Tim Minchin on why Groundhog Day Failed in New York

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 9:09am

premiered at The Old Vic in London in 2016 to sellout crowds and returned in 2023, becoming the highest-grossing production in The Old Vic’s history. In between, though, was a troubled Broadway run that failed to find an audience, despite critical raves.

What went so wrong in New York, I ask? Minchin is, as always, unflinchingly honest.

“Broadway has a zero-sum,” he says, considering the question carefully between bites of pasta. “It can sustain at maximum two new hits, and if you come late in the season where Dear Evan Hanson and Come From Away have surprised everyone, partly because of some really good producing, throwing money [around].



Andy Karl as Phil Connors in Groundhog Day the musical. The Olivier Award-winner will also star in the Melbourne production.

“And then you’ve got Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet [of 1812] in the same year trying to find its audience with Josh Groban at the centre. And you come in, you’re just f---ed. We come in with a slightly overly thoughtful, quite dark, dense, complex, untraditional musical, you can get all the five-star reviews and Tony nominations you like, you’re just f---ed. We just got unlucky.”

The most appropriate thing for Groundhog Day to do in the face of failure, of course, was to dust itself off and try again. Its London revival was even more popular the second time around, but Minchin thinks Australians are the true target audience for the show.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 9:26am

Oh, how i wish i could see this in Australia. If only it was going to be there the same time  Brightman’s “Sunset Blvd” was!

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 9:31am

The real MVP that season. 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 9:40am

LOVED this on Broadway. I saw it three times. Such a great show. Still bitter Andy Karl didn't win the Tony for Best Actor that season...

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 9:44am

Jordan Catalano said: "Oh, how i wish i could see this in Australia. If only it was going to be there the same time Brightman’s “Sunset Blvd” was!"

Jordan sadly strictly limited Melbourne season only for 13 weeks, I think it closes two weeks before Sunset bumps in.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 9:45am

I loved the show and saw it a few times, but I think he's right. They just weren't getting the attention they needed. But it's a great score.

[tomwsjr]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 9:53am

I did not like this musical at all.  I was bored and felt bad for Andy who was trying way too hard, and it showed.  

[BJR]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 10:10am

He's not wrong. Regular theatre goers are a limited, finite audience. Sure, if you break out into the broader market with something from pop culture (e.g. Back to the Future, or a movie star), that solves that. Otherwise, it's very competitive niche market. And if people already have 2-3 must-see musicals (not counting plays and revivals), it's an uphill battle to get real buzz.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 10:12am

rosscoe(au) said: "Jordan Catalano said: "Oh, how i wish i could see this in Australia. If only it was going to be there the same time Brightman’s “Sunset Blvd” was!"

Jordan sadly strictly limited Melbourne season only for 13 weeks, I think it closes two weeks before Sunset bumps in."

 

Yeah, such a shame (for me) they can’t run at the same time. But I saw this 5x in London last year so I can’t be too upset. It’ll always be one of my favorite musicals.
 

[UrNotAMachine]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 11:21am

He's right that there seemed to be no room for the show in what's looked back on as one of the busiest Tony seasons. It's hard to have a hit when so many other heavy-hitters are stealing the spotlight. The Tony race was really Evan Hansen vs. Great Comet with Come From Away as a dark horse candidate.

But honestly, the show had its faults too. I don't know if it would have really been a juggernaut in a quieter season. It may have taken some Tony's away from The Band's Visit if it waited a year to go up (ironically, along with Come From Away, all three shows are about being stranded in a small town) but I'm not convinced Groundhog Day had the quality or the interest to be a hit.

I think Broadway is just now (and very slowly) learning the lesson that a beloved movie very seldom translates to a beloved musical. I'm just not convinced the demographic that loves a movie like Groundhog Day is itching to hear a bunch of songs added to it-- no matter the quality. Maybe Sondheim was right when he abandoned his own adaptation because he felt the original movie couldn't be improved upon.

[binau]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 11:32am

I have to agree with you UrNotAMachine - yes it would have done better in a season with less competition - but there is something a bit odd/off about the show for me. It was an incredible experience seeing this on Broadway with Andy Karl in a leg brace, who used it for comedic effect (anyone remember the drama of this injury?). And I remember loving so many of the moments and staging, but as a whole I did not fall in love with the show the way I wanted to (or the way I feel about MATILDA). I'm somewhat regretting not going back to seeing it again in London to see if either the show or my perception of it has changed. I guess Tim Minchin is doing his job and it's a PR exercise, but I do find it interesting that people can never seem to look inwards for their own failings. 

If Jordan seems to get a kick out of the show the same way I do obscure things that no one seems to like (e.g. Bernadette in Follies), I'm happy for him and wish I could see what he does!

Updated On: 1/7/24 at 11:32 AM

[FranklinDickson2018]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 11:36am

I was so glad to read this. I adored the show and truly love the score.  The OBC is a delight. I thought that Andy Karl gave one of the finest performances I have ever seen. Iconic. Perfect match of actor to role. 

[dwirth]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 11:47am

I became an unabashed Groundhog Day fan after seeing it in London in 2016. It simply wowed me. Several Broadway visits and even a return London trip in 2023 specifically for it, followed.

