Nine months ahead of New York

Tim Minchin’s musical version of Groundhog Day is to have its world premiere in London.

The show will open at the Old Vic in London in June next year – nine months before it heads to Broadway.

Based on Bill Murray’s 1993 film, the show will be directed by the theatre’s new artistic director Matthew Warchus, who is taking over from Kevin Spacey.

Warchus said Groundhog Day would be ‘an intelligent mainstream Broadway classic’, telling the BBC: ‘It needs a large audience and a large stage, and I wanted to start it in this country, so it’s the perfect match.’

He praised the film version, saying: ‘It is really about how little time you have to become the best version of yourself. It’s sophisticated meaty stuff in a romantic comedy package.’

Warchus also directed Minchin’s smash-hit version of Matilda, which is currently playing at the Cambridge Theatre in London and the Schubert theatre in New York. Groundhog Day’s choreographer Peter Darling and designer Rob Howell also worked on the stage adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic.

Minchin is creating the songs for the new show, with the book written by Danny Rubin, the screenwriter of the original Harold Ramis movie.

Announcing the project last year, Minchin said: ‘Our version of Groundhog Day is going to be both instantly recognisable, and utterly different.

‘The central conceit is perfectly suited to the theatre, in my opinion. In fact, I think many of its ideas could be enhanced by the stage. It has the potential to be complex, dark, visually fascinating, and thematically rich, whilst still being a joyous romantic comedy with cool tunes and lots of gags. It’s certainly not an easy job, and I’m truly honoured – and genuinely excited – that Danny is letting me have a crack at it.’

The show will make is Broadway debut on March 9, 2017, at a theatre yet to be named – with previews starting on January 23 that year.

Warchus also announced that Rob Brydon is to star in his first production at the Old Vic, a new play called Future Conditional by Tamsin Oglesby.

The Trip star will head a cast of 23 young performers in the ‘meaningful, political, intelligent, funny [and] moving’ work.

Published: 21 Apr 2015