Earlier than David Bowie, Madonna and Beyoncé made the concept of being a pop star synonymous with fixed reinvention, there was Bobby Darin.
He “might sound like anyone and sing any fashion,” Bob Dylan wrote of the singer in his 2022 e book, “The Philosophy of Trendy Music.” Not solely was Darin “extra versatile than anybody of his time,” Dylan famous, however “even in repose he nearly vibrated with expertise.”
Neil Younger, one other rocker identified for musical shape-shifting, expressed comparable admiration. “I was pissed off at Bobby Darin as a result of he modified kinds a lot,” he advised Rolling Stone. “Now I take a look at him and assume he was a [expletive] genius.”
It’s that versatility, alongside his difficult life, that the brand new Broadway present “Simply in Time,” in previews at Circle within the Sq. Theater, goals to discover by means of Darin’s swinging hits.
Developed and directed by Alex Timbers (a Tony winner for “Moulin Rouge!”) and starring Jonathan Groff (a Tony winner final 12 months for “Merrily We Roll Alongside”), “Simply in Time” is about in a nightclub, full with an onstage band. Whereas Darin is remembered for his magnetic performances, his story requires one thing greater than a standard jukebox bio-musical.
“His entire journey is making an attempt to determine who he’s,” mentioned Timbers, “and that’s paralleled in his inventive journey.”
Born Walden Robert Cassotto in 1936 in New York, Darin contracted rheumatic fever as a baby, which weakened his coronary heart and shortened his life. However that didn’t diminish his musical aspirations: In 1958, he hit it huge with the rock ’n’ roll music “Splish Splash.” Earlier than lengthy, he started experimenting with completely different sounds, revising the French music “La Mer” into the breezy “Past the Sea” and hitting No. 1 together with his model of “Mack the Knife” from “The Threepenny Opera.”
Quickly he was starring in films, and in 1960, he met Sandra Dee on the set of “Come September.” They married and have become Hollywood’s It Couple — the Brangelina of their day — however the relationship was troubled, and so they divorced in 1967.
Darin grew to become extra politically engaged — recording extra folk-oriented materials and dealing on Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential marketing campaign in 1968. That very same 12 months he found that the girl who raised him was not his organic mom, however his grandmother, whereas the girl he knew as his sister was his mom.
The revelation despatched him into an prolonged tailspin. Although he finally started performing once more, he died in 1973 on the age of 37 following open-heart surgical procedure.
All this triumph and trauma finds its means into “Simply in Time,” which is predicated on an idea by Ted Chapin, impressed by a 2018 occasion on the 92nd Road Y. Timbers has been growing the musical — with a e book by Warren Leight (“Aspect Man”) and Isaac Oliver (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) — for the previous seven years.
Throughout a rehearsal break, Timbers, Groff, the choreographer Shannon Lewis and the music supervisor Andrew Resnick gathered to speak about six songs which can be central to the present — and to understanding the layers and mysteries of Bobby Darin. These are edited excerpts from the dialog.
1958
TIMBERS It’s delivered as a montage — you see him performing for the primary time in a very lo-fi means, then he begins to get costumes and dancers, and by the top, we’re recreating the “Ed Sullivan [Show]” efficiency the place he really had the tub and the bubbles. We’re embracing the kitsch of that however framing it in a means that you simply perceive the way it pertains to Bobby’s inventive journey and, in the end, his rejection of “Splish Splash.”
GROFF On the “Darin on the Copa” report, you hear somebody say, “Sing ‘Splish, Splash!’” And he’s like, “Oh, you’re going thus far again, I can’t bear in mind.” There’s clearly a interval the place he’s making an attempt to [distance himself], however while you hearken to that unique report, it’s magic.
RESNICK Later in his profession, it’s much more unhinged. He quickens the tempo and it’s type of insane, it’s actually raucous. I wished to seize that vitality.
LEWIS The music has this free, careening-down-a-hill vibe, and the choreography does, too. I pushed it actually far. It jogs my memory of “Hullabaloo” [the ’60s musical variety show], this loopy looseness and peculiar quirkiness, but in addition iconic, the place all people remembers sure strikes.
1959
TIMBERS A man who finds out that he’s imagined to die at age 15 is somebody who’s striving to make day by day rely. On the heights, he at all times needs extra. He’s climbed that mountain, after which there’s an even bigger mountain past that. And that’s how “Dream Lover” capabilities in our present.