Funny, deep, inventive, ingenious, touching, nuanced, fresh and so much more. Nearly perfect. Totally underappreciated.

After 40+ years of theatergoing and hundreds of Broadway, tour and West End productions experienced - it ranks in my personal top 3 or 4 shows, right there with some of the true and acknowledged greats...

 

 

 

[binau]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 11:53am

dwirth said: "I became an unabashed Groundhog Day fan after seeing it in London in 2016. It simply wowed me. Several Broadway visits and even a return London trip in 2023 specifically for it, followed.

Funny, deep, inventive, ingenious, touching, nuanced, fresh and so much more. Nearly perfect. Totally underappreciated.

After 40+ years of theatergoing and hundreds of Broadway, tour and West End productions experienced - it ranks in my personal top 3 or 4 shows, right there with some of the true and acknowledged greats...


"

To help the uninitiated, what is it that you find so compelling about the show? Where should I listen on the OBC again to find this magic/what should I be feeling? I genuinely love to love shows so I'm not saying this in a way that I want to argue - I genuinely want to understand. 

[Dylan Smith4]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 11:54am

This was the last show I saw in London last summer, and boy, did this show not disappoint! As a Pennsylvanian, this show hit close to home for me, and I also cannot see why this show failed to find an audience. I know it opened in NYC during the packed season with DEH and CFA, but it's still a very underrated show! Another thing I will never forget from the night I saw this was when two locals sitting next to me said they wished for a place like Punxsutawney to exist. I certainly had to tell them that it did exist, which seemed to make their day! I hope another production, regional or national tour, can open up somewhere here in the US. 

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 1:43pm

Also a big fan of this show. It didn’t have the feel-good, commercial appeal of DEH or CFA; it didn’t have the star of The Great Comet. It was quirky and weird and off-kilter, and that worked for the piece. There’s nothing really clean about the show, there are no numbers you can pull out of context as the entire show is basically one long musical sequence. If you were along for the ride, it was a really enjoyable experience. By the time it opened, there was no room for the show to find the audience that paid attention or cared. I look forward to future productions. Maybe Encores down the line?

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 2:11pm

Surprised it never toured or was done more regionally but it kind of a complex musical to stage.

 

Was the "revival" in London any different or just the same production?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 2:16pm

It was the same production but didn’t use the revolve. 

[Wick3]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 2:49pm

For me, I think CFA and DEH had better word of mouth because they were in smaller theaters, where the worst seat of the house still had a great view. Come From Away was at the Schoenfeld and Dear Evan Hansen was at the Music Box.

Groundhog Day, on the other hand, was at a bigger theater (August Wilson) and when I watched it from 2nd to last row of rear mezzanine, people around me felt it was too far to the point that we didn't connect at all. Yes I could have paid more $$$ to get a better seat but my belief in musicals is if it's a really good musical, one can still have a good experience from the worst seat in the theater. 

Since I live in NYC, I normally buy the cheapest tickets I could find (lottery/rush/SRO) when watching a show for the first time and if I loved it from those partial-view seats, then I'll pay full price to sit in the seat I want to sit in to see the show again.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 2:53pm

I think the Great Comet and Groundhog Day are the 2 worst shows I have seen on Broadway in my entire life.

[flord10]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 3:15pm

muscle23ftl said: "I think the Great Comet and Groundhog Day are the 2 worst shows I have seen on Broadway in my entire life."

Feeling edgy today aren’t we 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 3:54pm

I loved the show on Broadway. I do think the initial key art was beyond terrible, and then they changed it to multi-colored Andys, and it was still quite bad. If a poster can draw a few more people in, that one sure didn’t.

Putting it into the August Wilson was a bad idea. Theatres that far up seem to work best for “destination” shows where the audience will go anywhere to see it, like Jersey Boys or Lea in FG. Somewhere with more foot traffic like the Shubert or others around 45/46 would have helped people see the marquee, point at it, and buy tickets. A different season in a different theatre might have turned the tide.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 4:17pm

Didn’t the producers of Groundhog Day make enemies with Scott Rudin? I seem to recall he dropped out as being a producer pretty close to the shows Old Vic premiere. Curious if he may have soured the show’s reputation amongst the elite and decision makers in the theatre industry.

[DaveyG]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 5:15pm

muscle23ftl said: "I think the Great Comet and Groundhog Day are the 2 worst shows I have seen on Broadway in my entire life."

I've seen FAR worse, but I was left cold by both of these shows. 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 1/7/24 at 5:45pm

I still haven't seen the show, but I've definitely heard enough raves about it that I now want to.  But I remember that season I was living on the West Coast so I couldn't really see the shows and decided to listen to all the cast albums for the Tony nominated Best Musicals.  I had originally kind of written off Groundhog Day as another movie cash grab so I already wasn't taking it as seriously, and the score wasn't quite as accessible to listen to as the other three shows.  That's not to say it's bad as a theater score, but divorced from the stage, I just didn't find anything in the music to really hook into.  And that's only my point of view, but I could imagine other people possibly doing the same thing and I'd understand why it never really caught on.