This week, your favorite rat clawed into Circle in the Square for Just In Time where Jonathan Groff doesn’t just play Bobby Darin. He spits. He cracks. He grins through the jazz. All with a live band pounding behind him like the last good night at the Copa.
It’s sharp, it’s shiny, it’s a little frantic. Groff jumps between swagger and panic without missing a beat, like a guy dancing hard against a bad heart. The band swings, the lights shimmer, and under it all, you can feel the pulse racing.
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If you’re new to The Stage Rat, this is what we do: sniff out the shows that still feel alive and Just In Time is a big vibe.
THE RAT’S RECOMMENDATION:
“JUST IN TIME”
Cheese Score: 🧀🧀🧀🧀(4/5)
Description:
Just In Time follows Jonathan Groff as he brings Bobby Darin’s music and life to the stage in a live nightclub setting.
Why You Should Care:
Groff Is AMAZING—and hold for spit –
Jonathan Groff doesn’t just play Bobby Darin. He sweats him out. Spitting, grinning, stumbling, soaring—Groff is self-declared “wet”, wired, and wide open. He’s a showman, but also cracked and vulnerable underneath the polish. The parallels between Groff and Darin are real: both brilliant, both rushing against some invisible clock.
Go back to the Copa –
A live band right there onstage. Dreamy, champagne-drenched lighting. A set that feels like you just wandered into the Copa in 1959, drunk on ambition. The sound pulses, the floor glows.
Immersion Without the Neck Cramp –
Groff doesn’t just stay onstage—he moves through the crowd, slipping between tables, singing straight into your guilty little face. And yet, it’s seamless. You don’t feel trapped or craning for a view.
What is performance for? –
Why do artists keep chasing applause long after it stops meaning anything? What drives someone to perform until they drop? Who actually loves you—the person, or the myth? The show asks all of this without killing the fun.
Where – Circle in the Square Theater
How Long – 2hrs 15min (inc. intermission)
Who to Bring - Your dad who still thinks he looks like Sinatra after two martinis. The friend who wears a fedora “ironically” but secretly means it. Groff stans. The jazz nerd who insists Bobby Darin’s version of “Mack the Knife” is better than Louis Armstrong’s.
Have you seen it? What's your rating?
Overall Cheese rating: 4/5
RAT READERS 🐀🐀🐀
Here we share the responses from our fellow Rat Mischief - this was from last week’s show - Assuming you know David Greenspan! Submit your review and get featured in next week’s edition.
A meta-marvel. Greenspan is amazing, he and the play are hilarious, and deep questions about the value of theater today are raised, but no definitive answers are given. A must-see for anyone who cares about the current state and future of theater as a literary and cultural force.
Until next week, keep it dramatic, keep it ratty, and always aim for center stage! 🐀✨.
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With lots of Ratitude,
The Stage Rat