Singer and actress Connie Francis is having a moment. Her 1962 track "Pretty Little Baby" has gone viral on TikTok, reaching 10 billion views with celebrities including Kim Kardashian lip-syncing to the oldie but goodie.
Francis is also at the forefront of a Broadway musical, "Just in Time." Now playing at the Circle in the Square Theatre, the Bobby Darin jukebox bio-musical has received tremendous accolades including six Tony Award nominations.
While Bobby Darin (played by Jonathan Groff) is at the center of the musical, actress and singer Gracie Lawrence earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Francis. As Darin’s love interest, Lawrence's Francis steals the spotlight with her gut-wrenching solo "Who’s Sorry Now?"
Beyond the Broadway stage, Lawrence sings in an eponymous band with her brother and starred in the most recent season of HBO Max’s "The Sex Lives of College Girls."
"I'm having the time of my life," Lawrence, 28, tells GRAMMY.com after waking up for a much needed nap following a whirlwind, little-sleep, weekend in which she performed on two coasts, saw Beyoncé in concert, and performed a last-minute set at an intimate jazz club on her one night off a week.
"Just in Time" marks Lawrence's second Broadway show following a revival of Neil Simon’s "Brighton Beach Memoirs" in 2009. Connie Francis hasn’t seen Lawrence in the musical – just yet – telling PEOPLE that she will once she recovers from a hip injury.
"I'm so honored to tell another woman in music’s story. I feel like it's a very connected, meta and almost spiritual experience. So that's how I'm kind of viewing this moment of my life," Lawrence says.
Gracie Lawrence began singing with her brother Clyde when they were kids, first performing at open mic nights or at restaurants around New York City. When Clyde was in college, Lawrence, still in high school, would join Clyde’s band, to sing at frat parties and other colleges. For the last decade, the same eight-piece band, renamed Lawrence, has toured the world. Lawrence, the band has opened for the Rolling Stones at MetLife Stadium, and supported the Jonas Brothers for the entirety of their 2023 North American tour.
Last year, Lawrence released their fourth studio album, Family Business, and broke down a handful of select tracks as part of the 2025 GRAMMY U Conference. "Getting the opportunity to dissect how each production choice is made on our album, since we take so much time to do them, and talk about that with other people who are going through the same process, is always such a dream and so rewarding," Lawrence said.
Peppered in with her music, Lawrence has graced TV screens with roles on "Younger," "The Americans," "The Good Wife" and "Billions." Most recently, she played Kacey Baker, a perky transfer student looking for love after breaking up with her childhood boyfriend on "The Sex Lives of College Girls."
The show wasn’t picked up for a fourth season, but timing is kismet, allowing Lawrence to settle on Broadway with "Just in Time."
"I'm so honored to be in a moment of my life where I get to be a musician, have my band and get to tell my own personal story and my family's story," she says, noting that she’s taking Clyde as her date to the Tony Awards on June 8.
In a conversation with GRAMMY.com, Lawrence reflects on embodying the 1960’s chart-topping singer and shares the incredible compliment from Mick Jagger.
How did the role of Connie Francis come about?
This is a really unusual thing. I spent most of my life auditioning for roles and begging for parts; I still can't believe that this is what happened.
Alex Timbers, our amazing director, was a fan of my band. I had met him with my brother a few years before that as kind of mutual fans of each other. A year or two later, I got an email from Alex Timbers while I was working on "Sex Lives of College Girls" that said he was working on ["Just in Time"] with Jonathan Groff. There's a role that he thought I would be right for if I want to come do it.
The rest of the challenge was the logistics of finding a way to fit a Broadway show into my life.There was the possibility of another season of the television show. We had tours booked. It was a really complicated jigsaw puzzle that involved a lot of people and a lot of graciousness from a lot of people. But it felt like the right opportunity to move mountains for, and I'm really unbelievably grateful that it worked out.
What do you think was the most interesting part of Connie Francis’ life while researching her?
This [show takes place during] a very particular period of her life in which she knows Bobby Darin. There's a lot of tragedy in her life that we don't get into. She was very ahead of her time in [terms of] mental health awareness, victim awareness and being a voice for women like that we don't have the space for in this particular show.
