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Tim Minchin has written that unlikely thing, a musical about metaphysics. It’s also a genuinely fresh take on déjà vu. The source material is impeccable — who can forget the effortlessly entertaining Nineties film and the sublime Bill Murray? But this adaptation has its own dizzying brand of joy, as well as elements of real darkness.

It’s the 2nd of February and TV weatherman Phil Connors is in Punxsutawney — a place he regards as embarrassingly drab — to report on the annual appearance of the local groundhog, famed for its ability to predict when Spring will come. Phil is no fan of small-town life or this lame tradition, and only the presence of fizzy young producer Rita promises to make the trip bearable.

Yet instead of getting lucky he finds himself trapped in a time loop, condemned to stumble through the same day again and again — at first an opportunity for mischief, and later a chance for redemption.

The book is the work of Danny Rubin, who wrote the original film script, and it has the same nerveless mix of fantasy and misanthropy. But while the movie’s spirit is intact, Minchin packs in a multitude of new jokes, and his score inhabits half a dozen different idioms, ranging from country and western to anthemic rock.

Director Matthew Warchus matches him for wit, with Rob Howell’s clever designs integral to the show’s fluency and ingenuity. There are some superb illusions courtesy of Paul Kieve and nimble choreography by Peter Darling.

As Phil, Andy Karl does the seemingly impossible by banishing memories of Bill Murray. Well, almost. He oozes star quality, managing to be poisonously sarcastic, charmingly vulnerable, and charismatic even in moments of melancholy.

Carlyss Peer is a satisfyingly forthright Rita, and while there aren’t many meaty roles around them Andrew Langtree impresses as maddening insurance salesman Ned Ryerson, Phil's tragically unmemorable high-school classmate.

People who say they don’t like musicals tend to complain that they’re repetitive. Here, gloriously, that’s the whole point. We're in what feels like the heart of Samuel Beckett territory, albeit with a salutary hint of A Christmas Carol. Not for nothing did Stephen Sondheim contemplate adapting the film for the stage, savouring the dramatic possibilities of its 'themes and variations'.

Literary boffins may also delight in the detail that the 2nd of February was the birthday of James Joyce, that great chronicler of fateful repetitions, for whom Phil's question 'What if there is no tomorrow?' would have seemed intriguingly resonant.

Such references certainly won't be lost on the show's creators, who revel in the uncanny proximity of the serious and the chucklesome. This is a profound musical, but it wears its profundity lightly.

Eloquent about despair but also relentlessly amusing, Groundhog Day is a treat.

Until Sept 17, Old Vic Theatre

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