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| Injured but Determined, Andy Karl Opens ‘Groundhog Day’ | Injured but Determined, Andy Karl Opens ‘Groundhog Day’ |
| (about 9 hours later) | |
| He wore a large black brace around his left knee. He limped a bit through the second act, and he skipped a few moves. | He wore a large black brace around his left knee. He limped a bit through the second act, and he skipped a few moves. |
| But on Monday night, the actor Andy Karl triumphantly pulled off the kind of performance Broadway loves to celebrate: In a poignant demonstration of the show-must-go-on ethic, he led the opening night production of “Groundhog Day” just 72 hours after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in full view of the audience at a Friday night preview. | But on Monday night, the actor Andy Karl triumphantly pulled off the kind of performance Broadway loves to celebrate: In a poignant demonstration of the show-must-go-on ethic, he led the opening night production of “Groundhog Day” just 72 hours after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in full view of the audience at a Friday night preview. |
| The performance, with both Mr. Karl’s considerable talent and his obvious injury vividly on display, had been touch-and-go all weekend, as the actor wondered if he would even be able to walk. But with the draining of his knee, physical therapy, a shot of cortisone and hours of re-rehearsal Monday morning, he pushed through the emotional performance before a supportive crowd packed with actors, producers and other theater industry regulars. | The performance, with both Mr. Karl’s considerable talent and his obvious injury vividly on display, had been touch-and-go all weekend, as the actor wondered if he would even be able to walk. But with the draining of his knee, physical therapy, a shot of cortisone and hours of re-rehearsal Monday morning, he pushed through the emotional performance before a supportive crowd packed with actors, producers and other theater industry regulars. |
| “It’s wonderful that it happened this way, and it’s horrible that it happened,” he said in a post-show interview in his dressing room. “I wanted it to be perfect, but the show is filled with imperfect perfections, which I think humans are filled with, which is what our story is about.” | “It’s wonderful that it happened this way, and it’s horrible that it happened,” he said in a post-show interview in his dressing room. “I wanted it to be perfect, but the show is filled with imperfect perfections, which I think humans are filled with, which is what our story is about.” |
| Mr. Karl, 42, said the injury had been diagnosed as an acute, full A.C.L. tear, and that surgery had been described as an option, but not required. He said he had chosen instead to try to treat it with rest and physical therapy. | Mr. Karl, 42, said the injury had been diagnosed as an acute, full A.C.L. tear, and that surgery had been described as an option, but not required. He said he had chosen instead to try to treat it with rest and physical therapy. |
| He said he did not yet know whether he would be able to perform Tuesday night, or what his schedule would be going forward. That will depend on how his knee is feeling each day. | He said he did not yet know whether he would be able to perform Tuesday night, or what his schedule would be going forward. That will depend on how his knee is feeling each day. |
| The injury occurred when Mr. Karl was leapfrogging over another actor toward the end of the Friday night show, during an antic scene in which his character, the weatherman Phil Connors, does a variety of good deeds for residents of Punxsutawney, Pa. | The injury occurred when Mr. Karl was leapfrogging over another actor toward the end of the Friday night show, during an antic scene in which his character, the weatherman Phil Connors, does a variety of good deeds for residents of Punxsutawney, Pa. |
| “I came down wrong, in some way, and my knee just blew out,” he said, tearing up as he described the incident. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever felt in my life, and at that moment, my life flashed before my eyes. I’d worked so hard, to be so close, and it’s gone, and I kind of lost hope.” | “I came down wrong, in some way, and my knee just blew out,” he said, tearing up as he described the incident. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever felt in my life, and at that moment, my life flashed before my eyes. I’d worked so hard, to be so close, and it’s gone, and I kind of lost hope.” |
| He dragged himself offstage. The show was stopped, and an announcer asked for a doctor. Mr. Karl was on the ground, in tears. But he wanted to finish the show, so he grabbed a walking stick, went back out and did. | He dragged himself offstage. The show was stopped, and an announcer asked for a doctor. Mr. Karl was on the ground, in tears. But he wanted to finish the show, so he grabbed a walking stick, went back out and did. |
| In the days since, he said, he has been resting, and thinking, relying on treatment from professionals and encouragement from his wife, the singer and actress Orfeh, to persevere. | In the days since, he said, he has been resting, and thinking, relying on treatment from professionals and encouragement from his wife, the singer and actress Orfeh, to persevere. |
| “You start to ask yourself so many things about what you’re doing this for and what your limits are,” he said. “I had so much doubt. Every hour was a new challenge for me, and it’s been, all the way up to right now.” | “You start to ask yourself so many things about what you’re doing this for and what your limits are,” he said. “I had so much doubt. Every hour was a new challenge for me, and it’s been, all the way up to right now.” |