In terms of what we depict in the show, I think that their relationship, Bobby and Connie, was really interesting and beautiful on a lot of levels. They were like collaborators, and they were also so deeply in love.
What has it been like doing this show in the round with audiences, like me, sitting right in front of you as you belt out Connie's hit "Who’s Sorry Now?"
In my band, we play venues that are bigger than Circle in the Square. The last show we played in New York City was Radio City Music Hall. Singing in that kind of a setting is actually, I think, a lot scarier. The intimate experience of singing to an audience that can hear every single word and every quiver in your voice is nerve wracking and specific. It allows you to convey a lot more with a lot less.
Do you try to make eye contact with the audience?
It looks like I do. With the way it’s lit, I can't really see anyone, at least when I’m singing. But people think I am making eye contact with them, because there's a moment where I wave at someone, and I choose a different spot every night. I can see in that moment the shape of people's heads thinking that I looked at them and I can't see anyone there. So, sorry!
It’s my understanding that Connie Francis didn’t want to record that song.
I don't know how she feels about it now. She may look back on it more appreciatively and understand why it was a hit. Certainly at the time when she was recording it, she didn't want to sing it. It didn't feel like her.
It's a song about heartbreak. It's a song about a breakup. Someone who broke each vow and she's saying, "Aren't you sorry now?’
What’s your favorite Connie Francis song?
That’s a really good question. I love "I’m Nobody's Baby." I think it sounds really modern, in the same way that "Pretty Little Baby" is going really viral right now. I think it might be a cover, actually, as many of her songs were that she became very famous for. I think ["I’m Nobody’s Baby"] could have that viral TikTok potential as well because it has a cutesy, funny, character sound.
How did your band get the chance to open for the Rolling Stones?
The promoter for the Rolling Stones asks the band who they want their openers to be. The Rolling Stones are really cool in that a lot of their openers are not hugely famous people. They're artists that they like, and they do a different opener every single night at least on their most recent tour. They did two nights at MetLife Stadium. I think night one was Jon Batiste, and night two was us, Lawrence.
I remember exactly when I saw the email. I was sitting in a cafe in Los Angeles, shooting "The Sex Lives of College Girls." I was eating a caesar salad, and wondered if I was reading this correctly? The first thing I did was call my parents because this was the music I was raised on. The Stones hold a very large place in my life. Both my parents were just so emotional about it and I think it's because it doesn't get bigger than that.
I will always be able to say that I met Mick Jagger. I met the Rolling Stones and I got to open for them. That is a huge badge of honor for my entire life.
Did Mick Jagger say anything to you?
He watched the whole set, which was incredible. Then after, we spoke to him about the music for a bit. He was incredibly encouraging. I heard a little bit about how he prepares for the show. He said, "I like your outfit." I told my brother that’s the best person to like my outfit.
By the way, the Rolling Stones look amazing. They walk and they run more during their set, specifically Mick Jagger, because he's off an instrument. He’s running around the entire MetLife Stadium. I just saw Beyoncé at MetLife Stadium as well and I thought, wow, Mick Jagger was running around this same space.
Did you learn anything from seeing Beyoncé?
Where do I even begin? I left feeling so inspired. She did classical music and a ton of different genres, and makes commentary on what genre even is. I was blown away by it. I am still digesting because it was so powerful.
When you booked Kacey on "Sex Lives," did you know you’d be singing "Never Enough" from "The Greatest Showman" by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul on the finale?
I didn’t know I’d be singing. It might have said in the character description that she has a good voice, or she is involved in theater, but it didn’t clarify.
It was written in the script. [Laughs.] I happen to know Pasek and Paul, so it was a very lovely thing to have happened.
I saw them a week or two after the episode aired and they raved about your performance.
That’s very nice of them. It was such an honor to sing their song. That whole sequence was such a beautiful way to end the show.
What would you like to see for Kacey, if there was another season?
I think it's fun that we leave her loving theater and having it mean so much to her after she was so resistant to it. I'm so touched when people come to the stage door for "Just In Time" in love with that character so much and love that she became this sort of unexpected theater girlie. In general, I'm just loving being a part of the theater community in real life, and I think it's a community that deserves to be celebrated.