GROUNDHOG DAY scraps its national tour!?!?

brdwybound04 said: "Wow totally did not see this coming, especially considering that many other inferior shows (Bandstand, Great Comet, Bright Star) seem to be getting tours... some even have gone Equity... I'm shocked a non-equity tour group hasn't agreed to produce the tour!

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Stuck-GROUNDHOG-DAY-Scraps-Plans-for-a-US-National-Tour-20180108"

I'm heartbroken (Groundhog Day *really* has a huge place in my heart), but not entirely surprised. The staging seems really hard to tour, and without it the show would have to be re-conceptualized.

Here's hoping it goes back to London, at least.

(My heartbreak is *somewhat* mitigated by the fact that I get to see Andy Karl and Orfeh's show this weekend )

brdwybound04 said: "many other inferior shows (Bandstand, Great Comet, Bright Star) seem to be getting tours... "

"Seem to be" is the key phrase.

I'm not in the least surprised.

Wouldn't it have cost too much money to tour GROUNDHOG DAY? Reports that it planned to tour always seemed suspect to me...

Any chance this will return to LONDON? I am surprised ANDY KARL has not lined up any gigs since the BROADWAY run ended -- what a shame!!

A very likable show that was produced on Broadway at the wrong time. The cost of mounting it for a tour is probably too prohibitive.

I'm not very surprised, but I am sorry.

I would imagine that it's hard to sell too many tours of flops in one season. Every market needs to fill out their subscription, but you can't offer your public a slate of shows that all closed on Bway in less than 1/2 a year. Isn't Bright Star doing a very abbreviated idea of a tour (less than 10 stops)? Have Bandstand and Comet tours actually been booked? I've not heard of any dates - and imagine that Comet would be a significantly different show on the road.

It seems that there's very little potential payoff putting flops on the road, unless you're lucky enough to fill in a bunch of guaranteed markets when Wicked, Lion King, etc. are away.

"I think a show like Groundhog Day that is already recognizable due to the movie would sell well regionally."

But by that argument, it should have sold well on Broadway. And it didn't. A familiar title alone doesn't guarantee success (a notion that seems to come as a complete, and continual, surprise to producers).

darquegk said: "Frankly, I'm not sure it'll survive in licensing- or even be licensed at all. Groundhog Day, due to the time-shifting stunts, is one of the more technically demanding "trick-heavy" shows of the recent era, which is undoubtedly going to make people reluctant to pick it up for their own theatre. The fact that Andy Karl was somewhat famously injured performing the stunts in the show may hurt it as well..."

The "stunt" in which he was injured was running across the stage and jumping, where he would end up at the base of a ladder and catch someone. Not only was that jump removed, but the "stunt" itself was pretty run of the mill--this was no Spider Man. While I think the amount and level of choreography is a valid concern, the injury is somewhat of a red herring

nightnic001 said: "The Distinctive Baritone said: "

I’m still waiting for the previously announced Spider-Man tour, btw."



Wasn't there talk of a Las Vegas residency at some point?"

Name some sort of after-life for that show and it was "talked" about at some point; Vegas, touring, arena touring, and any other sort of version you could imagine.

"I am surprised ANDY KARL has not lined up any gigs since the BROADWAY run ended -- what a shame!!"



From what I understand, he's had surgery to repair the knee he injured in the show, and has been recuperating