Groundhog Day: The Musical, based on the 1993 Bill Murray film, is having its Canadian premiere in Sudbury., following stints in London and New York.
Directors Andrew Tribe and Cameron Carver said they fell in love with the production when they caught performances at the Old Vic, in London and on Broadway.
“It was like a deeply emotional experience for us,” Carver said.
The duo connected with Alessandro Costantini, who runs YES Theatre in Sudbury, and in the span of the year, they put together a Canadian production of the show.
As in the movie, the musical follows TV weatherman Phil Connors as he gets caught in a time loop while covering Groundhog Day celebrations in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pa.
As Phil relives Groundhog Day thousands of times, he falls in love with his producer, Rita Hanson, and learns to become a better person.
Tribe said Sudbury was the perfect place for a Canadian premiere of the musical.
“The show takes place in Punxsutawney, and our hero Phil learns to really embrace the small, everyday existence of this town,” he said.
“And Sudbury is a cold small town. But there’s a lot of real town pride in Sudbury that I’ve learned in my time being here.”
Sayer Roberts, who plays Phil in the Sudbury production, said the material felt right from his first audition.
“Something really clicked and it felt like this could be something really special,” Roberts said.
Melissa MacKenzie plays Rita and said she had never seen the film before auditioning for the musical.
“The book writer of the musical is actually the screenwriter of the film, so it stays true to the story that everyone knows and loves,” MacKenzie said.
But because the musical is more recent, MacKenzie said the story was updated to give the female characters more agency.
The movie also wasn’t a musical, so that’s a big change.
In the movie, Phil wakes up every morning to Sonny & Cher’s I Got You Babe on his alarm clock radio. But in the musical it’s an original song instead.
“As much as it would be great to pay homage to the film, this is its own thing, and having something entirely separate just means that we get to go on a new journey with a new Phil, as opposed to constantly being reminded of the film,” Tribe said.
The play runs from Feb. 14 to March 9 at the Sudbury Theatre Centre.
