Groundhog Day the Musical - Old Vic

Noooo! There can only be one Burly!

I saw this last night and absolutely loved it! I came out with a proper buzz and a big smile on my face.

It was a joy to see Andy Karl on stage again having seen him a couple of times on Broadway. You do see him go through that journey, his comic timing is superb and he's got a great voice.

The cast work their asses off in this and it really pays off. It looks great and each ensemble member has their little quirks and characterisations which makes it fun to watch. I guess they might not even be referred to as ensemble if a lot of them are named characters in the programme!

Whilst I'm on the subject of the programme, what's with the lack of head shots! Really bothered me especially as I'm not fantastic with remembering names etc! Boo!

The much discussed song at the beginning of act two was great! Don't see the big deal seeing as lots of sub characters get their little moments, she's got a great voice so why not! On that note, I was surprised they gave a solo to Andrew Langtree. I wasn't a massive fan of him in when I saw him in Ghost but thought his character in this was played well but he's got quite a weak voice but the song itself was quite nice and he just about pulled it off.

I must say I felt sorry for the cast in this heat AND under a lighting rig walking around in thick winter clothing, a lot of sweat from the get go from a lot of them!

I loved the design of the show, so many clever bits of staging and set design and the lighting was great. I thought Andy's voice was a little lost in the sound mix when everyone was singing which I'm sure is still being tweaked.

All in all a great night out, one of the best things I've seen in ages. Tim Minchin is a very clever man! I'd love to see it have a life after the Old Vic!

Show Boat has a matinee on a Wednesday, as does Funny Girl. 

Prob more likely Grindr......

I was also at the matinee today and thought this is looking in superb shape. The audience were certainly loving it, with a full standing ovation at the end.

I loved the much-discussed opening of Act 2, a gorgeous melody beautifully sung by Georgina Hagen. It's Andrew Langtree's number which I thought was the one moment where the show really sagged. That's the only part of the show which really stands out as needing to be revisited.

Overall though, I thought this was very slick, technically hugely impressive and a terrific, feel-good score. Andy Karl and Carlyss Peer are fantastic. I would love a cast recording to happen.

Surely this has a string of five star reviews heading its way? No doubt Mark Shenton will tell us it's the best new musical since Bend It Like Beckham.

Well, I loved it again. It was well-received generally, I thought - not quite a full standing ovation up in the Lillian Bayliss, though. Lots of generally happy chatter on the way out.

I think they've changed the staging of the opening number a bit, but that's the only difference that stuck out other than an improved sound mix. I'm sure they are tweaking lots of things and I just wasn't observant enough to to spot them, though.

No they're not, they are selling programmes, but not proper programmes. As they have no song list, since Matthew Warchus took over the programme quality has gone down, to a mere brochure. I don't care about 'a year in numbers', 'board of trustees,' 'the supporters,' 'play your part' or 'young voices'. What I care about is a song list and who is singing what, that is what I pay £4 for.

i am disgusted with the Old Vic and quickly losing faith in Matthew Warchus.

Tim Minchin has just said on Twitter that they will be putting a curtain call number in.

So more shock they have pulled a couple of matinees to allow more rehearsals, they are moving songs, even though I thought a song is written to enhance that part of the book, so really cannot be moved, without harming the flow of the book, anyway this should have been sorted in the rehearsal studio. You shouldn't charge for a show, unless you are confident it is ready, previews aren't for making wholesale changes and really there to make small changes. Other than that the good news the show show isn' a complete mess, it is just a mess. But then again Broadway audiences are in for a treat that we have been guinea pigged, so we can export a 'perfect show', to them.

I found one of the problems is that the style of music that Tim composes and this is the same for Matilda that vocals get lost, I found this more prevelant in the first half. So the issues with clarity may not be with the sound system, but with composition.

Even 10 years ago I would have agreed with you. But if Hamilton can work, so can anything Minchin can pull out of his mind, particularly in a 1000 seat venue (the Palladium is more of a challenge) and on a show where budget is pretty much no issue. Sound changes massively with an audience in etc so is pretty much the last ingredient to be added into the show, but I can't see a reason why we can't get Minchin's word heard before press night, especially as it was eventually managed with Matilda. 

Having heard recordings the diction was poor for the Broadway Matilda especially from the children. In London I had no problems at all. The only difficulty I had here was due to Karl's microphone being too low in the mix (plus his diction early on in the show). There were one or two instances of feedback, which I presumed were them trying to boost him.

Technical rehearsals, not show rehearsals. The show that got a massive standing ovation yesterday is ready. I imagine they are working on things like speaker positioning (or extra ones), otherwise doing a complete tech to change sound levels. When did you see the show?