Musical 'Doubtfire' hits mark, doesn't miss Robin Williams
Musical 'Doubtfire' hits mark, doesn't miss Robin Williams
The national tour of the musical "Mrs. Doubtfire" runs through May 5 at Belk Theater
This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on May 1, 2024. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here. And check out this link for Toppman’s archive of reviews in the Ledger.
Review: Musical ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ keeps the essence and humor of the movie version while planting its feet in modern times
Rob McClure (right) takes prosthetics and a wig on and off within seconds as he plays Mrs. Doubtfire in the touring musical. (Photo courtesy of Blumenthal Arts)
by Lawrence Toppman
I had no idea, until I did some research about the national tour of the Broadway musical “Mrs. Doubtfire,” how beloved the film version has been.
The movie became the second-highest-grosser of 1993 after “Jurassic Park,” won a Golden Globe for best comedy/musical, and made the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 funniest movies of all time. The main shooting site became a San Francisco tourist attraction for a while, then an impromptu memorial to star Robin Williams after his death in 2014.
So perhaps it was no surprise that creative types have itched to musicalize it, including the “Hercules” team of composer Alan Menken and lyricist David Zippel. (Their version went nowhere.) The surprise is that it’s just as funny onstage without Williams, at least in the hands of Rob McClure.
He created this star part in a workshop, then a Seattle production, then the Covid-delayed and short-lived Broadway run, and now on the tour that has reached Belk Theater in the Broadway Lights series. He isn’t as puppyish as Williams was, even in his most manic moments. McClure can be genuinely irritating as boy-man Daniel Hillard, a voice actor who never stops being “on.” Yet you feel for him when a judge at his divorce hearing denies him full access to his kids, and Daniel disguises himself as a Scottish nanny to stay near them every day.
The live version comes with a score by brothers Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick (who did the impish “Something Rotten”) and a book by John O'Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick. Perhaps most importantly, veteran comedy director Jerry Zaks has turned it up to breakneck speed while leaving enough space for quietly sentimental moments.
They’ve removed a little of the harshness from what I remember as a pretty gentle screenplay. Miranda (Maggie Laks), Daniel’s ex-wife, no longer seems as cranky and clueless as in the film. Stu, the smug former boyfriend she dates in the movie, has been replaced by an ebullient physical trainer (Leo Roberts) who’ll be a good fit for her, once Daniel accepts that she’s not coming back to him. (In real life, McClure’s married to Laks, and they have a daughter.)
The musical keeps a lot of the dialogue and scenes from the screenplay, notably the famous one where Daniel and Doubtfire have simultaneous encounters in a restaurant with a boss looking for TV talent and the family that’s celebrating Miranda’s birthday.
Williams had infinite time during the shoot to change his appearance — the movie won an Oscar for makeup — but McClure must don and doff prosthetics and wig within seconds onstage. It’s like watching NASCAR vehicles hurtling around a track: We don’t hope for a crash, but the possibility of one raises the stakes. Though the creative team assigns “here’s where I’m coming from” songs to Stu, Miranda and eldest child Lydia (Giselle Gutierrez), the supporting characters remain planets revolving around a dazzling sun.
The adapters walk a fine line between the 1990s, with mentions of Janet Reno and Margaret Thatcher, and our own time: Daniel performs as a human beatbox, raps and breakdances. He still has an openly gay brother (Aaron Kaburick), but the brother and his flamboyant husband (Nik Alexander) are now trying to adopt a baby daughter.
The show appeals to people across the political spectrum, too. Dads unfairly denied custody by bitter moms have been a cause celebre for conservatives, but the redefinition of a non-nuclear family — specifically, a gay interracial couple with an infant — speaks to liberals. At the end, in a curtain number titled “As Long as There is Love,” we see the widest range of matchups. What seemed impossible to imagine 31 years ago now looks like various spokes in the wheel of life.
If You’re Going: “Mrs. Doubtfire” runs through May 5. If you attend May 3 through 5 — the dates of the nearby Lovin’ Life Music Fest — you’ll be in for a traffic jam of massive proportions. Check road closings first.
Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s back in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews about two times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.
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