South Valley Civic Theatre will bring “Groundhog Day the Musical” to the Morgan Hill Community Playhouse later this month, with performances running June 20-July 12.
The production is based on the 1993 Bill Murray film and follows Phil Connors, a self-absorbed TV weatherman who finds himself reliving Feb. 2—Groundhog Day—over and over again in Punxsutawney, Pa.
“This musical really digs deep in a way that the movie wasn’t able to,” said Tori Stamm, who plays television producer Rita Hanson. “It’s the same story, of course, but it goes deeper in a great way.”
Forced to confront the same day repeatedly, Phil moves through denial, despair and self-indulgence before gradually turning his attention toward his community and the people around him.
The stage adaptation was written by one of the film’s original screenwriters, Danny Rubin, and features original music by Tim Minchin spanning country, rock, folk and contemporary theater styles.
“There’s literally music in this show for everyone,” Stamm said, citing musical numbers that range from James Taylor-style folk ballads to what she described as Creed-style “dad rock.”
Phil begins the show as someone who considers the annual Groundhog Day news assignment, as well as the quaint town of Punxsutawney itself, to be far beneath him. His attitude toward the town and its traditions is one of barely concealed contempt.
“Man, he is not a nice one, I’ll tell you that right now,” Andrew Stebbins said. “He is so very full of himself. He thinks he is the coolest guy in every room, and I think it’s very obvious from the start of the show.”
Stebbins said Phil’s early experience in the time loop begins with confusion giving way quickly to panic.
“Like any one of us would, he gets this sort of almost intense dread,” Stebbins said. “As the days repeat, he gets almost like a despair—just, I don’t know what’s happening, all I know is that every day is the same and he can’t make sense of that.”
Soon, however, Connors realizes that when each day begins with the same blank slate, his actions carry no lasting consequences. This leads to a spree of crime, debauchery and general shenanigans.
Eventually, he decides to direct his energy towards seducing his co-worker and producer Rita with little success, eventually leading him to confide in her what he is experiencing.
The turning point, Stebbins said, comes when Rita challenges Phil’s self-pity by claiming that it is not he, but “‘the rest of us that are stuck.’”
“That conversation is the turning point for Phil,” Stebbins said. “That’s when you see his character do a 180. All of Act 2 is him going after what it means to be in a community, what it means to care about other people, to be less selfish, to be selfless. That’s my personal favorite part of the show.”
Stamm described Rita as confident, professional and driven, someone who extends empathy to Phil not because she fully believes his ludicrous story, but because she recognizes someone who is genuinely hurting.
“Rita chooses empathy for him in that moment,” Stamm said. “She decides to just look at somebody who’s hurting and support them through it.”
One of the production’s central staging challenges is making the time loop visible and convincing. Ensemble members must repeat identical movements and blocking each time Phil relives the day, while Stebbins remains the only performer who visibly changes from loop to loop.
“I think when the audience picks up on that, they’re going to be just blown away,” Stebbins said.
Producer and choreographer Katherine Ares said the show demanded a higher bar at auditions than most productions, and that the cast of roughly 25 rose to meet it. Several performers are new to SVCT, with some traveling as far as two hours specifically to be part of this production.
“We have some people who came in and auditioned for this show specifically because of the show. They love the show so much they’ve gone to New York to see it on Broadway multiple times,” Ares said. “They’ve brought so much.”
Glasman, who has directed for SVCT since 2018, said the technical and logistical demands of the show are unlike anything the company has mounted before—but that the degree of difficulty reflects the quality of the material.
“I think most people probably haven’t seen something like this before,” he said. “I think audiences are going to be pretty impressed by what a group in Morgan Hill was able to pull off.”
Performances run June 20-July 12 at the Morgan Hill Community Playhouse. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit svct.org/2026_groundhog.
