Top 75 Jonathan Groff Quotes

I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, watching the Tony Awards on TV. Not just ‘watching’ the Tony Awards on TV – I would record them on a VHS tape and bring them in to school and show them to the other kids.

When you get to really involve yourself with a piece and the other people, and you get to feel like it’s a community and you’re all building something together, it helps me to produce better work, I think.

I taught a class about the Tony Awards at a summer theater camp the year after I graduated from high school. So, the first time I was nominated for ‘Spring Awakening,’ it felt like a surreal dream: it was every childhood dream I had come true. It felt like a fairy tale.

‘Spring Awakening’ was a discovery for all involved. None of us will ever have that specific sense of revelation in the same way – that is probably the thing I miss the most.

I haven‘t had anyone say, ‘No, we can’t because he’s gay.’ In fact, it’s been quite the opposite.

I’m not on Twitter. I’m not on Facebook. I’m not on Instagram.

When you’re always onstage, you really have to focus on listening and reacting.

Just follow your joy. Always. I think that if you do that, life will take you on the course that it’s meant to take you.

I think about ‘Will & Grace,’ and I think about ‘Modern Family,’ and the way that being gay has become sort of middle America… in the way that they show gay people in their specific way.

Make sure that you always follow your heart and your gut, and let yourself be who you want to be, and who you know you are. And don’t let anyone steal your joy.

I was journaling in Florence, and I was like, ‘Oh, I have to come out of the closet. I have to break up with this guy‘ – he was my ‘roommate.’ So that was my awakening moment, when I stepped into my own skin while in a foreign country by myself and had a very stereotypical moment of revelation.

Coming out, for me, was slightly painful. It was a relief, but it was also painful.

As a kid growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, all I wanted to do was be on Broadway in a musical. ‘Spring Awakening’ kind of answered all of my questions and fulfilled all of my dreams – beyond my wildest dreams.

There’s kind of a gift in being gay because, if you come out, you’re forced to express yourself.

I just don’t know artistically – because I don’t write my own music – I don’t know artistically what an album would mean for me. I don’t know what I would want to say with an album that would be unique to me – something that hasn’t been done before. I’m just not sure what that is. But I’m absolutely open to it.

Whenever you get into a new environment, it’s scary. You don’t know the people; you’re not really comfortable with the machine that the show is.

I’d always done musicals, and so living in the world of straight plays and working with off-Broadway actors and living in that community was a completely life-changing experience.

It’s daunting, taking on the task of representing the gay community, because there are so many different facets and different schools of thought and behavior.

I was Mary Poppins for Halloween when I was 3, with lipstick and a carpetbag. And I was Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ in a production in my dad‘s barn.

I smile a lot in my real life.

The idea of faking empathy to take a step forward to understanding – it’s a really powerful idea.

There’s kind of a gift in being gay because, if you come out, you’re forced to express yourself.

I was definitely planning to go to college, but I deferred my admission to Carnegie Mellon to be in a non-equity tour of ‘The Sound of Music.’ But I made very little money in the tour, and college is really expensive, and I thought I’d never be able to pay off those loans.

There’s something special about ‘Looking.’

I loved traditional musical comedy. That was my passion. Then ‘Spring Awakening’ happened, and it took that rock n’ roll and pop music to change gears for me.

I did ‘How to Succeed in Business… ,’ ‘Kiss Me Kate,’ ‘Godspell,’ and ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown‘ in high school, all of which were fun.

It’s so awesome to be a part of something that is successful not because there’s a famous person in it or because it’s a revival of something, but because it’s so fresh and original.

If I’ve had roadblocks along the way for being gay, I’m not aware of them.

I left ‘Spring Awakening,’ and within a month of leaving the show, I came out to my parents and to my friends and broke up with my boyfriend and moved into an apartment of my own and completely changed my life.

I did ‘Spring Awakening’ on Broadway for about three years, and I did over 500 performances.

I’d moved to New York to pursue a career in theatre, and it’s very practical how you do it – I just went to every open call going.

I bought the VHS of ‘Into the Woods‘ at the Suncoast in the Park City Mall and watched it in the basement when I got home. And when it was over, I rewound it and immediately watched it again.

I’ve never had trouble sleeping in my life.

I ended up doing three very complicated off-Broadway plays that, in certain ways, were not successes in that they were received in a complicated way. But for me they were successes because they forced me to act without singing, which I’d never done before.

I was obsessed with Nintendo.

I can’t think of a better bonding experience than to be able to sit on stage and to watch your fellow performers perform on stage every night.

