How did the musical come about?
Interview with Danny Rubin (DR), the screenwriter of the musical My Day as a Groundhog, and Tim Minchin (TM), who is responsible for the music and lyrics. Where did you get the idea to make My Day as a Groundhog musical? DR: I’ve been writing songs and playing guitar since I was a teenager and I’ve listened to a wide range of things: from folk and rock to chamber music and Broadway musicals. As my career turned to screenwriting, I was looking for ways to sustain music in my life and even worked on a few musical film projects. After the release of My Day as a Groundhog, I knew I had no interest in writing a sequel – for me, My Day as a Groundhog was already a sequel in itself, which made an actual sequel unnecessary. On the other hand, however, I knew that the story would be very rich in themes, and if I had the opportunity to return to the material, I would only do it once and with a different art form than film. I considered writing My Day as a Groundhog novel (each chapter is a chapter 1); television series (the sets and characters are the same in each episode, as is customary in half-hour television comedy series), but by far my best choice was a theatre musical. I realized that the musical narrative gives the story the freedom to include repetition, themes and variations, twists and synchronisations – all musical means that fit perfectly with the groundhog of my day. Even the broad themes of Phil’s journey — his changing mind, appearance, and civilization — can be reflected in evolving musical styles. All of this sounded like a great way to get back to the story, and I thought it would be fun. Which it was. What kind of relationship did you have with My Groundhog Day before composing the musical? TM: I had seen the movie more than once, and I loved it… But I wasn’t a fan through and through. And actually, “film-to-stage” adaptations are generally not my thing. In any case, my day as a groundhog was a great starting point, which had an unusual structure and I always trusted that it could carry on stage. What kind of challenges were there in bringing the story to the stage? DR: Less than I thought. For example, the film is largely built on montage – short scenes edited together, which allows jumps back and forth in time and space. But how on stage could Phil fall off the clock tower and get out of bed in the next scene? Director Matthew Warchus instructed me that anything I could dream of, I could do on stage. We were able to execute innovative and surprising stage magic in our original stage version, such as an impossible chase scene. I found that my previous years of experience as a screenwriter had prepared me for this endless rewriting and refining of scenes, so my personal challenge: the musical I hesitated to do turned out to be a wonderful experience. One of the expected challenges was easily solved: does the story take place in 1993 or in the present day, as in the film? I wanted it to be set in the present and the only real challenge, the elephant in the room, was that there were no cell phones or wireless networks in 1993. Today, in the event of a sudden weather event, everyone would check their phones and Phil Connors could call anyone or spend his days surfing the internet, which would greatly reduce the feeling of being trapped. Luckily for me, phone and data connections can plausibly be interrupted due to a snowstorm, so this is what happened. I would say that the biggest challenges from the film to the stage are related to the character of Phil Connors. For the majority of the audience, Phil Connors is Bill Murray. In order for My Day as a Groundhog to work in any artistic form, we have to want to go on a trip with the clearly unsympathetic Phil. Bill Murray has a unique ability to be mean and loved at the same time, so he hit the spot in the film. On the other hand, his style in the film is very laconic and expressionless, he is not a man who bursts into song. We could have recreated a Bill Murray-type character who might be too cynical to sing, but at the breaking point, his natural voice would come out. Not a horrible idea, but would mean a musical in which the protagonist only sings at the end. So, in the end, it was better to free the audience from thinking of Bill Murray as Phil and look for new ways to create a nasty person who credibly bursts into song, with whom we are happy to make this long journey.
How did you decide which parts of the story would be good to interpret with song?TM: Very nice, very big question! The “who-sings-what-when?” dilemma is – I believe – the most difficult and decisive part of making a musical. We take into account many factors: which characters does the audience need to invest in? At what point do we get a laugh? When can we cry? How do we balance with the choir and solo numbers? When does music provide a driving force for the narrative? And so on. We made all these decisions before I started writing.
Was there a particular part of the story that you found particularly difficult to bring to the stage?DR: Once Phil has reached his wisdom, the final twist when he realizes that he can’t save an old man, the film follows a montage of Phil doing good deeds. Changing this part to the stage was left for last, because none of us – me, the director or the composer – knew how to do it. I was waiting for Tim to compose a song that would cover this part, and he expected me to script a scene that worked. Eventually, we were able to tie the threads together while other parts of the musical were being built. At some point, we realized that each character in the city has a little story to tell, so we could use this scene to wrap up those stories. We had found the rhythm that describes Phil’s world of experience, and it led us to implement the montage as a large choreographed number. We didn’t realize that the show needed until everything else was in place. Was there anything special or different about your Day as a Groundhog job compared to your other jobs? TM: My Day as a Groundhog was a unique challenge. Since the story is based on repetition and being trapped, I had to make numerous decisions about how the music should reflect the themes. So the score is spiced up with twists, repetition, and hints of infinity (I’ve written a little essay on this topic https://www.timminchin.com/2019/12/07/the-groundhog-day-songbook-tims-foreword-and-more/ ) But at the same time, it was important that we didn’t get too trapped in our work, because we didn’t want the work to be as boring as Phil’s life turns out. So it was a challenge to figure out how to show hard work and at the same time still be extremely entertaining. What kind of working methods did you have with Danny Rubin?TM: Danny and I and director Matthew Warchus spent a lot of time together discussing the story from the beginning. What it meant to him and what Matthew and I saw in it, as well as the myriad directions we could take. In this way, we created a common “map” in order to continue writing. From then on, we worked via email because we live in different countries! I started writing songs and he continuedto rework the script as needed. Danny has a wild imagination, not fancy at all, and I’m quite mathematical and I respect the structure. It was hard work and wonderfully fun. We had three workshops before we got anywhere near the start of the rehearsals for the actual performance. And Danny, of course, came by plane to each workshop. Musical workshops are incredibly fun, gratifying, and hellishly stressful work!
What do you think was the most touching thing about the story? Why is that important? DR: The very first Groundhog Day is actually the worst day of Phil’s life. He hates everything about it. The last of the Groundhog Days is filled with love and friendship, generosity and celebration, it’s probably Phil’s best day ever. And these two Groundhog Days are exactly the same day. The only one who has changed is Phil. This makes the story empowering and hopeful. Everyone recognizes something familiar from their own life in Phil’s plight, everyone sometimes feels stuck. Phil Connors shows us that instead of falling into despair or waiting for circumstances to change, we have the ability to break free from our circle and change our world simply by changing ourselves. TM: Phil has to internalize two things in order to be free: Death is inevitable and until then, the key to happiness (or at least peace) is to focus on other people’s happiness. He finds a balance between passivity and intervention. I think it’s a very difficult lesson to learn, but I’ll try. Danny Rubin and Tim Minch were interviewed by email by Samuel Harjanne and Henna Piirto in May 2020.