Review: Can Andy Karl Draw Sweet Water From GROUNDHOG DAY's Foul Well?

In 1957, Meredith Willson wagered he could get Broadway audiences to cheer for THE MUSIC MAN's serial swindler who cheats nice people out of their hard-earned money and harasses the leading lady on the street and at her workplace while lying his way into her arms. Fortunately for him, the handsome and charming Robert Preston seduced audiences as well as Professor Harold Hill seduced early 20th Century Iowans.

The creators of Groundhog Day, a new musical based on the hit 1993 comedy that starred Bill Murray, are wagering that Broadway favorite Andy Karl can turn a similar trick under even more difficult circumstances; playing a thoroughly unlikeable character who grows even more despicable as the musical progresses, until he learns to be nice about midway through Act II.

Bookwriter Danny Rubin, who co-authored the film's screenplay, centers the evening on television weatherman Phil Connors, a smug and sarcastic fellow with an elevated sense of privilege. Because he's played by Karl, he's also very good-looking with a well-chiseled physique, which is probably a major reason why he's able to get away with being so loathsome.

Early in Act I, where most good musicals will have a song for the main character that gives the audience a reason to want to follow his or her journey for the next couple of hours, composer/lyricist Tim Minchin, who displays little interest in accurate rhyming or proper accenting, instead hands his leading man a snarky lyric where he expresses distain for his yearly February 2nd assignment to visit Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to report on whether or not their official groundhog has seen his shadow.

Severe weather closes off the roads, forcing Phil to spend an extra day in town, but when he wakes up it's February 2nd all over again with everyone else in town behaving exactly as they did the day before. The same thing happens the next day. And the next. But while Phil retains his memory of what happens every repeated February 2nd, the other folks are unaware that they're living repeated days that only vary when Phil changes the script.

Though confused and frustrated at first, Phil suddenly realizes that he's gained the power to do whatever the hell he feels like doing, knowing that he'll wake up alive and well the next morning, which will be another February 2nd.

So his new itinerary includes drunk driving, grabbing and kissing a woman without her consent and slugging out a poor fellow who unintentionally annoys him. He also uses the information he learns one day from a conversation with an attractive young woman named Nancy (Rebecca Faulkenberry) to trick her into having sex with him the next day.

All this is done with a frat boy sense of humor, as though the authors want us to think it's funny and cool to be able to get away with so much.

When Phil tries to bed his segment producer Rita (a fine Barrett Doss in a rather standard "the girl" role), she's a tougher sell, so he needs to spend many repeated days spending time with her. This leads the first act to an interesting conclusion that suggests that getting to know more about Rita is causing Phil to fall in love with her, but there's no chance for romance because she spends every day meeting him for the first time.

But that suggestion is dropped as soon as the second act begins with a solo ballad for Nancy, where she laments being a woman who is often lusted after, but never loved. ("I learned back in my teens / There's no point in protesting / If you look good in tight jeans.") While it screeches the plot to a halt, it's also the most interesting and sympathetic moment offered in the score, though some may take issue with her conclusion that "It's better to be leered at / Than not desired at all."

Another musical moment that lands well is Rita's solo about how the fairy tale stories and Barbie goals she was fed as a kid have nothing to do with the real world of dating.

But while those two numbers are staged to focus on the performers, much of the score gets little breathing room to stand out because director Matthew Warchus, choreographer Peter Darling, set and costume designer Rob Howell and illusion designer Paul Kieve overwhelm Minchin's work with fun and entertaining staging that makes Groundhog Day run at a brisk pace.

There's fine comedy in the staging of scenes where the same things happen over and over, a dazzling bit where Karl appears to make a series of lightning-fast transitions from one side of the stage to another and a wildly funny and unexpected way to show the audience a car chase through the neighborhood.

While Groundhog Day was still previewing on Broadway, the show won the West End's Olivier Award as the season's best musical and the talented and charismatic Andy Karl won the prize for his performance. A few days before the Broadway opening he injured his knee in an on-stage accident, necessitating his wearing a brace on the official first night. His dedication to continuing performances while still healing gives audiences an extra reason to cheer him on.

In reviewing the original 1940 production of PAL JOEY, New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson, who admired every aspect of the show except the story and characters, famously asked, "Can you draw sweet water from a foul well?" Groundhog Day is granted a slick and professional production, but this reviewer still couldn't swallow it.

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