GROUNDHOG DAY Previews — Page 14

Mr. Karl needs to take off his shirt NOW!

I loved this show so much.

It takes about 20 minutes to really get into gear, but I think that's just the nature of the plot. I loved the score, the book, the orchestrations, the sets... The direction is total genius and Andy Karl is brilliant. It's my favorite new musical of this season (so far).

"What would be an example of a "film moment" that just wouldn't work if written into a book musical, and why?"

My favorite is from Summer of 42; in the film, when Hermie comes to see Dorothy, finds the telegram about her husband, she comes in, dances with him, then takes him off to the bedroom - no dialogue, lots of close-ups, the only sound the record on the player and the scratching as it ends, not a word of dialogue. In the musical, they added all sorts of extraneous dialogue and lyrics, which diminished the scene enormously, turning something poetically beautiful into something trite and idiotic.

I finally caught this tonight, and I absolutely adored it. I thought it was extremely entertaining and fun and found a way to literally repeat numbers and days but kept me captivated the entire time. Barrett Doss and Andy Karl are both absolutely spectacular, and I loved the score. I saw a lot of American Psycho in this show, weirdly. I really hope it does well, and it seemed close to full, and I was in the mezzanine.

Just came back from the matinee today, the turntable had some technical issue during the 2nd act 2nd number, the audience are very supportive and I hope they can fix all turntable problems before opening.

It's a very charming show, and I've never watched the movie before. I love the twist and I think I appreciate the show even more than my friend who've seen the movie before. Two of my favorate songs are both in 2nd act and by supporting characters.

Saw it tonight and LOVED it. Andy Karl is a god. Very creative staging some of which is still baffling me. I plan on seeing it again. Orchestra was packed and the audience was eating up every minute.

I rushed today, arrived at 8:30am, and was 2nd in line. There were probably 15-20 people by the time the office opened at 10am. My seats were on the extreme sides in row C orchestra. Thats all the info I can help you out with.

I thought the show was good. 'Book of Mormon' lite, if you will. The humor is very contemporary and the full house audience ate every joke up. The staging is exceptionally complex, so special kudos to the cast and crew who had to move set pieces on and off three constantly revolving turntables. I think the show has wide appeal and suspect it will fare well come Tony time.

Add me to the list of enthusiastic supporters. I’d heard the music via an audio boot beforehand and enjoyed it, my first exposure to Minchin. The film is dear to me. Those were my biases going in.

The musical puts the movie’s themes on steroids. Part of what makes the movie so breezy and charming despite its inherently nightmarish central premise is how it sort of skips from moment to moment, never lingering too long on its oscillations between dark comedy and outright silliness (which also sometimes overlap). The musical moves rapidly, both in its dramatic pacing and whirligig design tricks, but when it slows to consider the anguishing periods of Phil’s situation, as in “Hope” and “Night Will Come,” it’s fairly harrowing and profound stuff for a musical comedy.

Andy Karl eschews Bill Murray’s winking, ironic cynicism for a purer cynicism, a cynicism so pervasive that you can’t imagine how he’ll ever change or how Rita (or you) could ever come around to him, even though you know that’s where the story will eventually ask you to go. He’s a more despicable protagonist than Murray’s Phil Connors or, say, Jack Nicholson’s Melvin Udall, each of whom still had, I guess, a natural charm. Andy Karl’s Phil is so calculated, phony, and self-obsessed that you want to hit him even when he’s making you laugh. The show puts him through his acting and vocal paces, and he meets and exceeds every challenge head on. It’s a truly impressive star performance.

Barrett Doss’ Rita is tough, romantic, and very affecting, more nuanced and guarded than Andie MacDowell, whose emotional walls seemed only to exist for Phil to knock them down as the story required. I’m not sure if that’s the movie’s writing or MacDowell’s performance, but Doss’ Rita is fully realized. You can sort of imagine her entire past up to where you’re meeting her in her life. She neurotic and self-possessed and funny, and her arc(s) is (are) compelling.

