Sarah Hyland to Play the Late Connie Francis in Broadway’s ‘Just In Time’

Sarah Hyland is stepping back onto the Broadway stage, this time as a music legend.

The Modern Family alum, 34, will join the smash Bobby Darin biomusical Just In Time beginning Oct. 8, taking on the role of Connie Francis, the “Pretty Little Baby” pop star who died in July at the age of 87.

Hyland will replace Gracie Lawrence in the show. The 28-year-old – known to audiences as the lead singer in the pop band Lawrence — made her Broadway debut in Just In Time, and earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance. She’ll end her run as Francis on Oct. 5.

Also departing is Erika Henningsen, who plays sun-kissed teen idol Sandra Dee. The Broadway vet, 33, will take her final bow on Sept. 14. She’ll be replaced by newcomer Sadie Dickerson, who begins performances on Sept. 16.

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Remaining in the musical will be Tony winner Jonathan Groff. He has been selling out the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City for his turn as Darin since the production began back in March.

Set to the score of hits by the iconic entertainer including “Beyond the Sea,” “Splish Splash,” “Dream Lover” and “Mack the Knife,” Just In Time follows Darin’s meteoric rise to stardom and complicated personal life — including his romance with Francis and Dee.

Both women were beloved by audiences in the ’50s and ’60s.

Francis was the first woman to have a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with her 1960 track “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” and nabbed Top 10 singles like “Who’s Sorry Now?,” “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own,” “Where the Boys Are” and “Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You.” But her romance with Darin, unlike her chart-success, was short-lived. Her parents famously forbid the two from seeing one another.

Dee, on the other hand, married met Darin in the summer of 1960 on the set of the film Come September in Portofino, Italy. They married that December, when she was just 18, and he, 24.

Though the dream lovers appeared to be a match made in heaven from the outside, their marriage was far from it. In 1967, after a tumultuous partnership that included allegations of infidelity, they divorced. Darin died of a heart attack six years later in 1973, when he was just 37, while recovering from open-heart surgery. Dee, who never remarried, died in 2005 from complications of kidney disease at the age of 62.

They share a son, Dodd Mitchell Darin, now 63.

Just In Time chronicles much of this. Tony winner Alex Timbers (Moulin Rouge!) directs the musical and developed it based on an original concept by Ted Chapin. He enlisted fellow Tony winner Warren Leight (Side Man) and Isaac Oliver (Intimacy Idiot, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) to pen the book.

Groff has been instrumental in shaping the show from its earliest stages, and is one of the musical’s producers. “I’ve never been involved in something from its inception,” he told PEOPLE back in May. “It’s been so rewarding to me — not just because audiences have been receiving it so well, but because it’s such an honor to tell Darin’s story and sing these incredible songs.”

As for Hyland, Just In Time marks another milestone in her stage career. A native New Yorker, she made her Broadway debut at just 16 in Grey Gardens at Playwrights Horizons. Decades later, after her 11-season run as Haley Dunphy on ABC’s Emmy-winning sitcom Modern Family wrapped, she returned to the boards — first, in 2024, as Audrey in Off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors and then, earlier this year, in The Great Gatsby as Daisy Buchanan.

In addition to Groff, the current company of Just In Time features Michele Pawk, Joe Barbara, Emily Bergl, Lance Roberts, Caesar Samayoa, Christine Cornish, Julia Grondin, Valeria Yamin, John Treacy Egan, Tari Kelly, Matt Magnusson, Khori Michelle Petinaud and Larkin Reilly.

Tickets for Just In Time are on sale now, through Jan. 11, 2026.