Broadway Musical Review—“Mrs. Doubtfire”

Mrs. Doubtfire

Music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick & Karey Fitzpatrick

Book by Karey Fitzpatrick & John O’Farrell

Directed by Jerry Zaks; choreography by Lorin Latarro

Opened December 5, 2021

Stephen Sondheim Theatre, 123 West 43rd Street, NY

mrsdoubtfirebroadway.com

Rob McClure in Mrs. Doubtfire (photo: Joan Marcus)

A big, blustery mainstream musical, Mrs. Doubtfire is as audience-pleasing as the 1992 Robin Williams movie it’s based on. Even more so than the blockbuster film, the stage musical is a drag show in all but name: unlike in the movie—where most of the time, Williams isn’t shown becoming the middle-aged Scottish nanny—Rob McClure, the physically adroit actor who engagingly plays the title role, is often onstage doing his quick-change act right in front of us, thanks to much clever sleight of hand in Jerry Zaks’ frenetic, sometimes even frantic production.

To be sure, there’s the question of whether the source material, a sentimental comedy about newly divorced actor Daniel’s ruse to stay close to his three children by becoming their nanny after his ex-wife Miranda decides she has to have one, needs musicalizing. And there are several moments throughout the show where the story stops dead so that someone can sing a song that doesn’t really propel things forward. (The creaky, formulaic tunes are written by Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick, and the by-the-numbers book is by John O’Farrell and Karey.)

Of course, some of the best moments in any musical are simple showstoppers, and Mrs. Doubtfire has one. “Make Me a Woman,” in which Daniel’s brother Frank and his partner Andre—by a happy coincidence, they are makeup and costume artists—begin Daniel’s transformation. The song gleefully showcases the redoubtable Brad Oscar and J. Harrison Ghee in all their campy glory, then turns problematic as the men discuss whom Daniel will look like: the attractive Lady Di or Cher or Donna Summer or the supposedly “unwomanly” Janet Reno, Julia Child and Eleanor Roosevelt. 

We get a parade of all of these women, set to a throbbing disco beat, and the joke is that there’s no doubt whom he resembles as the unfeminine Euphegenia Doubtfire (hint: not Di, Cher or Donna). Unsurprisingly, thanks to Zaks’ snappy directing and Lorin Latarro’s energetic choreography, “Make Me a Woman” gets the biggest ovation of the entire show.

Happily, there’s more to Mrs. Doubtfire than such audience pandering. There’s a polished and professional ensemble supporting the comically impeccable performance of McClure, who may be the only actor on Broadway who comes within shouting distance of Robin Williams’ verbal and physical facility (McClure's superb portrayal of Charlie Chaplin several years back clinches it). Jenn Gambatese—who, in the Sally Field role of Daniel’s ex Miranda, has the most thankless straight-woman task—has an agreeable charm, while Analise Scarpaci, as Lydia, the eldest of the three children, deserves the spotlight she gets in her solo songs, which she effortlessly blasts out of the park.