Theater in the Age of the Jukebox Musical: What I Liked This Week #37
Mack (Emily) is back in town (on Substack)
Welcome back, and happy May. It’s an eventful start to the month - I’m having the worst allergies of my life (I say this every spring), I saw Andrew Scott aka hot priest live on stage, and I am published in two non-Substack places! You can find me co-reviewing Pirates! The Penzance Musical with Karl Williams and Timothy Huang on the 3Views site. And, I wrote a feature on John Proctor is the Villain and All Nighter, called ‘Is This Fucking Play About Us?: The New Era of Cool-Girl Theater’ for the Brooklyn Rail. It is VERY cool to be in the Brooklyn Rail and I’m proud of the piece!
Moving along! I’ve seen a lot of shows in the past few weeks, most of which I have been neutral-positive on, but few of which I’ve liked a lot. Here are thoughts on a few of them. Enjoy!
Theater: Buena Vista Social Club, Just in Time, Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole
I usually assume that the point of jukebox bio-musicals is to give context about an artist’s life, while also offering a concert experience of music that you already know and love. Jukebox musicals aren’t necessarily about bringing in new audiences, more about selling tickets to existing audiences — at least to my jaded eye — an easy money maker for producers, and not about art. So it was interesting to see 3 jukebox musicals (or really, 2 - Lights Out: Nat King Cole is a play with music) that (1) featured songs and stories that I wasn’t familiar with and (2) focused on artistry and bringing stories to new audiences (at varying levels of success).
An Off-Broadway darling, Buena Vista Social Club has made a triumphant leap to the Great White Way. This show first crossed my radar last year when my then-boss raved about it, and after seeing ballet’s hottest (and I mean hottest) couple, Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck win the Lortel for Best Choreography, I was committed to seeing it for myself. The musical tells the story of the Buena Vista Social Club, a Cuban musical ensemble that received widespread acclaim for their eponymous 1997 album. Weaving between two time periods, we follow Omara Portuondo as an idealist young singer during the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s, and as an haunted former performer in 1996, not quite sure she wants to return to making music. In both the 1950s and 1996, she’s caught between an obligation to honor her sister (and her sister’s memory) and a deep desire to make Cuban music with a true Cuban sound.
It’s not a spoiler to say that the music wins out. While Omara is the center and catalyst of the musical (Natalie Venetia Belcon rightfully received a Tony nom for playing the Older Omara), the music is its heart. The sound of the Buena Vista Social Club (the band, the dance club, the musical) is sumptuous and immersive and bright, inviting the audience to dance (and even sing) along in their seats. At no moment during the show did I mind that I didn’t understand the lyrics (all the songs are in Spanish; I took French) — I was too busy listening to the blend of the instruments, too busy watching the speed with which guitarist Renesito Avich’s fingers moved.
If the musical’s book found itself slipping into the usual pitfalls jukebox musicals a bit (a little surface-level, a little too trite), the show made up for it through lovely design. The (aforementioned) choreography was excellent, the costumes and set easy on the eyes, and director Saheem Ali has done a nice job with the pacing. Sure, I wouldn’t have minded the chance to learn a little more about the Cuban Revolution, but the musical was a celebration of a band and an album, and I was happy to spend 2 hours basking the in aesthetic and aural experience the show offered.
Not much feels urgent about the new Bobby Darin jukebox musical, Just in Time. There’s nothing that answers the question, “Why This Play Now?” and nothing that makes it feel like the musical arrived on Broadway at the right moment, or “just in time,” so to speak. Nothing, that is, except its star, Jonathan Groff.
Groff has been developing Just in Time alongside director Alex Timbers for the past 7 years, and what better moment to finally bring the show to Broadway than on the heels of his 2024 Tony win? Timbers is a well-celebrated director with a vision, turning the basement theater Circle in the Square into something like the Copa. It’s a pity that Just in Time doesn’t fully live up to the talents behind it.
For the under-60s, Bobby Darin is the crooner behind popular covers of songs like ‘Mack the Knife’ and ‘Beyond the Sea,’ and originals like ‘Dream Lover.’ Much like Buena Vista Social Club, they offer a perfectly nice sound, and there was a chunk of the audience (largely middle aged blonde women) who already knew the numbers and were thrilled to hear them live.
Certainly, Groff sings the songs well, though I couldn’t tell if he was doing an impression. The show felt more like I was watching a Jonathan Groff concert. I would have rather been watching a Jonathan Groff concert, so much that I almost wished the show’s story was about Groff and his childhood on a goat farm in Pennsylvania Amish country. Groff is so eager, his love for performing so deep, that he’s largely able to carry the production. I walked away with a deeper appreciation for him, but also a sense of sympathy, because he really wanted me to care about Bobby Darin, and I didn’t for one second.
