Jonathan Groff on Truly Geeking Out in Little Shop of Horrors, Frozen 2’s Depth, Mindhunter Bros & More

Jonathan Groff first made audiences swoon as the dreamy intellectual Melchior Gabor in Spring Awakening in 2006. Since his Tony-nominated turn in the musical, the swooning has hardly subsided. Onscreen, he has portrayed the endearingly uppity Jesse St. James on Glee, gotten steamy in HBO’s Looking as San Francisco single Patrick Murray and is now solving crimes as FBI agent Holden Ford on Netflix’s Mindhunter. In Hamilton, he wowed audiences with his comedic prowess in the commanding King George role, landing him his second Tony nomination in 2016. His cartoon counterpart is the burly, blond beefcake Kristoff in the Disney Frozen franchise, about to get even bigger with the release of Frozen 2 on November 22. Nevertheless, for those who truly know Groff—Spring Awakening’s Tony-winning director Michael Mayer, for instance—the role of bespectacled nerd Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors is a perfect fit for the talented performer.

"[Michael Mayer] invited me to his final Rigoletto [performance] at The Met. This was back in May. At the first intermission, he said, 'What are you doing this fall?' I was like, 'I don’t know. I’m not doing anything,'" Groff told host Paul Wontorek on the latest episode of Show People. "He said, 'I think I have the next show that we’re going to work on because I know something about you that people don’t really know.'" Groff’s intrigue transformed into the opportunity to take on the role of Seymour in the off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors, currently landing laughs at the Westside Theatre. "It does feel like more of who I am," he said. "My friends that have come to see it are like, 'I feel like I’m actually seeing you onstage.'"

This staging of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s beloved, batty toe-tapper also stars Broadway vets Tammy Blanchard and Christian Borle as Audrey and Orin Scrivello D.D.S. respectively. Despite the starry casting, Mayer’s incarnation has no intentions of leaving its roots. "When Michael called us to do it, that was his pitch: he said, 'I love Little Shop of Horrors. We’re going to do it off-Broadway. It’s never moving to Broadway. I want us to do this show for the reason that we all used to do shows,'" Groff explained. "He assembled a team of people that wanted to celebrate the show and have fun, like we were doing summer stock. From the first day of rehearsal, it’s been that vibe. It might be the most fun I’ve ever had."

Those are big words from a Broadway favorite starring in a hit Netflix series that recently dropped its second season and gearing up for Frozen 2’s big screen premiere. Starring as the inquisitive Holden on Netflix’s Mindhunter has created a whole new fanbase for Groff. He was a huge hit with fellow Spring Awakening BFF Lea Michele’s husband Zandy Reich’s "straight dude" friends at their wedding: "With Looking, I had a lot of gay guys where I live in Chelsea coming up to me. I’ve had musical theater people. I’ve had teenage girls and moms. With Mindhunter, it’s a different type of person than I’m used to coming up and recognizing me. They’re like, 'Dude, are you Holden?'"

Though it isn’t likely that Frozen’s pint-sized fans dressed as Elsa and Anna will approach Groff with "Dude, are you Kristoff?" (though that would be incredible), everyone is sure to be talking about Frozen 2 this holiday season. True to form, Groff is already geeking out about the sisters’ next chapter: "It’s insanely moving. I took my mom to see an early screening of the movie on her birthday. We went to dinner afterwards. She took these tissues out of her bag, and they were Elsa and Anna tissues. I look at the tissues, and I was like, 'I will never look at these two women the same way after seeing that second movie.' It feels like Empire Strikes Back to me, as far as sequels go." A Star Wars reference to describe the new Frozen film? Yup: Seymour tracks.

Big things are happening for Groff, but not unlike Little Shop of Horrors, he too is someone who thrives in his roots creatively. "My ultimate dream is to turn my dad’s horse farm into an artist’s colony and turn the horse stalls into editing suites for my friends to edit a movie or a recording studio to record an album or a little rehearsal area to workshop their show or write their novel," he explained. "That land has always been a creative inspiration for me."

This is not to say the Lancaster native plans on leaving New York for good. The last time Groff guested on Show People, there were big takeaways: 1.) Uncontrollable laughter is his Achilles heel. 2.) He’s happiest when riding his bike to Broadway. Though he has shown incredible versatility throughout his career from rebellious Melchior to nerdy Seymour, he’s still—delightfully—the same Groff: "I was riding home on my bike last night thinking, 'Oh, I’m living my favorite version of my life right now,'" he mused. "If I could still be riding my bike at 80, then I would feel very lucky."

Watch the full episode of Show People with Paul Wontorek below!

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