Jonathan Groff From Stage to Screen: GLEE to MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG

Though the revival of Merrily We Roll Along ended its limited Broadway run in 2024, the show will live on in the form of the new filmed version, now in theaters. To celebrate the release of the hit Stephen Sondheim musical, we are taking a look back at the storied careers of its three leading stars, including Tony Award-winner Jonathan Groff.

Before the Spring Awakening star was known to audiences as King George in Hamilton or Kristoff in Disney's Frozen franchise, Jonathan Groff made his Broadway debut in the 2005 show, In My Life. Having previously starred as Rolf in a national tour of The Sound of Music, Groff was a swing in the show, also serving as the understudy for J.T. (the leading character) as well as the dance captain for the production. With a notably unusual plot, the musical didn't catch on with audiences and closed after 61 performances and 23 previews.

Groff came to prominence as a Broadway performer the following year in Spring Awakening. He played the lead role of Melchior Gabor, opposite Lea Michelle as his love interest, Wendla. The production itself received 11 Tony nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Groff. He starred in the show for around a year and a half, exiting the production in 2008. For its 15th anniversary, the original cast of the show reunited in the HBO documentary Spring Awakening: Those You've Known, which premiered in 2022.

Though he didn't return to Broadway for several years, Groff stayed active in other professional productions and in onscreen projects. He made his film debut in Taking Woodstock, a 2009 historical musical directed by Ang Lee. In 2010, he began appearing in the recurring role of Jesse St. James on the hit TV show Glee, which also starred his friend and former co-star Lea Michelle. He would play the role across 15 episodes over the next five years.

On the theater front, he starred in Shakespeare in the Park productions of Hair and The Bacchae, and off-Broadway in Prayer for My Enemy and The Singing Forest, all between 2008 and 2009. His West End debut came in 2011 with a revival of Deathtrap, starring alongside Simon Russell Beale and Estelle Parsons. Other theater credits over the next few years included the world premiere of Jeff Talbott's The Submission at MCC Theater and John Logan's Play at the Center Theatre Group.

In 2013, he took on his first voiceover work in Disney's Frozen, playing the dual roles of Kristoff and his reindeer Sven. The movie was a monumental hit for the studio, leading to a sequel and several spin-off shorts, with Groff reprising his role. He is expected to return in the forthcoming Frozen III and IV as well.

For the next few years, Groff appeared in several high-profile projects for television and film. In 2014, he starred in Ryan Murphy's TV adaptation of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, which explored the AIDS crisis in New York in the early 1980s. In 2014 and 2015, he starred in the well-received HBO dramedy series Looking, which was significant for its portrayal of openly gay men in San Francisco. 

For one night in 2015, Groff starred in a concert presentation of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, alongside Cynthia Erivo and Hannah Waddingham. The actor played J. Pierrepont Finch, the same role that his future Merrily co-star Daniel Radcliffe played on Broadway. Later that year, Groff returned to Broadway in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, reprising his role of King George, which he had previously played off-Broadway. The show won unprecedented acclaim, becoming one of the biggest musicals of all and earning a record-breaking 16 Tony nominations, winning 11. Groff received his second Tony nomination for his performance. 

For two years starting in 2017, Groff played the leading role of FBI special agent Holden  Ford in Joe Penhall and David Fincher's Mindhunter. Both seasons of the show received critical acclaim, and Groff won a Satellite Award for his performance. In 2019, Groff starred as Seymour in the off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors, alongside Tammy Blanchard and Christian Borle. 

Film credits following Little Shop included Agent Smith in the fourth Matrix film, a father who is taken hostage in M. Night Shyamalan's Knock at the Cabin, and the fiancé of Karan Soni's character in the romantic comedy A Nice Indian Boy.

In November of 2022, Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez starred in an off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. Spanning three decades, the musical moves backwards, charting the relationship between three old friends: composer Franklin Shepard (Groff), writer Mary Flynn (Mendez), and lyricist & playwright Charley Kringas (Radcliffe).

Opening only a year after the passing of the renowned composer, the production was directed by Maria Friedman, who worked closely with Sondheim on a previous West End production. Originally considered a flop when it debuted on Broadway in 1981, this new version achieved near-unanimous rave reviews, and news quickly followed that it would transfer to Broadway in 2023.

Playing over 300 performances at the Hudson Theatre, the Broadway production garnered several Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for Groff, marking his first Tony win. Late in its run, the production was filmed by RadicalMedia, the company behind filmed versions of other musicals, including Hamilton. The cinematic interpretation opened in theaters worldwide on December 5 by Sony Pictures Classics in collaboration with Fathom Entertainment.

Currently, Groff is back on Broadway in Just in Time. For his performance as singer Bobby Darin, the actor received his fourth Tony nomination. Developed and directed by Alex Timbers, the show itself traces Darin's career and personal life and features hit songs like “Splish Splash,” Mack the Knife,” and more. Playing at the Circle in the Square Theatre, it is notable for its intimate nature, with an on-stage band and interactive elements. Groff will play his final performance in the show on Sunday, March 29, 2026. 

In the meantime, audiences everywhere can revisit Groff's Tony Award-winning performance as Franklin Shepard in Merrily We Roll Along. Don't miss Sondheim’s iconic masterpiece, now playing in theaters. Get your tickets now.