Review: Päiväni murmelina

A superficial weatherman grows into a wonderful person – My Day as a Groundhog also serves as a musical

A nightmare of bad karma! A very Buddhist insight is to find the keys to the solution of the evil world very close. From their own hearts.

When you’re in a bad mood and life is beating, what could be worse than seeing the joy and relaxed atmosphere of others around you.

At the behest of his bosses, Phil (Lari Halme), a superficial and annoying American TV weatherman, reluctantly goes to the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to report on the peculiar ritual of the beheading: a marmot that predicts the weather.

Phil is such a dude, such a dude. As soon as he leaves, he decides that once he gets into better circles, he despises this stupid thing to do.

This man is the centerpiece. The center of the whole world. Like a defiant toddler, Phil doesn’t understand what’s going on outside his own navel, and he’s not interested.

At first, even the viewer is amazed that adults have the energy to get excited about the marmot’s weather forecast. However, unlike Phil the weatherman, everyone immediately realizes that the marmot – also called Phil – is a symbol of the new age after a dreary winter, the beating heart of the city’s traditions and celebrations, the spiritual glue between people.

If Groundhog Phil predicts that winter will continue, the deep disappointment of the townspeople will last about three seconds. Phil’s disappointment is constant.

The TV star behaves like an idiot. The universe mysteriously punishes him by dropping him into the endless loop of time, into a cycle from which there is no return – no, when there is. But Phil has to find the keys to the solution somewhere.

The film, which premiered in 1993 and on which the musical is based, is probably familiar to many viewers. On stage, it works with the help of music.

The soundscape is played by Phil’s clock radio. The variations in the music are great, especially in the crowd scenes in the city. The theme of the orchestra’s music transforms from joyful to slowing down into a nightmare in a spiral of bad karma. The band dancing on stage and the townspeople celebrating the marmot do an admirable job of slowing down and stopping according to Phil’s visions. The tone of the music changes not only in tempo, but also in the melodies to minor and blues.

The second most sensitive character in the book is the supporting character Nancy, Raili Raitala. He was once stuck in a small town. Constantly seeking men’s attention, however, she has not received love. Instead, he has become the tree of the old gang.

The most sensitive and powerful character in the work is the insurance agent Ned, whom Phil hates, the wonderfully singing Antti Timonen. No wonder that the charismatic and strong-voiced Timonen has exactly this role: he sings the most important aria of the work in the second act. (Australian-born composer Tim Michin performed Ned’s song at the Olivier Awards ceremony in 2017.) Ned, who becomes a hero, tells how sad he would like to return to the past and give up. But there is always hope.

Phil’s colleague Rita is played by Maria Lund. She has to endure the man’s anger and attempts to strike. The audience is on his side, and he will get his moment.

My Day as a Groundhog, adapted for the stage, is insightful: the organizer marmots help to drive Phil’s car into the trash cans in a nightmarish manner. Not to mention the masterpiece of the groundhog drummer, Sami Koskela / Sami Kuoppamäki! Special thanks to the insight in the manuscript of the work, how Phil realizes his hidden dream as an artist and learns to play the piano. He begins to use his thread to good effect.

But will the weather-guy Phil change? Not really. He just makes a discovery, and only his behavior changes.

My Day as a Groundhog tells how we all have goodness in our hearts, paraphrasing the Buddhist worldview. Instead of getting angry at the world, Phil learns to stop and realize the goodness in both other people and himself.

In the process, the most inevitable happens: she becomes an irresistibly wonderful person.

The original review can be read here.