The Brightest Light On Broadway: Gracie Lawrence

“I love learning about women in music who paved the way,” says Gracie Lawrence, who stars on The Sex Lives of College Girls and leads the pop-soul band Lawrence with her brother Clyde. So, researching her role as Connie Francis in the new musical Just in Time opposite Jonathan Groff as Bobby Darin, “feels like something I would have done in my spare time for fun.” (In her memoir, Francis described Darin as the great love of her life.) Lawrence also sees the role as a tribute to her grandmother, “who loved to sing and who, coincidentally, loved Connie Francis.” As nervous as the 28-year-old actor is about appearing in her first Broadway musical, “I can hear [my grandmother’s] voice in my head being like, ‘You idiot, just enjoy this.’ So for her sake and for my own, I feel like celebrating.”