Jonathan Groff on BFF Lea Michele and How He's ‘Dying to Do Another Musical’

Since making his Broadway mark as romantic hero Melchior Gabor in 2006’s Spring Awakening, Jonathan Groff has, with the exception of a short run in Hair in Central Park, been sticking with plays on stage. After appearing in Central Park in The Bacchae and off-Broadway in Prayer for My Enemy and The Singing Forest, Groff made his West End debut in Deathtrap and is currently preparing to star in The Submission at MCC Theatre beginning September 8. So, is the Tony-nominated actor moving on from musicals for good?

“I’m not making a choice to get away from musicals; I love musicals,” Groff told Broadway.com at a press event for the new play. “This is just sort of how the cookie has crumbled for the moment. When I’m looking for a new project, I like to do things that make me a little bit anxious and nervous, and I guess lately that’s been plays. But I’m dying to do another musical. Someday soon I hope.”

Maybe Groff has been getting his musical fix on FOX hit Glee, where he’s gotten to show off his singing chops as the uber-talented and uber-jerky Jesse St. James, star of glee club Vocal Adrenaline.

“It brings me great joy,” he said of the character, an unabashedly bad boyfriend to Rachel Berry (his Spring Awakening co-star Lea Michele), and a far cry from the notoriously nice Groff. “The writing on that show, especially when it’s mean, is so biting and funny and bizarre, and I love it. It’s really fun,” he says. But with The Submission gearing up for a fall run (read: prime television filming season) can Groff make a return to the halls of McKinley High?

“I never know what to expect from Glee because everything happens really last minute,” he explained. “So I don’t know if The Submission is taking me away from Glee or not; that’s all yet to be determined.” Whether or not Groff makes a return to Glee, he hopes to catch up with pal Michele soon. “We’ve been in different parts of the world recently so we haven’t gotten to spend much time together” he said of his longtime BFF, adding that the pair still catches up via telephone. “She’s going to come and see [The Submission], I hope!”