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Mrs. Doubtfire Musical is So Much Better than it has Any Right to Be

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The musical adaptation of Mrs. Doubtfire has met a great deal of criticism — for daring to recreate the magic of Robin Williams, for treating the dressing of a man as a woman as a joke — while trying to be a commercial success during the hardest time Broadway has ever faced. Seemingly shrugging all of that weight off its shoulders, this show works to provide a forking great time. It may not be high art destined to become a classic or have a score I’d listen to on repeat, but it’s much better than expected and was by far the most fun we had in the theatre on our recent trip to NYC (yes, even more fun than Tony Yazbeck’s Cary Grant singing about being an enormous rocketship penis while on acid (I think that was trying to be somewhat serious, so)). Thanks to its well-paced and entertaining book, its clever modernization of key scenes, and above all a masterful performance from Rob McClure, Mrs. Doubtfire is so much better than we expected.

And yes, expectations tend to be low when someone is tasked with stepping into the shoes of Robin Williams in a part as legendary as this. The only way around that is to go in a somewhat different direction. And while the heart of the character is still there, Rob McClure’s version is different enough to sidestep direct comparisons so the resulting response is overwhelmingly positive. His Daniel seems younger and fresher, more chaotic and manic (hard to imagine yes), more fun-loving even than Robin’s, who showed at least some underlying seriousness from the start. Rob’s interpretation is well-suited to the exuberance that musical theatre can produce. He is an incredible performer who clearly gives himself fully to every second of performance, in a way that must be exhausting but he never shows it.

So his take on Daniel is slightly different, but without other changes, including to the other characters and the story deets, it would be another Pretty Woman fiasco, which no one wants. Luckily, there are interesting and well-made changes throughout, not enough to bother anyone who wanted to see what they know, but enough to distinguish it from the movie and give it a reason to exist. The best character updates were to the characters of Daniel’s brother Frank, his boyfriend, and Daniel’s social worker Mrs. Sellner, and the best modernizations were to the cooking scene and the raptor rap. Frank, played in the movie by Harvey Fierstein, is another performance that simply cannot be copied, especially when the original guy is a Broadway guy and so should not be copied because then you’d be like why didn’t they just hire him, he’s like a block away. Luckily. Brad Oscar has taken the role and, as he always does, made it hysterical. Here, Frank’s big thing is that when he lies, he yells. Given how much his brother’s situation forces him to lie throughout the show, this problem becomes forking hilarious. It was by far one of my favorite bits. His boyfriend is played by a very fun J. Harrison Ghee, a younger and cooler guy obsessed with divas and Dreamgirls. The scene of all his potential inspirations for the Doubtfire disguise is well done (forking Maggie Thatcher lol), and it was pretty funny to realize two Princess Dianas were on Broadway stages at the same time (rip Diana the Musical).

For Mrs. Sellner, the transition to musical theatre from the movie version of her drab, serious social worker could have been a clunker. But by casting Charity Angel Dawson, a motherforking BELTER, they enhanced the role by giving Daniel a nightmare sequence about his upcoming court date, in which Charity, well, belted up a storm in a hellscape. Such a good way to let her sing in a way that didn’t break her character.

As for modernizing the almost-30-year-old film (I KNOW), a super clever bit was in reworking the famous scene where Daniel tries to cook for the first time, and burns his boobs. Yeah, the boobs still burn (how do they do!), but the scene cleverly has him watching various YouTube videos from online chefs, which of course the wonderfully game ensemble acts out. Such a great move that provided amazing humor. As for the boring old man’s TV show + the raptor rap (which I can do on request if you want, should I get a Patreon for this very purpose), we see more of the dreadful show, and the raptor rap scene is changed to have Daniel using a loop machine left on the set. He creates the most incredible looping beats and rhythms and sings 100 parts over it in a moment of absolute genius, giving Rob his best moment in a show full of him having star-making moments.

The joke-filled book keeps the pace at a nice clip, with enough of the famous quotes (“it was a run-by fruiting!”) to placate the masses and enough new bits (“pecs and guns and geese better scurry”, my fave) to lift it above copied and pasted dreck like, well, Pretty Woman. (Although for my taste they should have nixed one or two more quotes from the movie (like Miranda’s “the whole time? the whole time? the whole time??” which no one can deliver like Sally Field and then if they could deliver it like her, it would be an annoying copy) but that’s coming from someone who knows the movie by heart.) Although Jenn Gambatese tries her best, and her best is greatness, the character of Miranda comes across as just as much of a wet blanket here, even though she seems even more justified than in the movie. It’s a nice move to make Miranda a fashion designer instead of an architect (and they have fun playing with that in Act II), and she gets an even younger hot love interest (whose weight-lifting scene seemed unnecessary until Rob’s physical comedy with the weights he couldn’t lift, literally the funniest part of the show), but being the straight man can be a thankless role. (Actually, the actual funniest part of the entire show is when the lights lifted at intermission and my husband said “wow I can’t believe they got Amy Klobuchar to do this show.” omg.)

Aside from Rob, the cast highlight by a mile is Analise Scarpaci’s Lydia, who is pitch-perfect throughout. She has a way to make the big emotions of musical theatre seem completely natural. Unlike…I hate to say this…but the worst part of the show — little Natalie. I KNOW IT’S SO MEAN TO SPEAK ILL OF THIS CHILD BUT SHE WAS VERY BAD. Every time she spoke it was unbelievably grating and I almost screamed several times “SOMEONE PUT A SOCK IN THAT CHILD’S MOUTH.” None of Mara Wilson’s sweetness, just all grate grate grate. Honestly this is a direction fault – who told her to deliver every single word like she was imitating SNL characters imitating Borscht Belt comedians.

As for the elephant in the room, I think they handled the fact that the premise is a man dressing as a woman well. Andre, Frank’s boyfriend, dismisses the idea that what Daniel is doing is anything like what trans people do, and rightly so – it’s not. To suggest that this cis man dressing up in a disguise is in any way related to trans people living honestly in the opposite of disguise seems offensive. And, just as with Tootsie, the cis man’s donning such a disguise is shown as patently wrong. Obviously I am not the authority here, but it seemed like a satisfactory way to comment without getting dragged down into something that would only put the two concepts on equal footing, when they aren’t.

INFORMATION

Mrs. Doubtfire plays the Stephen Sondheim theatre, which makes me giggle because, like, he def didn’t write this.

The show is currently on hiatus to account for covidtastrophes and should be back on March 14.

I have never seen ANYTHING theatrical managed as smoothly as the vaccine-proof checking was for this show. As everyone lined up outside to enter, various staff members walked down the line to check proof of vaccination, so it was done super quickly and not just at the door, adding zero waiting time while out in the cold. They stamped the hand of everyone once checked (with the most adorable stamp, of the Doubtfire silhouette) so that to actually enter the building you just flashed your stamped hand. Having the staff go through the line and not just do this at the entrance made all the difference; it’s so simple and straightforward to do it this way but you’d be surprised (I am continually surprised) at how stupidly other venues do it. Broadway I wuv you.

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