Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...As is typical with musicals at this theater, Paramount offers impressive production values, a full pit orchestra, strong vocals, a likable ensemble and a warm greeting back. "Groundhog Day" might well fit your need for a laugh and an escape."
Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...The book is repetitious, even for a show about a glitch in the space-time continuum. The score is forgettable, even though there's a full-on marching band involved. And while the story closely follows the beloved 1993 movie that inspired it, the Paramount Theatre's production of "Groundhog Day: The Musical" just doesn't capture the original's irresistible charm."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...Without a shadow of a doubt, the Paramount Theatre in Aurora has a Broadway-caliber winner with "Groundhog Day: The Musical." And the perfect timing of this joyous Midwest premiere goes beyond opening around its namesake winter holiday."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...Jim Corti’s production honors both the dark and the light in the show, even as some of the narrative repetitions in the first act bog it down a bit. Courtney O’Neill’s set, a geodesic dome from which set pieces pop out, has echoes of both M.C. Escher and the pandemic “igloos” outside restaurants, while also providing a cunning backdrop for Mike Tutaj’s evocative projections. Syiek may not have the same pungent acidic undertones mixed with vulnerability that Murray brought to the original (I’m not sure anyone could capture that other than Murray, honestly), but he wisely avoids imitation and also doesn’t push too hard to make us like Phil."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...The show's fatal flaw, and truly unforgivable for a musical, middling lyrics and a largely forgettable score. Music and lyrics by Tim Minchin should be much better than they are. After coming off of the wildly witty and award-winning musical Matilda, these songs are a disappointment. Singing about unwanted "pointless erections" in "Small Town, U.S.A," "Now piss, piss, piss into this" from "Stuck" and "I think I pooped my dungaree" from "Nobody Cares" these lyrics might as well be written by prepubescent boys as a joke. Not a "Defying Gravity," "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," "Seasons of Love," "I Could Have Danced All Night" or "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" in sight. Or sound. The real curse of February 2nd here is that there isn't anything of substance to grab hold of your soul. The cast did what they could with what they have, but you can never pass a hamburger off as filet mignon."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Recommended
"...What would you do if you could live one day over and over again? How would you feel if that one day happened again and again and you could never see tomorrow? Well, if you ever wondered how it would feel to experience déjà vu, Paramount Theatre’s Midwest regional premiere of Groundhog Day: The Musical is the play for you."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...With a book by Danny Rubin that closely follows his movie and music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, this is a fun show. I will say this: “if you have not seen the movie, you might not GET IT”, so you might want to watch it first. Understand that even though this has done Broadway proud, the musical numbers are unfamiliar to most audiences, so just go with the flow. They work to tell the story, and do so with just the right touch."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...Paramount's latest musical which, appropriately enough, opens in Aurora during the week of the actual Groundhog Day holiday, is pleasant and fun. It's just that the repetitious storyline, which begins as humorous, eventually wears thin and becomes simply annoying. The second act is darker, but much more interesting. You don't leave the theatre humming any of the songs, but you'll certainly remember the performances and the wintery look of the show. The direction is superb, the cast and artistic support give it their all, but the show never quite achieves the same level of entertainment and wonder of Paramount's opening production of "Kinky Boots." It's just amounts to another movie that's been adapted for the stage, that plunges the audience, as well as the main character, into a feeling of endless deja vu."
Buzznews.net - Somewhat Recommended
"...But the repetitive nature of the morning 6:00 a.m. alarm seems to be incorporated into the music, yielding what basically sounds like endless variations on a single song for an overly long first act. The soporific effect was counteracted in a shorter second act with two distinct songs, one even memorable. And a Two Brothers coffee available at intermission helped."
Chicagoland Musical Theatre - Recommended
"...In adapting his own screenplay, Danny Rubin turns in a surprisingly subtle musical book. Admittedly not the highest bar to clear, given the raft of screenwriters who've been blindly trusted to tweak their old film work to a new medium. It helps that the premise itself is inherently theatrical; rather David Ives-ian, really, the notion of repeating a day over and over until Phil gets it right. It also helps that his efforts to deepen the film's supporting characters - the female lead, producer Rita Hanson (Phoebe Gonzales), in particular - amount to more than a single throwaway sentence of backstory for each of them. In fairness, Tim Minchin's songs do most of that lifting, but Rubin provides the tee-up."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...I had never been to the Paramount Theater in Aurora, so I had no idea what to expect when I arrived on a snowy evening in February. By the time the curtain closed to a standing ovation, I decided, as Phil Connors does about Punxsutawney, that it is a place I will need to return to. With a production and acting of the quality you would find in the "big city," this show about small town America, do-overs and redemption warmed my heart on this snowy night."
PicksInSix - Recommended
"...The score, beautifully performed by the Paramount orchestra under the direction of Kory Danielson, is even more lush and fully realized by the crisp sound design of Adam Rosenthal. The stage is encapsulated by a geometric semi-sphere and ingenious staging elements by scenic designer Courtney O'Neill that serve as the hi-tech backdrop for Mike Tutaj stunning projections, Greg Hofmann's lighting and an array of Jordan Ross costumes. From the marvelous, man-sized marmot to The Marching Chucks, you won't need a wake-up call to fall in love all over again with Paramount's "Groundhog Day.""
BroadwayWorld - Recommended
"...I believe over the past 2 years we have all felt a bit like we were living through Groundhog Day. An evening of laughter, song and dance is the right track to mend."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...And now "Groundhog Day" is a musical, which in the Paramount Theatre's lively, funny, sometimes darkly comic, tuneful, cleverly staged production, the story touches all those notes. There still isn't any overt religious trumpeting, but there is a spirited pit orchestra. Some of the musical numbers are daring fun. "Nobody Cares," sung by desolate town drunks Ralph and Gus (Michael E. Martin and Aaron Conklin), is certainly the most hilariously upbeat tune about a suicidal drunk driver who throws up in his mouth that ever, er, graced a musical."