This in and of itself is unfortunate, because there are hints of an interesting life sprinkled into the musical: The marriage to starlet Sandra Dee, the campaigning for Robert Kennedy, the “sister was his real mother all along.” But rather than serving as engaging twists and turns during Darin’s 37 year life, these moments come across as soapy and predictable, stepping stones to get us from one song to the next.
While Groff bounces around the stage followed by three leggy “siren” dancers, the other performers don’t get to do much. Gracie Lawrence and Erika Henningsen duel it out in dual princess tracks – both are little more than props in Bobby’s story. That said, the most directorially interesting moment in the show belongs to Henningsen’s Sandra Dee. In a Fleabagian “where did you go?” moment, Sandra snaps her fingers and is suddenly able to talk to the audience. Of course, she only uses it to give more pat, simple narration, but it's a nod to the potential of the show, and of Timbers himself.
I like to consider myself a connoisseur of like…immersive musical theater (LOL) – I love Great Comet, Here Lies Love (directed by Timbers), Once On This Island, etc – and I hoped Just in Time would excite me in the same way. But I wasn’t energized by the use of the space, I was stressed. Someone was going to get stepped on, someone was going to fall off that tiny stage. But perhaps for a middle aged blonde woman who loves Bobby Darin, it was thrilling. I’ve seen multiple tiktoks of women boasting that they’ve made their Broadway debuts because they sang a line into Groff’s mic during the show’s curtain call. And honestly? Good for them. Who am I to deny them a dance with Bobby Darin at the Copa, or a song with Jonathan Groff at the Circle in the Square?
I don’t want to speak too much to New York Theater Workshop’s production of Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole, since I saw its second preview, but this was a thought-provoking one! Written by NYTW Artistic Director Patricia McGregor and Oscar nom/best dressed man ever Colman Domingo, the play (with music!) takes a dark look at the final broadcast of Nat “King” Cole’s variety show. Cole has spent the past 41 episodes playing by white American media and advertising’s rules, letting them lighten his complexion, and promising to stick to the script. On the final night of the show, urged on by friend/ghost/trickster/conscience Sammy Davis Jr., Cole considers doing things differently.
Structurally, its (currently, could change) an odd piece, the scenes sometimes feeling more like short vignettes than a flowing narrative, and the classic Cole standards often chopped up and not performed in their entirety1. The songs are fun, performed nicely by Dulé Hill2 as Cole, and ensemble members Krystal Joy Brown, Kenita Miller and Ruby Lewis, but with the exception of an excellent number by Miller, they don’t really have weight to drive the story forward. The real star of the show is a 7-8 minute tap battle between Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. (Daniel J. Watts, quite good). Hill and Watts are both extraordinary tap dancers and this number is electrifying and perfectly paced and SMART in a way that made me desperately wish there was a second tap piece in the show (tap choreography is by Jared Grimes).
While Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole sometimes felt like in-progress art, the concepts and moments McGregor and Domingo wove in were incredibly smart. The whole piece functioned a bit like a rumination or debate on the presentation of Black art and artists in media, with Cole and Davis as sometimes foils, sometimes allies. I’m curious where the play goes from here and excited about both Domingo’s Cole biopic and whatever he wears to the Met Gala tomorrow.
TV: Étoile
I’m only 2.5 episodes into Étoile, Amy Sherman-Palladino’s new high-budget-blank-check-international ballet show, but of course I am enjoying it. OF COURSE. I love Lincoln Center, I love pretty costumes, I love messy dynamics, I love that Tiler Peck and Robbie Fairchild are in the ensemble. It’s lovely to see Luke Kirby employed (he was great as Lenny Bruce in Maisel), and I love all the ballerinas and ballerinos (I am not a dancer). I must admit, there is something a little triggering jarring about watching a show where a non-profit arts organization has meetings to figure out how to save their financially floundering company, but I also appreciate the realism. More on it after I watch more episodes!
Thanks for reading!
Plenty to yap about in the near future… Floyd Collins, new Emily Henry, Sinners(!) …… talk soon!!
Side note I am DUMB but I did not realize “Nature Boy” was a Cole song. In my head that was a David Bowie song apologies for my IGNORANCE.
I love Dulé Hill I saw this show because of Dulé Hill I saw this show because I love classic USA Network detective show Psych (2006-2014) like that’s my Burton Guster that’s my Bruton Gaster that’s my Lavender Gooms.