Blank Canvas’ ‘Groundhog Day’ tries its untimely best

There seems to be a trend in theater to turn popular movies in the musicals, take for example “Back to the Future”, “The Lion King”, “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Some Like It Hot”. Then we come to “Groundhog Day – The Musical” now on stage at Blank Canvas Theatre.

The musical adaptation of the popular 1993 film has music and lyrics by Tim Michin with book by Danny Rubin who wrote the screen for the movie). It premiered in London in 2016 at the Old Vic Theatre being nominated for eight Laurence Olivier Awards and winning for Best New Musical and Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 2017 it opened on Broadway and was nominated for seven Tony Awards.

In spite of the best efforts of the superb cast of eighteen actors the show seems to fall short of expectations. Part of this is due to the over loaded musical selection with some songs that seemed to have been dovetailed in using a mallet (Nancy and Ned's solo numbers come to mind). Then there is the repeated scene changes of pulling out the bed, adding the coat rack, telephone and flowers and Phil coming to bed wrapped up in a quilt. This could have been handled easier with a fast moving video display instead.

Another factor is the theater itself where the ceiling fans have been mysteriously removed and the air conditioning if running was overwhelmed by the outside ambient temperatures, the size of the crowd and the lights. It was evident from the sweating actors that they were suffering as well. Then there is the length of two and a half hours making it a long sit indeed. It should be added that the cast had a shortened rehearsal time due to a COVID scare.

Phil Connors (Danny Simpson) is an arrogant and ego driven weatherman from “the big city” (well, Pittsburgh) who has been forced to once again make the February pilgrimage to Punxsutawney, PA for the annual rodent reveal celebration. In Phil’s reckoning this performance is beneath him and he simply wants to get on with his life. That changes when he awakes on what should be February 3rd (and his return to civilization) but instead finds himself in a time loop that repeats Groundhog Day over and over. He has to deal with the same people in the same circumstances saying the same things day after repeated day. He is stuck in “time hell” with his Associate Producer, Rita Hanson (Tasha Brandt) and cameraman, Larry (Matthew Perez-Stable) who are totally unaware of the time loop thing.

In order to amuse himself he decides to tweak time and alter his actions. He pursues such diversions as sex, wealth, alcohol, suicide, rodent murder and wooing Rita until the realization that he needs to actually work on himself becomes clear. Slowly, Phil begins to embrace the town and its people, learning how to actually be a nice guy that people like.

As mentioned before, the cast is tremendous but they are hamstrung with a complicated script with way too many musical numbers that seem to force them into their own time loop. Danny Simpson as Phil Connors has a fine singing voice and great comic timing as he negotiates his new reality. Tasha Brandt is terrific as Rita as she tries to deflect Phil’s inappropriate advances. Other notables include Reed Kruger as Insurance nuisance Ned Ryerson and Christine May as the Piano Teacher.

The seven piece orchestra conducted by Matthew Dolan is superb and the choreography by Liz Baumgartner is amazing given the small space for the dancers to move in. Patrick Ciamacco again does a great job with lighting and projection design although the car chase sequence was a bit cartoonish. Jenny Hitmar Shankland does a marvelous job on the set creating a wild spiraling out of control clock.

Needless to say, in spite of my words, this show will fill the seats for its last few performances. While not a bad show by any means it could use a bit of tweaking here and there to speed things along.

The Blank Canvas production of “Groundhog Day” will be on stage in 78th Street Studios Suite 211 located at 1305 West 78th Street, Cleveland, Ohio though August 3, 2024. For more information and to purchase tickets got to www.blankcanvastheatre.com or call(440) 941-0458.