THEATRE By Laura Burgoine f there’s one musical I could watch over and over again, Iit’s Groundhog Day. The latest offering from Waterloo’s Old Vic theatre has been long awaited. It had some big shoes to fill. Groundhog Bill Murray’s namely. Bill Murray’s fans are very possessive and very over-protective. And we all know messing with classic movies is risky business (not to be confused with the classic movie Risky Business). replay The very fact that the dream team behind musical stage sensation Matilda, Aussie comedian/composer Tim Minchin and Old Vic creative director Matthew Warchus, joined forces to create this show and called in the film’s original screenwriter Danny Rubin to adapt the script, boded well. The end result? Exactly what you’d hope for. It’s like the movie but darker, funnier, more cynical and far more of a production. It stays true to the premise of the ‘93 comedy following egomaniacal weatherman Phil Connors who, while covering the annual Groundhog Day festival in small-town Pennsylvania, gets trapped in a time warp and has to live the same day over and over and over again. The physical staging of the play alone is enough to blow you away. In terms of musical theatre, it’s incredibly sophisticated. There’s enough reference to the original film, including entire scenes, but it’s fresh. It’s like they took what worked and left the rest. They’ve modernised the ideas for a contemporary, self- aware audience; as a social satire, it’s brilliant. One musical number involves a hipster reiki practitioner, a gluten-free advocate, a priest, and a clueless PhD all trying to diagnose the time warped, twisted protagonist while admitting they have no idea what they’re doing as they administer all number of ridiculous treatments. It’s hysterical. The lyrics are so densely clever I wish there’d been English subtitles on the bottom of the stage so I could read along and remember them later. I’ve been checking Spotify daily in hopes the album will be released. It’s not there. I’ll keep checking. They shipped in American Andy Karl for the lead role of the cynical weatherman. Thank God. For every Brit offended by Dick Van Dyke’s English accent in Mary Poppins, there’s an American recoiling at the sound of a thespian from the Home Counties attempting a Californian drawl. Except for Hugh Laurie and Dominic West, everyone else, of Phil Connors and all his sardonic and he’s an excellent actor. His a dynamic, creative way with the I hope I’ll wake up in row H, ready stop it. Broadway actor Andy Karl wit and hilarious misery. Which is delivery and comic timing is superb. stage rotating to reflect the cycle to do it all again. It’s not on for much instantly wins you over. His stage why it works. Karl is funny and witty The entire cast is a treat –a of Phil’s repeating Groundhog Day longer –catch it while you can, presence is electric; you can’t and magnetic and Broadway-level talented, high octane bunch and with special effects illuminating before it transfers to Broadway. take your eyes off him. Before talented. Most performers can sing, bringing all the quirk and likeability the story’s themes. In particular, the seeing this, I wondered how they dance and act but one of these is of the film’s characters to life and scene where Phil tries to kill himself would cast this role. The risk of a their main strength and they lean simultaneously reminding you through various different methods of Groundhog Day is at the Bill Murray mimicry seemed high. on it a little more than the rest. The exactly why the buzz of watching live suicide is incredibly powerful. Old Vic, the Cut, SE1 8NB, There’s certainly a similarity but not Tony award nominated performer theatre is like nothing else. Deliciously dark humour courses until September 17. between the two actors. Rather, has a spectacular voice -designed Most surprising, I thought, was through the entire performance and Admission: £12-£67.50. it’s as though both Bill Murray and for musical theatre- he moves like a how well this story lends itself to the you come away from it only craving Phone: 0844 871 7628. now Andy Karl inhabited the spirit dancer even when he’s not dancing, stage. The space is used in such more. Every night when I go to bed, www.oldvictheatre.com 4 September 2 2016 [email protected] / www.weekenderlife.co.uk.