Groundhog Day the Musical - Old Vic

{Spoiler - click to view}
When we initially meet Phil he is a rude, selfish, sarcastic asshole, but we see him grow and develop throughout the show, going from gleefully don't-carish to despairingly suicidal before finding peace and gaining a greater understanding of himself and others. The whole show hinges on Phil's character development and a lead actor could make or break it. Luckily Andy Karl is brilliant.

Talking of character development... remember the whole show takes place over the course of one day. There isn't really room for any "character development" other than Phil's because we're only seeing one day in their lives, as opposed to many, many days in Phil's life. Interest in the other characters comes mainly from Phil's perception of them and how it changes over time. An exception to this is the song Being Nancy which I LOVED - both the song itself and what it says about characters and how they are portrayed on stage (particularly female characters).

This song also serves to emphasise how the "Groundhog Day" phenomenon isn't just something that actually happens to Phil, it's a metaphor for how many people live, repeating the same thing day in day out, consciously or unconsciously. Act II's "suicide song" really brought this home. I actually found this section really upsetting. As someone who has suffered from depression and felt suicidal in the past it brought back to me just how much depression really does feel like "Groundhog Day" in that you feel that you can't escape from your feelings and the only way out is to die. It probably sounds ridiculous but I felt really emotional during this song and a bit shaky, to be honest. I mean all this as a compliment - only really powerful theatre can have this much of an effect. It was really unexpected, too - as I mentioned, I thought Groundhog Day was meant to be a comedy! Yes, there are some funny scenes especially in Act I, and the suicide scenes are blackly comic, but still pretty dark. If you think about it, being forced to repeat the same day over and over again with no idea when, if ever, it would come to an end would surely be akin to torture.

I was so much more engaged with Act II and I found the ending very satisfying: Phil has really grown as a person and I ultimately found the show uplifting and full of hope, a reminder that it's important to care about others and life is more satisfying when you can form meaningful relationships with other people. I didn't feel like Phil got the girl as a "prize", I thought his happiness with Rita was hard won and came at the cost of months (years?) of genuine suffering and personal growth.