I feel like certainly there are people expecting ‘Looking’ to be representative of everyone that’s gay, the entire gay community. And it’s a dangerous expectation to come in watching the show expecting that. Expecting that out of any show.

I did ‘Spring Awakening’ on Broadway for about three years, and I did over 500 performances.

Musical auditions are always the worst because you have to sing and act, and that’s so stressful.

I’m very selective about television because you sign away so much of your life to it.

Make sure that you always follow your heart and your gut, and let yourself be who you want to be, and who you know you are. And don’t let anyone steal your joy.

I can say that I’ve become a David Fincher disciple. I have been completely turned.

I beat ‘Super Mario Bros 1,’ ‘2,’ and ‘3.’

When I was doing ‘Spring Awakening’ the first couple of years I was living in New York, I was gay, and I was living with my ‘roommate,’ who was my boyfriend but was my roommate to everyone else.

We didn’t have a glee club at my school. It depends on what area of the States you’re from. It’s more in the Midwest.

For Halloween, I’ve gone trick-or-treating as Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, and Robin Hood.

When I was a senior in high school, I worked at a theater where they hired New York actors. And they told me about ‘Backstage,’ and so I got my school in Pennsylvania to subscribe. And there was an audition for a tour of ‘The Sound of Music,’ and I got the job. Deferred my admission to college just to go on tour.

Coming out, for me, was slightly painful. It was a relief, but it was also painful.

I was born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania – in Amish Country!

I feel like, with a television show, you’re always biting your nails hoping you’re going to get that next season.

Ultimately, we’re actors: I’m putting on a costume, so we’re playing pretend.

People create from different places. Some love to create from a tortured place, some from a joyful place. And when I feel like I’m a 5-year-old kid in my backyard playing pretend, that’s when I’m happiest.

I haven‘t had anyone say, ‘No, we can’t because he’s gay.’ In fact, it’s been quite the opposite.

I got cast for ‘Spring Awakening’ when I was 20. Every dream I had came true in that moment.

I went to a local high school in Lancaster. Not much I can say about it; it was pretty much your typical public high school back in Pennsylvania.

I feel like loyalty is such a rare quality in this world, particularly the entertainment world.

I would say ‘Looking’ and ‘Spring Awakening’ are the most important and personal projects I’ve ever been apart of.

I went to a local high school in Lancaster. Not much I can say about it; it was pretty much your typical public high school back in Pennsylvania.

Maybe someday I’ll have a job where it haunts me or it’s hard to move on.

When I was 20 years old, I got cast in ‘Spring Awakening’ and got swept up in this experience where it was kind of tunnel vision. We were working – it was nonstop.

I don’t hate dating people, but I’m not on social media or anything.

Before ‘Mindhunter,’ I was doing this show called ‘Looking’ on HBO.

When I was doing ‘Spring Awakening’ the first couple of years I was living in New York, I was gay, and I was living with my ‘roommate,’ who was my boyfriend but was my roommate to everyone else.

I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, watching the Tony Awards on TV. Not just ‘watching’ the Tony Awards on TV – I would record them on a VHS tape and bring them in to school and show them to the other kids.

Once I came out of the closet, it was sort of that thing of ‘The truth will set you free.’

I wanted to work with Michael Mayer because I’d seen ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ six times.

Obviously, gay projects play a special role for me because I am gay, so I’m doubly proud of them.

I did ‘How to Succeed in Business… ,’ ‘Kiss Me Kate,’ ‘Godspell,’ and ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown‘ in high school, all of which were fun.

I was obsessed with Nintendo.

With every character, the first thing I want to feel is empathy.

I’d always done musicals, and so living in the world of straight plays and working with off-Broadway actors and living in that community was a completely life-changing experience.

As a kid growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, all I wanted to do was be on Broadway in a musical. ‘Spring Awakening’ kind of answered all of my questions and fulfilled all of my dreams – beyond my wildest dreams.

I am such a huge fan of both of those shows – I’ve seen every episode of ‘Sex in the City’ and every episode of ‘Girls’ at least once, some multiple times.

I moved to New York on October 21, 2004, and it was the day that the Chelsea Grill, a restaurant in Hell‘s Kitchen on 9th Avenue between 46th and 47th Street, opened. I had never waited a table in my life, but I walked in and lied to the manager in a very J. Pierrepont Finch way.

It’s one thing to experience your Broadway debut alone, but to share it with an entire company was like summer camp or a college experience, where you were really growing up together.