It bears repeating: ‘Groundhog Day’ a fine holiday show
Musical based on Bill Murray movie gets Bay Area premiere
A musical set explicitly around an entirely different holiday might seem like a counterintuitive choice for a holiday show, but “Groundhog Day” at San Francisco Playhouse actually fits the bill nicely. Besides the wintry setting, it has the basic structure of a Christmas classic. Like “A Christmas Carol,” it depicts the gradual redemption of a generally horrible person through supernatural means, and like a lot of seasonal favorites (“It’s a Wonderful Life,” anyone?) it gets mighty dark before the inevitable happy ending. “Groundhog Day” is of course based on the ever-popular 1993 movie of the same name, in which Bill Murray plays a snide, condescending Pittsburgh TV weatherman on an assignment for which his contempt is obvious — to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania — only to find himself reliving the same day over and over and over again. The movie is so iconic that its basic premise has become a ubiquitous fictional trope in itself, recently used on both “Legends of Tomorrow” and “Star Trek: Discovery.” The musical premiered in London in 2016 and hit Broadway in 2017. San Francisco Playhouse’s production is the show’s Bay Area premiere, after a planned national tour was canceled last year, and its first production since Broadway. It’s a terrific adaptation to the stage that really captures the best parts of the movie, and that should be no surprise because the book is by Danny Rubin, who originated the story and co-wrote the screenplay for the movie. The songs by Tim Minchin, who previously did the musical “Matilda,” are forgettable (and sometimes quite long) but fun and occasionally touching, such as the somber lament by Phil’s manic former classmate Ned Ryerson (comically manic Dean Linnard). The peppy numbers in the beginning are grating seemingly by design, as they become repeated over and over to signify Phil’s torment at being stuck in what he sees as an insipid small town. It’s all well played by the live band directed by Dave Dobrusky, and Nicole Helfer’s perky choreography gives the whole day a celebratory air. Company co-founder and producing director Susi Damilano’s staging makes dynamic use of a revolving stage to keep the action moving. The high fence of Edward T. Morris’ set doesn’t leave a lot of room for Teddy Hulsker’s projected backgrounds, but there’s some hilarious use of miniature vehicles amid Jacquelyn Scott’s props for key traffic-related scenes. Ryan Drummond is superb as Phil, showing him as a supercilious grouch and sleaze but also funny enough to keep us entertained with him regardless. Rinabeth Apostol provides a strong counter to him as easygoing, grounded producer Rita, who’s not falling for Phil’s nonsense. The large cast is a lot of fun, though the accents of the lifelong Pennsylvania townsfolk are all over the place, from Minnesota singsong to Southern twang, depending on what type of characters they are. After Phil gets over his initial panic over his situation and realizes he can do whatever he wants without long-term consequences, everything he wants to do is downright loathsome. His favorite trick of quizzing women about personal details one day and then exploiting that research to trick them into sleeping with him the next go-round is a consent nightmare. It’s somewhat of a relief that his first unwitting victim, Sophia Introna’s cheerful Nancy, opens the second act with her own song about being cast simply as a sex object in someone else’s story — which almost on principle immediately became my favorite song in the show — but acknowledging that fact doesn’t actually change that it’s still true. All things considered, it’s practically a holiday miracle that Phil’s redemption story works as well as it does. Even so, you might cheer it on not for his sake, because he’s as undeserving as they come, but for the sake of everybody around him.