Groundhog Day the Musical - Old Vic

Just seen this again, I love this show so much and will be very sad to see it go in a few weeks time.

I was also at the matinee today. I wasn't a fan of Matilda at all, but I really loved this one. Andy Karl was brilliant, and I really enjoyed being able to see something brand new.

I really hope that we get a recording of this one.

I asked about day seats at the box office yesterday and the woman I spoke to told me that they do day seats for every show. They have some set aside, and will also sell any returns at day seat price, which I think is £30.

^ Hot dog seller...

Add me to the utterly smitten with this musical pile! I actually can't remember the last new musical I loved this much. I'd happily move in and let it be a literal Groundhog Day every day for a while!

I don't really know Minchen's other work, having never watched his own stuff or seen Matlida, but I thought the writing was witty, interesting and the music while not 'sing along' style was still beautifully written. The staging also I thought was beautifully done, with some really clever set pieces and some amazingly choreographed scenes.

Andy Karl is rightly getting a lot of praise for his role, and he really pulls it all together, I'd been aware of him for a while but wasn't aware of just how good he is.

And my Mother, who has spent the last however many years telling me how much she hates the film utterly LOVED the musical, and now won't shut up about how much she loved it...Groundhog Day of a different sort...

When I saw it a couple of weeks ago I think he did pop up as the hot dog seller a couple of times but he wasn't the main one. He seemed to be sharing the role with someone else.

Standing outside the Old Vic last night, I watched the hordes funnel their way into the theatre, and secretly tried to spot any Theatreboard members from their newly revealed profile pics: d’James in his leopard skin boots. Check. Took me a while to find our daniel - slim build and big bottom. (Got quite a few unwanted stares searching for him...) Check. And Monkey- donkey jacket, grey tufts of hair. (I was pretty sure that was Glenn Close in Burly’s picture but I am not going to argue with her Biggest Fan.) Check. A pretty high success rate for my first spot of spotting. I couldn’t remember for the life of me who I wasn’t to speak to under any circumstances, so I played safe and spoke to no-one, keeping myself to myself…

Wasn’t sure what to expect from Groundhog Day (I’ve never seen the film- just not my kind of thing. A bit zany. Is that word still used?) but I’d booked when it first came on sale, the initial draw being a new musical, at the Old Vic, rather than the creators of Matilda, a show I’d enjoyed but seen through as really a kids’ show in adult clothing. But I knew this would be a new show everyone would be talking about, and I didn’t want to miss out. I did, however, miss all the recent reviews, as I’d been away, so I went along with few expectations and nothing to lose…

I just LOVED it!

Set in Punxatawney, Pennsylvania (a quick look at the Wikipedia page reveals why weatherman Phil hates it so much…) on a set of differently decorated isobar backdrops, a B&B, a diner… and played on a series of revolves, this hugely talented and versatile cast play the same scene time and time again. A series of forever changing versions of the same scene, one after the other. A repeated day, and a kind of torment for smarmy, sarcastic anti-hero, Phil Connors, who must try and break the spell. Somehow. Without Dickens' ghosts to help him, he gradually realizes that there are things we have to change, change is good. Change can bring happiness. Look at the alternative…

Andy Karl is a gift to this piece. He is completely mesmerising. He also wears a very nice tight white vest, and has a good pair of legs so all was good on that front. The object of his affection, Associate Producer Rita, is played superbly by Carlysss Peer. Both are new to me… There’s an Another Suitcase moment at the start of Act Two, when Georgina Hagen delivers Being Nancy, a beautiful little ditty, not sung in the City. And the music too just keeps on delivering… some of it reminding us we are in the back end of the US of A, some of it teasing us into a tune before it disappears again to return later. There are touching ballads with clever, witty, poignant lyrics, and good old up-tempo numbers to hoof to. We even have a new take on Some Day My Prince Will Come, a nod to Disney’s Snow White, while the characters are snowed up. I hadn’t enjoyed the promotional song, released a while back, but it turns out it’s the last song we hear in the show, and it works. Perfectly.

Add to this some ingenious illusions, some wonderful staging and set pieces, and bucket-loads of snow, and I’d say this is a hit. Congratulations, Matthew Warchus, and to the whole of your team! It surely can’t disappear after a ten week season after all this time, effort and money has been spent on it. Can it?

To Tim Minchin, I’d say, I didn’t much care for your Judas a few years back, and it really is about time you got yourself a decent haircut, but I salute your musical writing talents. You have created something different and wonderfully refreshing. You made me laugh out loud and you made me cry. All within the space of one evening. And I will happily book for your next show, on the strength of your name alone.

One last word. A theatre first for me last night: not in forty years have I seen anyone bring their own ice-creams to the theatre. In individual cooler-bags. Family of four, mother, father, two twenty-something year old sons. (Yes, of course they had melted…)

No wonder I was confused!

I'm still trying to make up my mind about "Playing Nancy". On the one hand it was perhaps my favourite song from a melody point of view while on the other hand it seemed least relevant song in the show. Maybe it would connect more if Nancy was given a bit more to do in Act 1? The show is very focused on the 2 leads at the expense of anyone else having anything more than a cameo.

The gag doesn't work if Nancy is a lead. She needs to be a minor character for her solo to be a surprise to the audience.

Of course the surprise doesn't work for anyone who has read this thread or many of the reviews!

At this rate I'll be wanting to see the show again just to try to spot Matthew Malthouse! It was much easier in Mrs Henderson but then there was, er, more of him visible so to speak ;-)

Oh no I really enjoyed it too and listened on the daily but if it's a step closer to a cast album then I'm happy!!