It was an offer that Josh Groban couldn’t refuse. Literally. Because it came directly from the Godfather himself.
It was spring of last year when Francis Ford Coppola was being honored by the American Film Institute with a Lifetime Achievement Award. And the legendary movie director would have a say in the various speakers and performers on the program.
He wanted Groban specifically to sing “Brucia La Terra.” And while the song had musical melodies and motifs similar to the famous “love theme” from the original Godfather (both songs composed by Nino Rota), it was actually written for Godfather III. And sung in the movie to Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) by his son, Anthony (Franc D’Ambrosio), triggering decades of memories in flashback in a pivotal scene.
“That hand was thankfully played for me, because I don’t know that I would have had the confidence to do it myself! That movie and that theme loom so large in my life,” Groban says over the phone.
“So, I originally did it in Italian. And the note I got back was that ‘Mr. Coppola wanted me to do it in Sicilian.’ And there is a difference. Ask any Italian or Sicilian! I didn’t want to mess that up. Especially in that room!” he says. And—no pressure—but Godfather stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Talia Shire would also be watching from the audience.
Groban needn’t have worried. His performance was uniformly named as one of the highlights of the eventual telecast. And it also gave him the spark of a notion for what would become his next album.
“That’s when I decided,” he offers, “That my connection to films and film music was deeper than I had anticipated.”
Thus, “Brucia La Terra” is one of ten tracks on Groban’s most recent album, Cinematic, in which he offers his versions of songs made famous in movies. From older material like “As Time Goes By” (Casablanca), “Moon River” (Breakfast at Tiffany’s), and “When You Wish Upon a Star” (Pinocchio) to more recent fare like “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (The Lion King), “Unchained Melody” (Ghost), and the title tracks to Against All Odds, Stand By Me, and the James Bond flick Skyfall.
A Houston audience will get to hear Groban vocalize many of those tunes in his distinctive baritone/tenor voice—along with Broadway musical selections from Groban’s previous Stages album and others—in front of a 70-piece orchestra. The “Stage, Screen, and Symphony Tour” makes a stop on September 3 at The Woodlands Pavilion.
“This show stands apart in a lot of different ways,” Groban offers. “I don’t often get to stand in front of these great symphonies, except during recording sessions. And there’s no greater experience than that feeling. Normally, you’ve got about 15 musicians on tour. But this will give audiences a wave of sound. And I don’t know when I’m going to sing some of these songs ever again.”
For Cinematic, Groban says he and producer Greg Wells started off with a significantly large list of potential choices. And then everyone in his orbit seemed to have some “strong opinions” about what should or should not make the cut.
“My request box started to fill up pretty rapidly!” Groban laughs. “And you can do that into oblivion and keep changing your mind. Greg and I had to trust our instincts as well as the unsung heroes in this world, the arrangers, and lead with their instincts and heart. Also, was it a song that was relevant, right for my voice, or something I’ve loved a long time? And what would give us goosebumps?”
It seems that Josh Groban has mastered multiple show business disciplines throughout his career. In addition to the pop and classical record and concert triumphs, he’s been an actor in the movies (The Good Cop, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), TV (Ally McBeal, the Office, Glee, Parks and Recreation, and even The Simpsons) and Broadway, including the title role of 2023’s revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
In an earlier era and with uncommon exception, performers usually chose one “lane” and stayed in it. So, had Josh Groban began his career decades earlier, how would he have fared?
“That’s a good question. When I started in 2001, there was a lot of pressure to be one thing. There was a lot of gatekeeping as to who could do what. I was lucky that I had an album that came out of the gate that was pretty successful,” he says of his debut, Josh Groban.
“I didn’t want to mess that up, and none of the overlords did either! So, I could do other things. That gatekeeping has become less and less important because there’s so many ways to get art out to people now. It’s become the opposite. If you’re somebody who can do other things and you don’t, you put yourself at a huge disadvantage.”
Groban points to contemporary pop stars and multi-hyphenate artists like Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, and Sabrina Carpenter who seem to do it all, even down to hosting and TV commercial gigs.
Groban was only on two episodes of The Office, playing the more favored and successful brother Walter Jr. in main character Andy Bernard’s (Ed Helms) rich, WASPy family. Those were “The Garden Party” and “The Boat.”
He got the gig because he was friends with the show’s co-producer/writer/actor Mindy Kaling, who played the vacuous fashionista Kelly Kapoor. And Groban was also a fan of the show.
So how does he explain the bigger-than-ever popularity of a series that went off the air in 2013 but in recent years has sprouted books, podcasts, cast reunion commercials, and a cult following now among Gen Z? Why does The Office have such an afterlife?
“I think the writing is just that good. It holds up. It’s about comedy that has legs. I mean, I still watch The Golden Girls and think ‘God, this is funny!’” Groban says of another TV sitcom that has a pronounced afterlife. “This is forever funny. Not just ‘of the era’ funny. The classic shows stand the test of time, and The Office is one of them. I’m grateful to have been a part of it.”
He adds that “The Boat” was also one of the first directing gigs for John Krasinski, who played perennially mugging main character Jim Halpert. Krasinski has had perhaps the biggest post-Office career jump starring as the title character in the Jack Ryan series from the Tom Clancy universe. As well as writing, directing, and/or starring in the horror franchise A Quiet Place.
So, why didn’t Krasinski call Groban to be one of the fearsome alien Death Angels killing at the sound of a sound?
“I don’t know why! I would have loved to have those CGI dots on me! I could have gone all Andy Serkis on them!” Groban laughs, namechecking the human actor behind Gollum from the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit movies and Caesar of the Planet of the Apes trilogy.
As it has been nearly three decades years since he first stepped into a recording studio, we ask: What is the one piece of advice that the 45-year-old Groban of today would offer his younger self if he could appear briefly as a ghostly apparition from the future?
“Maybe don’t have hot dogs and Mountain Dew before you go into the studio!” he laughs, before turning serious.
“But I would tell him to pause. I was so stressed and so wrapped up in the obligations I had. And the worry that I might mess up or not deliver. Everybody was high-fiving around me, but I wasn’t high-fiving myself. I would tell that kid to give himself the grace of a few high-fives.”
Finally, when asked about any memories of Texas, he recalls a specific trip to dusty ranching town turned hot art colony Marfa some 20+ years ago.
“I was seeing somebody at the time who was making a movie with Tommy Lee Jones, and I went to visit her,” he says (that would be actress January Jones and 2005’s The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada).
“Tommy took us all to Marfa, and it was like nothing I ever experienced. But that’s Texas. Texas is all things. It’s a place of great hospitality. I make a new friend and get a new pair of boots every time I go there!”
Josh Groban performs at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 3, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins. For more information, call 281-364-3024 or visit WoodlandsCenter.org. $79-$258.
For more on Josh Groban, visit JoshGroban.com.
