Ronks native Jonathan Groff knows he'll never again have the amazing experience he had with "Spring Awakening," the off-Broadway musical that took Broadway by storm and earned him a Tony nomination in 2007.
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But his movie debut is nothing to sneeze at. The 2003 Conestoga Valley High School graduate is in the big leagues.
Groff is starring in "Taking Woodstock," a comedy about the creation of the 1969 Woodstock music festival, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival Saturday.
The movie is directed by Oscar winner Ang Lee ("Brokeback Mountain") and stars such A-list actors as Liev Schreiber, Emile Hirsch and Eugene Levy.
"Working with Ang Lee was really, really incredible," Groff says. "I feel really blessed, really happy with the way things are going in my career."
Groff plays Michael Lang, a charismatic entrepreneur who, at 24 (the same age as Groff), was one of the movers and shakers behind Woodstock, which drew half a million people and became one of the most iconic events of the 1960s.
The film is based on a book by Elliot Tiber.
Comedian Demetri Martin plays Tiber, whose parents are about to lose their small Catskills motel to foreclosure. When a nearby community refuses to give the Woodstock organizers a permit, Tiber knows he can make some money. He gets a permit and convinces his neighbor, Max Yasgur (Levy), to let them use his farm.
The rest is history.
The film got a cool reaction from the critics at Cannes, but several reviewers liked Groff.
Richard and Mary Corliss, of Time.com, wrote: "Give Jonathan Groff (a major new cutie) a hand for turning the Woodstock weekend's chief promoter, Michael Lang, into a figure so charismatic, and so central to the actual concert, that viewers will think the movie should have been about him."
And Todd McCarthy, of Variety, wrote that Groff's performance was "a very effective turn."
The movie is scheduled to be released in the United States on Aug. 14, in anticipation of the 40th anniversary of the festival. (A trailer of "Taking Woodstock" can be seen on You Tube.)
Making a movie was a "fascinating process" for Groff.
"I rode in a helicopter, had to learn to ride a motorcycle and a horse, which gave me so much more respect for film actors and the hurdles they have to cross," he says. "It was very high pressure from day to day. And you've got to get it done on that day."
"The most daunting thing for me was probably the horse," he says. "In the final scene of the movie, I ride up and talk to Demetri, then I ride away. I took two or three weeks of riding lessons. On the day of the shoot the sun was setting and it was one of those now or never moments. Get on the horse, go to the mark and don't fall off."
Horse and actor got it done.
Does he want to do more film work?
"Absolutely, I'm intrigued by filmmaking," he says. "And the food is really good. My mom (Julie) came up the day of the helicopter and my dad (Jim) came up the day I rode the horse and the thing they were most impressed with was the food, under all these huge tents."
And Groff says it was great working with Lee in his film debut.
"Ang has directed a lot of people in their first film. He likes to mentor someone through the process," Groff says. "He told me it will be fine, I'll hold your hand through it, and he did just that."
And while there was plenty of pressure, it didn't come from Lee.
"He is very soft spoken, very unassuming and extremely humble," Groff says. "Yet he had this quiet sort of command and power. Everyone wants to do what Ang wants."
In New York, Groff has been focusing on plays rather than musicals in the last year, particularly the plays of Craig Lucas.
Last fall it was "A Prayer For My Enemy" and on Sunday he finished the run of "The Singing Forest," with Olympia Dukakis at the Public Theatre, which was why he couldn't attend the Cannes film festival.
The comedy/drama is about three generations of an angst-ridden family led by Dukakis, a former patient of Sigmund Freud.
"Our director for 'Prayer for My Enemy,' Bartlet Sher (who won a Tony for the revival of "South Pacific") said on the first day of rehearsal that Craig's writing was so challenging you walk in one kind of an actor and leave a different kind of actor. I found that was the case," Groff says.
Groff says he doesn't know what's next, now that the play has closed.
"I'm pounding the pavement," he says.
Of course, the "Taking Woodstock" publicity steamroller will be everywhere this summer.
"I have no idea what to expect," Groff says. "I'm taking it one day at a time."
Is he worried about being recognized now that he's making movies?
Groff laughs at the idea.
"My wig is so intense in this movie, I don't think anyone will recognize me," he says. "I don't even recognize myself."
ON THE NET: www.takingwoodstockthemovie.com Staff writer Jane Holahan can be reached at jholahan@LNPnews.com or 481-6016.
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