The life of teenage idol Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin was a serious pop star … a singer, dancer, musician, and an Oscar nominee. He was the entertainer who did all of it, besides Broadway. Till now!

Tony Award-winner Jonathan Groff (“Merrily We Roll Alongside”) performs the icon of the late Nineteen Fifties and ’60s within the musical “Simply in Time.” “He was on the peak of his powers, when he was on the ground of a nightclub with the viewers within the palm of his hand,” mentioned Groff.

For Darin, a reside viewers was oxygen. So, too, for Groff: “You may really feel this vibration between performer and viewers member. [It’s], to me, essentially the most important factor to ignite within the telling of his story.”

It is taken seven years and a complete lot of sweat to deliver the present to Broadway. The casting of Groff – beloved for his roles on stage, and as Kristoff within the “Frozen” motion pictures – may not appear apparent. Groff grew up on a horse farm in Pennsylvania Mennonite nation; Darin was a scrappy Italian child from the Bronx.

I requested Groff to whom he favored listening when he was rising up. “I’m in fourth or fifth grade, on the pc or Nintendo within the basement, blasting Ethel Merman, ‘Annie Get Your Gun,'” he laughed.

“So, that is the Nineteen Nineties, in all probability? And also you’re enjoying one thing from the Nineteen Forties?”

“Precisely!”

Likewise, Bobby Darin was an previous soul, says his son, Dodd Darin. “He admired, he cherished, he revered the previous timers. He cherished that period of present enterprise. That is what he associated to.”

That will have had one thing to do with the girl who raised him: “Polly, his mom, was an previous vaudevillian,” mentioned Dodd. “And he or she nurtured him and mentioned, ‘You may’t play stickball on the street. And you may’t roughhouse with youngsters’ (‘trigger he was frail and sickly). ‘However you possibly can study to sing. You may study to bounce. You may study to play piano.’ And it opened a complete world.”

“Frail and sickly” was no exaggeration. Born Walden Robert Cassotto, Darin suffered a number of bouts of rheumatic fever as a baby, completely damaging his coronary heart. When he was a boy, he overheard a household physician say that he would not reside past his teenage years. “Put your self in that place,” mentioned Dodd. “So, he was formidable. He was pushed. He was at all times on the go. He was attempting to jam all of it in, ‘trigger he knew he did not have time.”

With no time to waste, he started writing songs, and at 22, Bobby Darin made waves with a recording of “Splish Splash.”

Bobby Darin performs “Splish Splash” (1958):

Not one to play it protected, for his second album, in 1959, Darin took a darkish ballad from the German “Threepenny Opera” and made it swing. “When my dad took ‘Mack the Knife’ earlier than it was launched and had Dick Clark take heed to it, he mentioned, ‘Why are you doing this? That is gonna bomb!'” Dodd mentioned.

It received the Grammy for report of the yr, and have become the most important hit of Darin’s profession.

The following yr, he was on his solution to Italy to make his movement image debut reverse America’s sweetheart, Sandra Dee. “We hit it proper off,” Darin mentioned. “She hated me and I cherished her, and that was it.” 

The teenager idol married the teenager film star in December of 1960, and welcomed their son, Dodd, a yr later. Dodd would later write, “My father made his future. Future made my mom.”

What did he imply by that? “Effectively, my mother went by means of so much,” he mentioned. “By no means actually needed fame. She actually did not crave it. It simply form of occurred. Not like my dad, who cherished performing, cherished present enterprise.”

Dee was in search of a house life, mentioned Dodd, however Bobby Darin wasn’t able to decelerate. The wedding ended after six years. Darin by no means stopped enjoying the golf equipment.

Sammy Davis Jr. as soon as mentioned that Bobby Darin was the one particular person he would not need to need to comply with. “Completely true,” mentioned Dodd. “My dad idolized Sammy.”

The sensation was mutual, as seen in a 1959 broadcast of “This Is Your Life”:

Additionally featured in the course of the episode was Nina, the girl Darin thought was his sister. However nearly a decade later he would study a long-held household secret: Nina was in truth Bobby’s mom, having given beginning to him out of wedlock as a youngster. Which made Polly, the girl he thought was his mom, his grandmother. “He was by no means the identical,” mentioned Dodd. “He mentioned that his entire life was a lie; he was, like, a fraud. It is simply devastating. There isn’t any sugarcoating it.”

Taking a look at that tape at this time, says Dodd, all of it appears apparent. “That is a mom’s love,” he mentioned. “That is not a sister, okay? That is the adulation of, ‘That is my son,’ however you possibly can’t say it.”

Dodd, who was seven years previous when his father discovered, remembers a change in your father from that point: “I am not gonna say it is immediately attributed to that incident; I am certain that is a part of it. However he bought into the Bob Darin stage, you already know? He took off his toupee. No extra tuxedo. Began doing folks music, protest music, writing music, and dropped out of present enterprise for some time.

“And that was among the greatest occasions I had with him. He was an everyday dude. We have been up in Massive Sur in a trailer, hanging out. And yeah, he let his hair down, if you’ll. It was good occasions.”

Bobby Darin performs “Easy Music of Freedom” (1970):

In December of 1973, Bobby Darin’s coronary heart lastly gave out. He was 37. Dodd had simply turned 12. Now 63, Dodd Darin is grateful that, with the brand new Broadway present, a brand new technology can study the story of his father.

“It is so stunning that each one these years later – he is been gone over 50 years – we’re right here speaking about him. We’re remembering him,” mentioned Dodd. “He did one thing proper.”

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Watch an prolonged interview with Dodd Darin 

You may stream the album “The Final Bobby Darin” by clicking on the embed beneath (Free Spotify registration required to listen to the tracks in full):

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Story produced by Kay Lim. Editor: Lauren Barnello.

Watch Jonathan Groff carry out “Dream Lover” for the solid album recording of “Simply in Time”: