Groundhog Day the Musical - Old Vic

Bill Murray has been to the Broadway show: ABC

😂 I'm sorry I couldn't help myself

Broadway production has announced its closure, but "details of a London production will be announced soon". Hooray!!!!

www.broadwayworld.com/article/Breaking-Farewell-Phil--GROUNDHOG-DAY-Will-Play-Final-Broadway-Performance-This-September-20170815

Thrilled it is coming back! But the obviously question (other than where and when obviously!) is, if Andy chooses to bow out, as he has done the role now for well over a year in performances alone, let alone rehearsal... who will take on that role?

In fairness though, Finding Neverland was never announced to the point of dates and venues, we were just told that it was gonna happen. Not saying this is any different, just clarifying haha. The other difference being this has already been a hit here, and has two Oliviers under its belt, as well as positive reviews. So promoting it over here, it already has that under its belt and is incentive for the producers to bring it back!

Slim I would have thought. It did well at the Old Vic AFTER the reviews came out but it was a very limited run and clearly it has not been the success they had hoped for on Broadway. I would say it would be risky bringing back to London. But hey, what do I know!

Interesting article in the New York Post by Michael Riedel on how this show failed to "gain traction" on Broadway.

nypost.com/2017/08/15/groundhog-day-is-the-latest-casualty-on-broadway/

I think Tim Minchin has discussed this previously on twitter. Back when it was in workshop stages, they had 4 or 5 guys play Phil before Andy Karl came in, some of whom he said would be suitable for playing Phil should a London run occur.

Apparently he just signed to an agent interested in getting him more TV and film work. A shame but I can't blame him as most of his shows have been flops with him being cited as the best thing about them. It would be nice for him to come back but he already has the Olivier and I can't imagine he would find it worth uprooting for again.

Playing Nancy is often questioned and seen as quite a random song. All through Act 1 the entire focus is on Phil. It is his story and he uses the people around him for his own enjoyment. He only sees the people of Punxsutawney as small town people and we as the audience also see them that way. They are just players in his life. So when you sit back down after the interval ready for Act 2 you are preparing to pick straight back up with Phil and carry on where you left off. But instead everything stops and they shine the light on Nancy and tell her story and when she is does she slips back into the background. This is setting you up for Phil's journey in Act 2 as he learns to care for for the towns people and find out more about them. There is also the meta level to the song where it could be seen as the actress singing about what it's like to play the character

The Old Vic production played like the big hit that it became here. The divided audience reaction from Broadway is difficult to understand, given the show that I saw. I noticed some moaning about a dull score (which I don't understand), I saw some complaints about the secondary characters being given too much (again, don't get that, it's a show about a community) and some who just seemed to think too much was going on (well that was part of the joy for me). In comparison to the other big hit, Evan Hansen, to me it gains its hard earned happy ending out of its world weary cynicism, and (for this Brit's sensibility at least) is much more relatable than what, again for me, is DEH's truly cynical method of emotional manipulation.