![]() Tanisha Spring fleshes out the MacDowell role of Rita - although her Disneyish ‘Dear Diary’ interludes are a slightly transparent attempt to turn her 2D love interest into the strong, independent woman that has become the cliché du jour. Probably not, but thanks to the pell-mell pace we never linger on them and Karl deftly pulls the show together mind, body and soul. He channels deadpan Murray, Steve Martin’s physical comedy and David Schwimmer’s goofiness, but he also has the dark, brooding features of Bryan Cranston.ĭid Minchin need to give his star a number of icky references to his solo sex life? Rarely are looks and talent so strikingly combined. The show, however, would be inconceivable without Karl as self-centred Phil. Underpinning the correction of Phil as he turns from contempt to anger, followed by recklessness, despair, acceptance and, finally, redemption is a gooey rom-com, with Phil learning to love his TV producer, Rita (left) ![]() Minchin fares better with cynical whiplash lyrics than he does in giving the love story a memorable, beating heart.īut he blasts the action forward with marching music, rock and a groundhog drum solo - as well as easing it up with moody acoustic guitar, plangent piano and a corny but cute country & western love song for the finale. Underpinning the correction of Phil as he turns from contempt to anger, followed by recklessness, despair, acceptance and, finally, redemption is a gooey rom-com, with Phil learning to love his TV producer, Rita (the Andie MacDowell role in the film). Much thanks for this goes to Lizzi Gee’s microscopically choreographed movement, in which one cog out of place would mean all four wheels coming off the recreational vehicle. Warchus’s sleight of hand - with astonishing illusions by Paul Kieve that seem to defy the space-time continuum - also ensures that the pace is seldom less than breathless. The paradoxical genius of the story - and the show - is that we love the ride and yet, like Phil, we long for it to end. (A content footnote on the website warns those taking this, and Phil’s comic suicide bids, seriously to contact the Samaritans - but it’s really never that deep.) ![]() That’s partly because Warchus has an ultra-low tolerance for stasis, constantly bombarding us with whirligigs of dance.Īnd Rob Howell’s set is a gigantic cuckoo-clock: swallowing Phil’s chintzy tomb of a bedroom to replace it with a town square, a local diner, a bar, park benches and the pick-up truck Phil uses to belt down the railway in despair. If it wobbles, it’s over - but wobble it never does. ![]() Warchus’s production, too, is a spinning top of a show. Andy Karl as Phil Connors and Tanisha Spring as Rita Hanson in Groundhog Day at the Old Vic, London ![]()
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