RESNICK It’s this pop-rock music that’s based mostly on a rumba, after which you have got these singers with a excessive vibrato, nearly operatic. When you take every particular person factor, you’re like, what’s occurring right here? For no matter unusual cause, it coheres into this actually pleasant music.
GROFF We overlook that as unbelievable an entertainer as Bobby Darin was, he was additionally a very eclectic, phenomenal songwriter. Additionally, Bobby Darin is a artistic persona that he made. He was Bobby Cassotto, however he would say, “I put my toupee on and I stroll out the door as Bobby Darin.” So he’s not searching for one thing actual. He’s searching for a fantasy — wanting not only a accomplice however wanting a dream lover. And in walks the dream of America’s sweetheart, Sandra Dee. Watch out what you would like for.
1959
TIMBERS The girl he thought was his mom was a vaudeville star. She was obsessive about the theater and the Copa and nightclubs, and he or she instilled that in him because the inventive gold customary. “Mack the Knife” is the web page flip for him, and it’s so unlikely, a European theater music, however placing his personal spin on it. And it’s the factor that each one artists dream of: genuine and business.
RESNICK He’s not singing “Mack the Knife” like an enormous band crooner, like Sinatra; he’s singing like a rock star. His phrasing is far more rhythmic, far more percussive.
GROFF The music is a couple of man who doesn’t look like murderous being the final word killer. Darin was the final word entertainer, however there’s a number of subtextual darkness. Once you consider a killer, you consider this shark with tooth however really it’s simply this man that’s acquired a switchblade in his pocket you could’t even see.
TIMBERS It’s about loss of life, and his life’s obsession was loss of life and mortality.
LEWIS However it’s like showbiz loss of life. It’s very pizzazz-y.
1959
GROFF We watched Bobby Darin’s TV particular from 1973, the 12 months that he died. He’s singing “Past the Sea,” however he’s doing random jokes, kibitzing with musicians. So what might we take from that within the growth of this quantity? We contain the members of the band and the actresses, name-checking them and making jokes and dancing with them. All impressed by his dedication to creating issues really feel recent each time he did them.
LEWIS There’s an aspirational high quality. It’s type of a miracle that it really works, as a result of there are these lengthy, held notes, after which these sudden percussive breaks. However it doesn’t take you out of the music, it simply will get you additional in.
RESNICK The sense of longing comes out, for one thing that’s not essentially tangible. It’s poetry, versus — nicely, “Splish Splash” is poetry, too.
1963
TIMBERS “18 Yellow Roses” is autobiographical, about assembly Sandra Dee and falling in love. It’s nice musical-theater storytelling. Generally folks speak about jukebox musicals like “Nicely, it feels just like the music is grafted on” — no, he wrote this music about this second.
GROFF He’s beginning to shift genres towards the people sound, like a primary dipping of the toe. We tie this era to the dissolution of his marriage; this unbelievable, gigantic household secret that sends him right into a psychological breakdown; and his earnest engagement in civil rights and politics. He was fearless in his skill to strip all of it down and provide one thing utterly completely different.
RESNICK It’s nearly a fulcrum. We begin with rock ’n’ roll, you get to the massive band swing, after which within the early ’60s, these new sounds and textures begin to enter, shifting towards simplification. He thought he was going to die younger, in order he heads into his late 20s, early 30s, there’s certainly a way of “How lengthy is that this going to final?” There’s one thing concerning the sincere expression of a folks music that speaks extra to somebody who’s asking these questions.
1966
GROFF It’s the final word entertainer asking, “If Bobby Darin didn’t exist, this factor I created on your leisure — if all of that was gone, would you continue to love who I’m? Would I nonetheless love who I’m? Would I nonetheless be who I’m?”
LEWIS It’s a quiet second. There’s a tenderness onstage and a grounded-ness. Our present strikes and strikes and goes and goes, with urgency, as a result of he had urgency in his life. After which he type of stops — not utterly, however slows down.
GROFF Singing it’s therapeutic. The present is so relentless, his life is so relentless, and after we get to that time, it looks like oxygen, like meditation. There’s additionally one thing bittersweet about it. There’s a little bit of remorse, like he selected to go this one route and had nice success, however there was an enormous a part of him that acquired uncared for. That interval of his life was an actual turning level for him. He was studying that as a lot as he was doing it for the viewers, he needed to do it slightly bit for himself.