| The “Groundhog Day” musical, with a score by Tim Minchin and a book by Danny Rubin, is adapted from the 1993 film starring Bill Murray, about a narcissistic weatherman who relives the same day over and over again. The musical was presented last year at the Old Vic Theater in London, also with Mr. Karl in the lead role, and last week it won Olivier Awards for best new musical and for Mr. Karl’s performance. | The “Groundhog Day” musical, with a score by Tim Minchin and a book by Danny Rubin, is adapted from the 1993 film starring Bill Murray, about a narcissistic weatherman who relives the same day over and over again. The musical was presented last year at the Old Vic Theater in London, also with Mr. Karl in the lead role, and last week it won Olivier Awards for best new musical and for Mr. Karl’s performance. |
| The show, directed by Matthew Warchus and produced by Whistle Pig, Columbia Live Stage and the Dodgers, is one of the most expensive of the current theater season. It was capitalized for up to $17.5 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It struggled throughout previews with mechanical malfunctions — the set has five turntables built into the stage floor, and they have periodically jammed. And thus far, the show has been doing only modest business at the box office, although positive reviews will probably help. | |
| The performance on Monday night was crucial for the production, which needed to open before April 27 to maintain its eligibility for the Tony Awards, and for Mr. Karl, because actors must perform on opening night to be eligible for a nomination. (He has two already, including for the strenuous title role in a musical version of “Rocky.”) Mr. Karl must also continue to perform after the opening: The rules require that he appear enough times to allow the approximately 850 Tony voters to assess his performance. | The performance on Monday night was crucial for the production, which needed to open before April 27 to maintain its eligibility for the Tony Awards, and for Mr. Karl, because actors must perform on opening night to be eligible for a nomination. (He has two already, including for the strenuous title role in a musical version of “Rocky.”) Mr. Karl must also continue to perform after the opening: The rules require that he appear enough times to allow the approximately 850 Tony voters to assess his performance. |
| The Monday night opening was also the first performance for Mr. Karl since his injury — the Saturday matinee had been canceled because of his knee damage; an understudy, Andrew Call, played the lead role Saturday night, and, in a bit of luck for the show, there were no performances scheduled Sunday. | |
| Then on Monday morning, the cast gathered at the theater to help Mr. Karl work through the show, spending more than five hours figuring out which elements of his performance he might need to alter. He is onstage for most of the musical, and although his part requires minimal dancing, there is a lot of spinning, crawling in and out of spaces, getting in and out of bed and, especially complicated given the knee injury, taking off and putting on his pants as he relives the day that gives the show its title. | |
| “He didn’t know, until he did it, what he could and couldn’t do,” Mr. Warchus said. “I had a backup plan where he wouldn’t have to get dressed every morning, wouldn’t have to put his trousers on, but Andy wanted to have a go of it.” | |
| Mr. Karl made a number of small changes to his performance Monday night. He wore looser pants than usual, and the fourth time he got into bed, he left them on. He skipped the leapfrogging over another actor, as well as the catching of an actress falling off a ladder. He turned a run into a slow-motion re-enactment of a run. And there were multiple moments when he could be seen using his arm to help get up off the floor, and even into a Tilt-a-Whirl. | |
| Mr. Warchus also ordered the rest of the cast to take it easy with Mr. Karl. There are several instances in which he gets hit (his character is kind of a jerk at first), and those encounters were dialed back Monday night. “No one wants the responsibility of hurting him,” Mr. Warchus said. | |
| Mostly, Mr. Karl looked unaffected — singing confidently, swinging his legs around a bed, crouching and spinning. And he also found humor in his situation. During a scene in which he was trying to seduce his producer while wearing a fur coat and boxers, but no pants, he motioned to his leg brace and said, “Aren’t you even curious?” (He said he had wanted the production to get him a leopard-print leg brace, to make the gesture more vain and ridiculous, but there was no time.) | |
| At the curtain call, during an ovation from the crowd, Mr. Karl punched his hands in the air and shouted, “Champions adjust,” a maxim associated with Billie Jean King and often quoted by Mr. Warchus. | |
| “He did an amazing job,” said Patrick Hoffman, director of the Theater on Film and Tape Archive at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. “He had a slight limp. You could tell. But I was even more impressed by what a trouper he is.” | “He did an amazing job,” said Patrick Hoffman, director of the Theater on Film and Tape Archive at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. “He had a slight limp. You could tell. But I was even more impressed by what a trouper he is.” |
| And James Brown III, an actor who performed with Mr. Karl in “Rocky,” said, “Knowing that he was injured, knowing how hard he worked for this — I was blubbering at the end.” | And James Brown III, an actor who performed with Mr. Karl in “Rocky,” said, “Knowing that he was injured, knowing how hard he worked for this — I was blubbering at the end.” |
| “This will be a night he’ll remember forever,” Mr. Brown said, “both for how much pain he probably was in and for the feeling of getting through the show.” | “This will be a night he’ll remember forever,” Mr. Brown said, “both for how much pain he probably was in and for the feeling of getting through the show.” |