I was a little perplexed that the character of Larry, the cameraman, is fairly sidelined, especially since Ned and Nancy and the drunks are more fleshed out, but then maybe it’s Chris Elliott’s great performance in the movie that makes the character seem more significant than he is.

The doctors’ song should be cut or turned into a series of telescopic book scenes. It feels like it’s from a different show. “Playing Nancy” is a lovely song, beautifully performed by Rebecca Faulkenberry, and I like the idea of it as the Act 2 opener, but it could be truncated. IDK. I’m conflicted about this. I get where people are coming from. The show could lose 10-15 minutes, and that’s a natural cut. But the music also really soars whenever the show pauses to meditate, and that would be a shame to lose. Anyway, it’s a moot point since it sounds like, because of the complexity of the programming, big changes aren’t being made. So c’est la guerre. Sure, the show could be leaner, but even SWEENEY TODD has cut-able material.

I wholly disagree that Danny Rubin adheres slavishly to his screenplay and agree that, if that were true, it would spell disaster. Yes, the well-known bits and one-liners are mostly intact, but they work – because they’re solid, because they’re funny, and because the show’s tech often cleverly transmogrifies in presenting them. But where it departs, as it must for an entirely different form of storytelling, it is unafraid to depart significantly and usually in favor of character development. The short bits and one-liners are often verbatim, but a lot, if not most, of the more extensive scene dialogue has been rewritten and a few new scenes added. It really does expand on all of the humor, pain, strangeness, and romanticism of the story, and the songs and musical sequences, save the ones mentioned above, are naturally and logically integrated.

It’s a pretty weird musical, much more unconventional than I expected, and I’m thinking as much about it still as I am about A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 and GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM, which I saw the following day. The audience uniformly leapt to its feet at lights down, before the first bow – at least the parts of the audience I could see, which was all of the orchestra and the first few rows of the mezz. Of course, word of mouth may not keep it alive for long, but in my estimation, it more than deserves to find an audience and run.

Thanks for that review, themysteriousgrowl. can I ask the running time last night? Thanks!

Mysteriousgrowl's take on the film's style and effortless tone is so spot on, I realized why it's such a charmer, outside of the premise/conceit, its charms hard to quantify and expound on. And so hard to adapt to a form which requires that a very different set of pace and tone challenges be met. Those observations makes me trust his corresponding appraisal of the show,. Thanks. I am going.

TrChSpHa said: "http://www.broadway.com/buzz/188143/exclusive-hear-andy-karl-barrett-doss-groundhog-days-fantastic-cast-sing-if-i-had-my-time-again/

First song released from the cast recording, one of my favorites in the show."

Would you say that this song is representational of the overall score, or that this is an exception to the rest?

It sounds worse on the recording than it does on stage...Even ANDY KARL's voice kinda sounds off??

I have seen the show three times now (going a fourth time this month; and in September, assuming it's still, you know...) I wish it had better music tbh... I feel like my love of it is waning a bit. Ugh! But my husband and I are going soon so if he likes it I know I'll love it again!!

Skimbleshanks2 said: "It sounds worse on the recording than it does on stage...Even ANDY KARL's voice kinda sounds off??

I have seen the show three times now (going a fourth time this month; and in September, assuming it's still, you know...) I wish it had better music tbh... I feel like my love of it is waning a bit. Ugh! But my husband and I are going soon so if he likes it I know I'll love it again!!"

I'll see it for a fourth time Friday. I'll get at least a fifth in before it opens.

Love Tim Minchin, but "If I had my time again" wouldn't have been my choice of first to drop. My favorites are "Nobody Cares" and "Night will come", but I think they wanted a song with both Barrett and Andy, so it was this one, "one day" or "seeing you". Seeing you would have been a better choice, but I think they avoided it since it's the finale and since there's already video of Tim Singing it.