JUST IN TIME & MAYBE HAPPY ENDING — Review Refreshers
Recently, I had the chance to check in on two recent musicals that have impressively cleared double hurdles: they’ve managed to stay open beyond the season during which they opened—a rarity in post-Covid Broadway—and they’ve managed to transcend original casts which appeared fundamental to their success, if not outright being.
An existential threat loomed over Just in Time, the Bobby Darin biomusical which star Jonathan Groff and director Alex Timbers developed out of a one-night concert. Darin not being a musician anyone was particularly clamoring to return to, it seemed a strange proposition until the lavish production opened last April and, against all odds, became a runaway hit. Groff is a massively likable, talented performer, but no one could have predicted his charm alone could command blockbuster prices for an entire year. Another issue: Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver’s book was built upon the conceit that this was Groff, the actor, hopping in and out of Darin, the character, with a few fourth-wall breakers strewn about. How could such a passion project survive with a new lead?
Turns out Jeremy Jordan has the ardent fans and, with some slight tweaking, great ability to carry the show through. His is not the originator’s gushy GBF magnetism—Jordan has a darker appeal, deftly calibrated between skeptical side-eye and undeniably talent. It’s one of the qualities I’ve come to most admire about him, off-stage; this is a still young, still dashing industry vet who will lend his considerable all to the job then go home to his wife and kids. If that tones down some of the show’s earnest slime-tutorial atmosphere, especially in the up-up-up of the first act, it charges the second’s charting of Darin’s later years with real gravitas. Joined by a handful of solid fellow replacements—Olivia Holt as Connie Francis, Carrie St. Louis as Sandra Dee, and Debbie Gravitte as Darin’s mother, Polly—Jordan turns Just in Time from pure personality showcase to an actually reproducible play. He slips into that power blue sit just fine and, it goes without saying, sings the hell out of it.
Maybe Happy Ending was perhaps on sturdier ground—it is objectively the better musical, whose tech-heavy 2024 Broadway premiere Michael Arden directed straight into theatre history. As long as that stunning set revolved, revealed, expanded and minimized, things should be okay. But Darren Criss’ lead performance as Oliver, a slowly decaying robot, was also a staggering achievement. I remember the visceral wallop of, Oh god, is it gonna be this for 100 minutes? for the first two seconds of his robot self before realizing this was one of the most locked-in performances I’d ever see. The technical edge of his performance was beautifully balanced by co-lead Helen J. Shen; her Claire’s sweet voice and pitch-perfect tenderness.
The new Helperbots are more tart, more wise in their ways, and still excellent. As the older model, Criss’ intently robotic performance kept evident the fact that his ability to emulate humans was nowhere near Shen’s naturalistic portrayal. Though Oliver maintains he’s the sturdier make, he is clearly jealous of Claire’s capabilities, and Criss played it like a boy both resentful and vulnerable when confronted with a higher authority. Their eventual romance was innocent and pure. Zachary Noah Piser’s Oliver is more cynical, and less robotic in movement. The result is a less high-concept version of this futuristic fable, which now scans as taking place in a very plausible near-future. With Oliver no longer as developmentally far removed from Hannah Kevitt’s Claire, their attraction blossoms, not from dual fish-out-of-water encounters, but as a profound kinship against the worn-down despair of mutually recognizable obsolescence.
In short, both shows still work.
Just in Time is in performance at Circle in the Square Theatre on West 50th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.
Maybe Happy Ending is in performance at the Belasco Theatre on West 44th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.
