From Groundhog Day to Groundhog Day: An Adaptation Study of the Film and Musical

Abstract

This thesis is an examination of the film Groundhog Day (1993) and its musical version Groundhog Day the Musical (2016) through the lens of adaptation theory. Basing its theoretical framework on Linda Hutcheon’s seminal work A Theory of Adaptation, with its emphasis on adaptation as an active creative process, the thesis aims to trace differences between the film and the musical of Groundhog Day and examine the significance of key changes introduced in the process of adaptation.

Adaptation studies have moved from a fixation on fidelity, which values adaptations on their faithfulness to their sources, towards a view of adaptation as adaptation, which suggests that adaptations should be valued as creative and intertextual works, with the audience aware of the adaptation and its transformative effects on the original. Although adaptations are necessarily “palimpsestuous”, announced revisitations of prior works, they can even be thought of as completely original works, if they succeed in establishing enough autonomy. Groundhog Day the Musical arguably succeeds, which suggests that although being clearly built upon its source text, its value is not dependent on the audience being familiar with the original film.

In Groundhog Day the Musical, the story has seen major changes from the film in character and theme development, thus better realising the potential of elements that were arguably underdeveloped in the original. The main character Phil Connors has seen a slight decrease in focus, in order to further develop love interest Rita and the role of the townsfolk. The women have been given increased prominence in the musical partly due to feminist criticisms of the original, illustrating the importance of being aware of how adaptation can be responsive to the different social and cultural contexts in which the source and the adaptation were produced.

Because Groundhog Day has drawn allusions to Friedrich Nietzsche’s doctrine of eternal recurrence, the thesis also includes an analysis of existentialist philosophical themes that can be located in the story. The musical version retroactivates and builds on the existentialist themes that previously only existed in interpretations of the film, thus reinterpreting the story by giving these elements new prominence and highlighting how an adaptation can actively rewrite its source text.

The thesis also discusses how the adaptation of Groundhog Day the Musical introduces new elements through its use of distinctive conventions of the musical theater genre. The musical adaptation follows many traditions of musical theater, such as the “I want” number introducing the main character’s primary motivation, and the “eleven o’clock” number at the story’s emotional high point. It also deviates from some conventions, with its unusual utilisation of supporting characters, for example, eliciting stronger responses from the audience. As songs can be employed to intensify themes, the musical also adds to the emotional content of the story, while also maintaining the intelligence that characterised the film through clever lyric writing.

This thesis highlights the creative nature of adaptation and the many aspects that an adapter must consider when transfering a source text to a new medium or context. With the use of Groundhog Day the Musical as the basis of its analysis, the thesis examines how a musical theater adaptation of a film can be produced, while also illustrating how an adaptation can have value independent of its precursor texts.