The book is repetitious, even for a show about a glitch in the space-time continuum. The score is forgettable, even though there’s a full-on marching band involved. And while the story closely follows the beloved 1993 movie that inspired it, the Paramount Theatre’s production of “Groundhog Day: The Musical” just doesn’t capture the original’s irresistible charm.
The problem with the production, running through March 13 at the Aurora theater, isn’t the cast. Director Jim Corti has pulled out all the stops in staging the show, a seven-time Tony Award nominee. The set is cleverly cinematic. The Paramount’s robust live orchestra fills the old vaudeville palace with a lush, intricate sound. And Corti’s 29-strong cast delivers some of the most beautifully blended ensemble vocals you’re apt to hear on a stage this year.
But for all that, somewhere between the screen and the stage, something in “Groundhog Day: The Musical” has been lost in translation. Danny Rubin’s book (Rubin also co-wrote the screenplay with the late Harold Ramis, the movie’s director) and Tim Minchin’s music and lyrics often feel hollow and without a heart.
The main issue is with anti-hero Phil Connors (aka the Bill Murray role in the movie), a cynical weatherman (played here by Alex Syiek) assigned to cover the elaborate Groundhog Day festivities in tiny Punxsutawney. In his appropriately smug delivery, Phil’s derision for the townsfolk is so thick you could almost spread it with a knife. He recoils with a city slicker’s horror at the decor in the quaint bed and breakfast where he’s staying. He sneers at the parade featuring the Marching Chucks band, the speeches from local dignitaries, and especially the seven-foot groundhog mascot that seems to be omnipresent in Punxsutawney. When he is not sneering, Phil hits on his producer Rita (Phoebe González), who somehow refrains from punching him.
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After a day of smirking at the provincial townsfolk and broadcasting the groundhog’s emergence from his burrow, Phil wakes the next morning to find it’s Groundhog Day all over again. And again. And again. Same Punxsutawney broadcast, same annoying mascot, same over-excited locals, same cutesy B&B. When Phil realizes he’s stuck re-living Feb. 2 ad infinitum, he initially embraces hedonism, secure in the knowledge that no matter what he does, he’ll wind up back in bed. But as the Groundhog Days pile up, hedonism gives way to despair, which in turn gives way to something like hope for Phil, hope borne of newfound compassion and self-awareness.
Unfortunately, the musical gives Phil two modes to work with: Apex narcissist or Albert Schweitzer. There are no levels in between, and that makes Phil’s evolution seem more like a plot contrivance than an earned, believable redemption.
In the key role of producer Rita Hanson, González lights up the stage as a driven, talented boss with a sunny outlook and the authoritative air of someone who knows they’re in charge and are good at what they do. Hanson’s wattage grows stronger every time Phil acts like a jerk.
The musical carefully references the movie’s supporting characters. Kyle Adams wrings comedy and the pathos from Ned Ryerson, a garrulously charming insurance salesman dealing with his own inner darkness. Haley Jane Schafer’s Nancy Taylor pulls on the heartstrings in “Playing Nancy,” a plea to be seen as more than just a pretty face.
The musical looks great throughout. Set Designer Courtney O’Neill has enclosed the cast in a cross between a gigantic snow globe and a geodesic dome. It’s beautiful and allows for projection designer Mike Tutaj’s various winter-wonderland scenarios (and hilariously massive groundhog images) to unfold.
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“Groundhog Day” is at its best when the entire ensemble is in full voice, their vocals meshing in “One Day” and “Seeing You” like seamless silk under music director/conductor Kory Danielson’s direction.
On screen or stage, “Groundhog Day” has always been about more than some hiccuppy wrinkle in time. It’s about feeling stuck. It’s about the challenges that come with taking a good, hard look at one’s ugliest traits. It’s about getting unstuck, whether it’s from a destructive romantic pattern or negative feedback loop. But when you can’t believe in the journey of weatherman Phil Connors, the power of “Groundhog Day” is completely overshadowed.
