For Tim Minchin, staging the musical Groundhog Day in Melbourne is a time loop all of its own.
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The acclaimed songwriter and comedian moved to the city in his 20s as a keyboard player in a cover band, and developed the musical comedy style he's become known for worldwide.
So returning with an Australian production of Groundhog Day felt, well, kind of profound, Minchin told reporters on Wednesday.
"It feels like there's a big completion, some sort of homecoming," he said.
Especially as the musical is all about trying to make sense of life through a single day, lived over and over again.
It's based on the story of cynical TV weather presenter Phil Connors, who finds himself re-living the annual Groundhog Day event in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
Olivier Award winner Andy Karl, who originated the role in the 2016 London production, is returning for a fourth run playing Phil.
With eight shows a week, is he caught in something of a time loop himself?
"I truly love this show, obviously, I've been doing it for a long time," he said.
Over the years Karl has been performing in the role - with the exception of the odd understudy, he's the only person to have played the musical Phil Connors - he's just got better and better, Minchin said.
"He's one of these rare actors who has this ability to just deliver the performance perfectly every time, like some kind of AI robot."
Groundhog Day asks some profound questions, said Karl, and with every performance his answers change just a little.
Phil Connors has become the favourite role he's ever played, and performing with a new cast in each production has also meant creating a kind of onstage multiverse, he said.
"It is sort of a joke for me, a great meta joke that I'm still here and I really enjoy it."
Playing opposite Karl as TV producer Rita Hanson is Helpmann award-winner Elise McCann, who starred in the revival of Mamma Mia! also at the Princess Theatre during 2023.
But she's best known for playing Miss Honey in another beloved Minchin hit, the Australian production of Matilda The Musical.
McCann says those involved in Groundhog Day are the cream of the industry crop.
"It's really rare to do a show where every element is at its height, I think that helps us discover new things all the time," she said.
The film's original writer, Danny Rubin, is in Melbourne for the new production and said he decided Minchin and director Matthew Warchus were the right people for the stage version of Groundhog Day after seeing their Matilda adaptation.
"We just flew [Rubin] to England to see Matilda and then pretended to be nice people ... we coerced him into giving us a crack," joked Minchin.
He and Rubin ended up in Andrew Lloyd Webber's New York apartment in Trump Tower, the story goes, putting sticky notes on the windows as they tried to shape the musical version of the day that keeps happening over and over.
Rubin was proud that no-one could tell which parts of the musical he wrote and which were by Minchin - and it seems fitting that he just wants to see Groundhog Day all over again.
"It's just such a wonderful show, every time I see it, I'm moved," he said.
Groundhog Day the musical is on at the Princess Theatre opening on Thursday.
Australian Associated Press
