -- whose style and multi-genre approach were a precursor of Billy Joel -- you'll find Just in Time irresistible and unforgettable.
And here's a song I wrote about and for Murray the K when I was working for him at WNBC Radio in 1972.
See also Jersey Boys: A Transcending Musical
