美国国家公共电台 NPR Composer Tim Minchin Brings 'Groundhog Day' To Broadway

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Tonight a musical adaptation of the popular film "Groundhog Day" opens on Broadway. It's the story of a cynical¹ weatherman who's forced to relive the same day over and over again. You may remember Bill Murray's deadpan² performance in the movie. While it makes for great comedy, Jeff Lunden tries to figure out if it sings.

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE³: Back in the early 1990s, Danny Rubin came up with a screenplay where a man gets caught in a time loop. It ended up in director Harold Ramus' hands, who passed it on to Bill Murray, and, well, the rest is history.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GROUNDHOG DAY")

BILL MURRAY: What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered? That about sums it up for me.

LUNDEN: That scene with Murray at a bar with a couple of drunks has transferred intact to the musical. Andy Karl plays Phil, the egotistical, perplexed⁴ weatherman.

ANDY KARL: And the two drunk guys sort of look at their own lives in that day and take a real glance inside and realize they haven't accomplished⁵ much. It's a great laugh, but it's so true, and everybody gets it in the audience.

LUNDEN: And since it's a musical, the next thing they do is sing.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "GROUNDHOG DAY")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (Singing) I wake up hungover. I go to bed smashed, like an alcoholic⁶ hamster on one of them little wheely (ph) things.

LUNDEN: "Groundhog Day" the musical is the brainchild of director Matthew Warchus and songwriter Tim Minchin, who collaborated⁷ on the hit show "Matilda." Minchin says he was immediately struck by the infinite possibilities.

TIM MINCHIN: Groundhog Day is just such an amazing conceit⁸ for theatre. To me, the idea of a person trapped in a confined scenario⁹ the parameters¹⁰ of which they don't understand - it's more like "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" or "Waiting For Godot" than anything.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "GROUNDHOG DAY")

KARL: (Singing) One bar, one store, one clock...

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (Inaudible).

KARL: (Singing) One diner, one bank, one cop.

LUNDEN: And he's written a score where songs repeat and transform.

MINCHIN: The first 30 minutes of the musical, which is my favorite bit, is sort of quite hard to cope with. It's something that by the time you get to the 20th minute or whatever where he's on the third repeat, you should feel a bit like - get me out of here.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "GROUNDHOG DAY")

KARL: (Singing) All haystacks and horses where there should be golf courses and one bar, one store, one clock, one diner, one bank, one cop.

LUNDEN: The musical's creators had to confront the film's immense popularity, so they recruited the original screenwriter Danny Rubin to write the book.

DANNY RUBIN: We had 20 intervening years of my interacting with the public (laughter). And they told me their stories and how the movie changed their life and how it changed the way they looked at things. And it was pretty obvious that we couldn't ignore that.

LUNDEN: So a lot of stuff from the movie is onstage, including the sequence where Phil tries to commit suicide again and again to end the torture of repeating the same day. That song is called "Hope."

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "GROUNDHOG DAY")

KARL: (Singing) Never give up hope. Never let yourself be defeated. If you tried it once, you can try again. A new day will follow. There's always tomorrow.

LUNDEN: What keeps "Groundhog Day," both as a film and as a musical, from being just a run-of-the-mill comedy is that with the repetition of the same day, the self-centered weatherman eventually transforms into a better person, says director Matthew Warchus.

MATTHEW WARCHUS: For me, it is a story about infinite mercy, in a way, because the central character suffers, but he is given - or he gets - infinite number of second chances. And the result of that is that his eyes open, and he becomes aware of a different way of behaving.

LUNDEN: And songwriter Tim Minchin says that's something to which anyone can aspire¹¹.

MINCHIN: We're all in our own groundhog days, and we all of us need to be able to see the happiness where it already is.

LUNDEN: Which is a message "Groundhog Day" the musical repeats in different ways over and over. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "GROUNDHOG DAY")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (Singing) I know now. I know. Yes, I know now.

1 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

2 deadpan   

n. 无表情的

参考例句：

• Some people don't catch his deadpan humor,that makes it even funnier.有些人不能了解他那种无表情的幽默，因此更有趣。
• She put the letter on the desk in front of me,her face deadpan,not a flicker of a smile.她把那封信放在我面前的桌子上，故意一 脸严肃，没有一丝的笑容。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 perplexed   

adj.不知所措的

参考例句：

• The farmer felt the cow,went away,returned,sorely perplexed,always afraid of being cheated.那农民摸摸那头牛，走了又回来，犹豫不决，总怕上当受骗。
• The child was perplexed by the intricate plot of the story.这孩子被那头绪纷繁的故事弄得迷惑不解。

5 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

6 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

7 collaborated   

合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• We have collaborated on many projects over the years. 这些年来我们合作搞了许多项目。
• We have collaborated closely with the university on this project. 我们与大学在这个专案上紧密合作。

8 conceit   

n.自负，自高自大

参考例句：

• As conceit makes one lag behind,so modesty helps one make progress.骄傲使人落后，谦虚使人进步。
• She seems to be eaten up with her own conceit.她仿佛已经被骄傲冲昏了头脑。

9 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

10 parameters   

因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素

参考例句：

• We have to work within the parameters of time. 我们的工作受时间所限。
• See parameters.cpp for a compilable example. This is part of the Spirit distribution. 可编译例子见parameters.cpp.这是Spirit分发包的组成部分。

11 aspire   

vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于

参考例句：

• Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
• I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。