Playing Nancy Groundhog Day?

It's a good cabaret song, but I have yet to understand why it is in the show nor why they have placed it where it is. Is a puzzlement.

I agree with you completely - I think it's a really nice song, but doesn't make any sense story-wise.

My friend who I went to GHD with last week turned to me after that song and asked "What on earth was that about?"

Her guess was that they just wanted to give Rebecca Faulkenberry a solo... I thought maybe they wanted to give Andy Karl a break? It's a pretty intense show for the lead. But no idea why it was put there, and it really doesn't connect with the rest of the storyline.

I think KJisgroovy has the right idea. All through Act I we were free to view the residents of Punxsutawnie as cartoons and stereotypes, as easy to discard as Phil does throughout the Act. Act II forces us immediately to take another look at each of these residents as fully-formed people who each get to star in their own life story. "Being Nancy" does a great job of forcing that lesson front and center, and it's a beautiful song to boot.

(I didn't understand the song's placement at all when I only had the cd to go on. Seeing the show in the flesh last week made it crystal clear.)

Yes, this song is about showing the townspeople are more than just the cardboard cutouts of small-town Americans that they appeared to be to Phil in Act 1. It also brilliantly sets the tone for the second act, which is a complete departure from the first. I love the audience reaction to it, whenever I see the show. It starts out with people laughing at "The perky breasted giggly one night stand". Then all of a sudden it turns serious and you can visibly see the reactions change in the audience when it becomes apparent that she's NOT just that but a real person with real feelings.

And if you actually listen to the song, Nancy is singing about how her life, like Phil's, is stuck on repeat and how everyday she's stuck playing the same part.

"I don't really remember, I guess I chose to be here..." - That line is so brilliant, if you take a step back and look at your own life and all the steps you took (or didn't take) that got you to where you are. And maybe we're all stuck living the same day every day, in our own personal way. I think that's what the song is saying when it sets up the seriousness of the second act.

Her guess was that they just wanted to give Rebecca Faulkenberry a solo... I thought maybe they wanted to give Andy Karl a break? It's a pretty intense show for the lead. But no idea why it was put there, and it really doesn't connect with the rest of the storyline.



No. Tim Minchin has said it's the first song he wrote for the show... I believe in a Playbill interview. He said it was the song that helped him figure out his "take" on the material. Or something to that effect.

The song has a couple meanings and purposes. Some have already been mentioned, so sorry for the repetition.

First, act two is all about Phil learning to view people not just as who they are, but as important, valuable aspects of his life. Instead of writing the townspeople off as hicks and “half wit bastards,” he engages with them to learn about their lives, like he does with Ned. He has to discover how to become a participant in the world, not just existing in a place where all he can see is what he wants to, measuring time and success in what he can get from it for only himself. “Playing Nancy” introduces us to this phase in his journey. A character that seems largely one-note and stereotypical is given a chance to tell us that while in some ways she is, in other ways, she is just finding a way to survive in a world she does not have full control of. There is more to her than just her role, something Phil is unable, but will learn, to see.


Second, the song serves to contrast with Rita’s character. Rita would rather be lonely, and keep the world at arm’s length, than engage in hollow relationships with no future. Rita and Nancy are two sides of the same coin, finding different ways to fill the void in their lives left by a lack of romantic love.

They are equally sad, but by the end Rita has learned to accept that no relationship is “perfect” and she will have to find her prince in an imperfect person, namely Phil. Nancy is also given something of a possible happy ending when Larry, who seems like a good guy, shows interest in her, which will hopefully lead to a real connection and her learning to value herself and demand more from relationships than she does.

Third, it’s a meta piece about the experience of women in show business, their struggle to be valued based on more than their looks and the fight for equality in a male dominated business.

As for its placement, it has to start act two, because anytime after that it would break up the momentum of Phil’s transition from detachment from the world to engagement with, and appreciation of, it and people around him. In act one, he doesn't see them as people, we're viewing the world through Phil's eyes, so it can't go there.

I could say more, but this is long enough already.

Updated On: 6/29/17 at 04:00 PM

I think that's definitely a good, conventional place to put it... but the show hasn't moved on yet. Phil's still being a jerk and only looking at his world view. I really like the way the show opens up in the second act, when Phil starts to notice there's a whole world around him.

Reading all of these responses makes me love the recording even more. Damn, I wish this show was doing better so I could see it the next time I was in NYC! (most likely next year...)

Yes, it could tour... but I highly doubt they would use the same set on tour - and I would love to see how the set operates in all it's glory.

I was listening to this earlier today and thought the same thing. In the film, she is just a ditz who is around for sex appeal and laughs. I really respect that they wanted to make her a fully realized character in the show, but yes, that song came out of nowhere. It's a beautiful song and it got a very loud round of applause but it was just weird.

As a kid you don't think about it but, he took advantage of a woman and had sex with her, knowing she would not remember the next day. That is super gross, but he's an a$$shole, so whatever. I am glad they focused on other characters during the second act, like Ned and Nancy, but it was simply oddly placed. I think "Hope" should have been the closing of Act 1.

Updated On: 6/30/17 at 12:22 AM

Margo319 said: "As a kid you don't think about it but, he took advantage of a woman and had sex with her, knowing she would not remember the next day. That is super gross, but he's an a$$shole, so whatever. I am glad they focused on other characters during the second act, like Ned and Nancy, but it was simply oddly placed. I think "Hope" should have been the closing of Act 1. "

I think having "Hope" end Act 1 would limit its impact, personally. He's devastated in that moment, trapped in the loop he can't escape, so to stop the show there and give the audience breathing room would be a misstep. Opening Act 2 with him in the diner, which leads to the scene with Rita at the benches, would lose its emotion impact, in my opinion. Also, I really just love the end of One Day as the Act 1 closer. We get a hint of the level of despair but we haven't heard it from him yet. With Phil's journey from giving up on life to embracing it contained in Act 2 it resonates more.

I will admit "Playing Nancy," for as much as I understand and appreciate why it's in the show, is the only song I skip sometimes when listening to the cast recording.

Nancy aside, when you think about the fact that he ends up with Rita, the women he spent days trying to get in bed with just for the heck of it, it ruins the ending a bit. Definitely one of those things you don't want to think too much about and the story relies on the audience wanting to gloss over that fact too in favor of the happy ending.

Updated On: 6/30/17 at 01:09 AM

That's funny, because Playing Nancy is probably the song I've listened to the most off of the soundtrack. And just having seen the show this past week, here is my interpretation of why it's there.

First of all, for people saying it stops the flow of the show: Yes, it does that intentionally. The second act starts with a rousing entr'acte, with a crowd of people onstage...and then everyone freezes for the entire Playing Nancy solo. It's abundantly clear that the creators of the show intended it to be (literally) a show-stopping moment. So the question is, why would they do that?

The song is meant to catch your attention. You're supposed to stop in your tracks and think about it. The first time I saw the show, the entire audience was just stunned and confused, especially since the song is winkingly breaking the fourth wall a little. It's a brilliant moment that forces you to stop and think about a throwaway character who was previously just viewed as a plot device. And subsequently, you should start looking at the other people as characters in their own right, and not just as obstacles or objects to be manipulated.

And in Act 2, that's how Phil starts seeing people.

Yeah, the more I listen, the more I have really liked the song. But, it's not in the right place. I do not know the right place for it, but it's definitely not there. I don't recall exactly when in Act 1 they bang, but perhaps it should be closer to then. It's so random in Act 2 since Phil never talks to her again. Or, am I wrong? Does he talk to Nancy in Act 2?