Amid rehearsals for his role as Bobby Darin in the Broadway musical Just in Time, Jeremy Jordan made a trip to the West Coast to perform a solo show featuring a slew of songs from his most memorable roles, from Newsies to The Great Gatsby, with some other surprises.
During a roughly two-hour show (with intermission) at The Soraya at California State University, Northridge, Jordan told stories of his career and life to an enthusiastic and appreciative sold-out audience.
Among the highlights was a 15-ish-minute condensed version of Newsies, his 2012 breakout role that earned him a Tony nom. “The legacy that the show has left behind — it’s super crazy to me,” he said onstage. “Just being a part of something so iconic has really been a gift, and it feels like every day they’re like doing a production of the show somewhere. And it makes me really emotional, because I don’t get a commission from any of these projects. Just enjoy your multiple yachts, Alan Menken,” he joked, referring to the show’s composer.
The performance featured snippets of the musical’s beloved songs — from “King of New York” to “Seize the Day” to “Something to Believe In” — but Jordan teased several times that he was saving the show-stopper “Santa Fe” for the end of the night (more on that later). The funny performance featured humorous asides on the Broadway production (referring to 17-year-old Jack being friends with theater owner/performer Medda Larkin: “She is a grown-ass woman and it’s not weird at all that we happen to be very close friends”; on one of the show’s final scenes: “Teddy Roosevelt makes an appearance; I don’t really understand that part”) along with a brief “intermission” during which Jordan bantered with his music director-pianist Benjamin Rauhala as if they were actual theatergoers.
Jeremy Jordan performs a recap of Newsies at The Soraya at California State University, Northridge on April 11, 2026.
Braden Villanueva, The Soraya
Jordan charmed the audience with tales of being catfished by a friend who had a crush on him, told a story of his 6-year-old daughter coming to realize what her dad does for a living and shared that his grandmother, who died last year, passed at the same time he was onstage performing “How Glory Goes” in Floyd Collins, a poignant song in which the title character begins to accept his impending death. “There’s this lyric near the end: Will my mama be there waiting for me? And I’m not religious. I don’t really know what the hell I am, but I swear at that moment, I felt her there with me suddenly and powerfully and alongside Floyd. We ascended into the unknown.”
Jordan, who earned a second Tony nom last year for his role in that production, then sang a medley in tribute to her that included “Somewhere” from West Side Story (which he noted is his favorite musical) and “How Glory Goes.”
Two days before the show, Jordan called The Hollywood Reporter from the East Coast to talk about what he had in store. “It’s gonna be a raucous, good time,” he said. “I’m not in a show right now. I’m only in rehearsal [for Just in Time], so I’m super well-rested. I like to have fun as much as possible and try to incorporate some of the songs that people love, from my career, while also introducing some maybe lesser-known things that I love and try to throw a few surprises at you. But I try to keep it fun and keep it a celebration and then and try to send you home smiling.”
The show also featured Jordan’s “audition” to play a Disney prince, with him singing snippets of songs from Aladdin, Frozen 2, the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast and more.
“It’s a little bit of a vocal journey when I do these shows for me because I tend to have the things that I’m known for tend to be quite extreme, vocally, so I gotta pace myself,” Jordan said. “But we still try to put on a really fun show and try to give everybody a little bit of what they might want, as well as what they may not even realize they want.
“Sometimes I have to psych myself up because I do still get nervous sometimes,” Jordan told THR of doing a solo show versus a theatrical production. “It’s not like a play where you’ve been rehearsing for months, you do it every night, it’s so ingrained in your body. You’re very vulnerable because you can’t hide behind somebody else’s text — you know, you could sing songs and kind of hide in those moments — but [in a solo show], you’re very exposed, it’s just you, but at the same time, you have to kind of remember that like everybody is excited to be here to see you, to celebrate.
Asked if he feels a different energy from the audience at a solo show, he replied that fans “come with a very specific expectation. … It’s not about winning them over, it’s just about meeting their expectations, and the challenge for me is raising them. If I already know that they are fans and they’re ready to enjoy themselves and have a good night and hear some songs that they love, then how can I make it even more special for them and push it to a new level?”
The show also featured songs from Little Shop of Horrors; Bonnie & Clyde: The Musical; The Last Five Years, which he starred in a 2014 movie version of alongside Anna Kendrick; and R&H Goes Pop!, featuring contemporary versions of Rodgers and Hammerstein songs. Jordan was backed by a band including Rauhala, drummer Ben Rose, cellist Alisha Bauer, guitarist Emily Rosenfield and bassist Justin Goldner.
He’s set to take over the role of Bobby Darin from Jonathan Groff in Just in Time in a matter of days (April 21). During Saturday’s show, he performed “Dream Lover,” noting that the Soraya crowd was the “very first audience” to hear him perform a Darin tune. Asked by THR if he’s gotten tips from Groff about the role, he replied: “I called him early. I was like, how, how are you doing this? Because it’s a mammoth of a role.” Jordan, in fact, completed his first run-through of the show less than an hour before chatting with THR.
“I’ve originated roles, and I’ve replaced as well, and it’s a different kind of approach that you have to take to attack a replacement as opposed to originating something, and Jonathan is so smart,” Jordan continued. “I love him as a human being, so I felt like I was already starting from a place of being taken care of, and the company is so amazing, everybody is just really really wonderful over there it’s never felt like I was walking into something that was so well established and that I was an imposter. It’s been a lovely process.”
Jordan pointed to the format of the show, which starts as the star portraying himself before moving into the 1950s and ’60s to tell Darin’s story. “So I get to kind of put my own stamp on it, and I can really feel like I can have ownership of the show as opposed to like, ‘You move here and do this exact move and say this line exactly that way,’ which I’m never really a big fan of. Some shows are a lot more strict with that sort of thing, and the show is not that.”
At The Soraya, Jordan promised the crowd he’d end the show with “Santa Fe” — which he’d told THR was the “nexus of his career” and something that fans obviously anticipate — and his performance of that tune brought the audience to its feet. But he then asked if the crowd if he should do one more song, and when an attendee requested a song from Waitress, he and his band obliged with “She Used to Be Mine.”
While in Los Angeles, Jordan also gave a masterclass to CSUN’s theater students. Asked by THR to share advice to young, aspiring thespians, he shared that now is the time to take all the classes they can to learn the craft. He also said it’s important to “really love it because it’s not a profession to get into if you’re like, ‘Oh, it could be fun.’ You have to love it and really be invested in it.
“I think the thing that I wish somebody would told me when I was younger was like, you don’t have to do it all. Most likely the reason that you got into theater is because you were good at something. So find that thing that you’re good at, find your niche, find your strength and then just lean heavily into it, like, be the best at that thing that you do well, you know, because everybody can be good at all the things, but only you can be the best at what you do well. In auditions, they want to see what you bring that nobody else can do. They want to see what sets you apart. Focus on your individuality, and that’s where you start.”
