By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“)
In what may be the greatest bit of casting for a national tour in decades, Rob McClure, the Tony-nominated actor brought his A game to the stage of the Saenger Theater as Mrs. Doubtfire began playing out nightly to what should rightfully be sold out shows.
What used to be a grand tradition, but is hardly seen these days, Broadway performers of great repute – like Yul Brynner in The King and I – would tour across America in the very same roles they originated on Broadway stages. But the vagaries of a life on the road and being locked into a performance contract for a year or more in the same role tends to be off-putting these days. In this case, though, a juicy role like this one with the opportunity for McClure to show off his set of special skills while touring aside his real life wife, Maggie Lakis, and witness the biggest houses in city after city was too much to pass by.
When word of mouth gets out about his performance, it will probably be too late for many of those who were uninformed of how fantastic McClure is in this role or how truly gifted a performer he is. A worthy stage actor with an enviable ability of voice mimicry and almost superhuman fluidity of movement, McClure demands the rapt attention of the audiences who witness the magic of Mrs. Doubtfire performances.
Many will recall the film classic that starred the beloved Robin Williams in the original role of Daniel Hillard. As much a manic genius as Williams was on the big screen, McClure is as similarly possessed on the stage and absolutely masterful in his control.
Perhaps because she has enjoyed a relationship with her co-star off the stage, there is also a sense of exasperation and even desperation in his co-stsr’s performance. Lakis is strong in her work with him, forceful in the way a parent must be when dealing with an recalcitrant child. Yet, there is a layer of understanding from Miranda that comes from her knowing he really means well, even if the result ends in disaster.
Daniel’s love for his children and his wanting to be the coolest dad comes at a terrible cost: Miranda, his wife and partner, realizes – like it or not – it’s up to her to draw boundaries. She takes the matter into court to exercise control and make Daniel take responsibility for his actions.
At the heart of Daniel’s motivation is his desire to be with his children at a time when family court has decided his wife is the more mature and stable partner and the best hope for the children’s upbringing. It’s not so much that he is stubborn and unyielding, which he is, it’s that his myopic vision of what is right often clouds his judgment and gets him into trouble.
Desperate to be with his children and knowing Miranda is determined to have a nanny take his place, he begins an insane campaign to get himself hired at all costs.
As important as McClure’s performance is to the overall scope of the show, he is never alone without enormous support from his fellow actors on stage. In addition to Lakis, he is joined by Sam Bird and Axel Bernard Rimmele as his son Christopher and Emerson Mae Chan and Charlotte Sydney Harrington as the family’s youngest daughter, Natalie.
Towering above the other siblings is Giselle Gutierrez, who as Lydia, the oldest of the children, possesses a maturity the other two are lacking. Endowed with a beautiful singing voice, Gutierrez also has a forceful acting manner and a huge presence on stage. She and McClure share a special moment toward the end of the show with “Just Pretend” in which she questions her father about where the love between him and Miranda went.
Aaron Kaburick as Daniel’s brother Frank and Nik Alexander as his partner Andre Mayem are comedic relief and, truth be told, a bit over the top with stereotypical references to gay icons like Donna Summer. Of course, the original actor on which Frank is based was Harvey Fierstein, so it’s probably understandable that there would be an excess of gay references that might be viewed as out of date some 30 years later.
But to be honest, the idea of a man dressing as a woman has had several instances of pushback from the LBGTQ+ community in the recent Broadway outings of Some Like It Hot and Tootsie. In the case of Mrs. Doubtfire, the conceit is that Daniel assumes the character of the Scottish nanny out of devotion to his children, no matter how preposterous or ill-advised. Even though the movie was a major hit for Williams and made a Broadway bow ever more likely, men dressing up as women for the sake of comedy is frowned upon in many circles these days where the concept might previously have been more widely accepted in the past. Nevertheless, this is a very good, very funny musical that does not adopt cross-dressing as a necessary means to an end.
The music and lyrics by the the brothers Wayne and Karey Kirpatrick and the book by Karey Kirpatrick and John O’Farrell reunites the successful team that brought Something Rotten! to Broadway. The songs advance the characters from the very beginning with “That’s Daniel,” establishing Daniel’s hard-headed approach to cutting a simple voice over that should have taken only 15 minutes, but stretches out to over two hours as the director Alex Branton becomes ever more enraged.
The song “I Want To Be There” is sung and reprised several times as Daniel’s leitmotif in the first act and serves to inform the audience of his desire to be a good dad, despite his all-in attitude that creates chaos in his life and that of his wife and kids.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of McClure’s overabundance of talents comes in the improvised song “It’s About Time” in which Daniel, now working as a janitor at a TV station, uses the looping equipment to create a chorus of sound in which he harmonizes with himself and the captured track of the station’s tired and aging children’s host Mr. Jolly (David Hibbard).
The inevitable attraction of Miranda to replace Daniel with the rich, successful and cut Stuart Dunmire (Leo Roberts) creates an opportunity for Mrs. Doubtfire to plant seeds of doubt in Stuart’s mind as to how to best approach Miranda. The hilarious “Big Fat No” is the result of Daniel’s desperate end run to “block” his ex-wife’s new would-be suitor.
Romelda Teron Benjamin as Wanda Sellsner a non-amused, court-appointed social worker looking out for the best interests of the children and is a constant thorn in Daniel’s side. Her no-nonsense performance proves to be a worthy adversary to Daniel in his guise as Euphegenia Doubtfire.
The choreography by Lorin Latarro is spectacular and in many cases very innovative, especially in ensemble pieces like Act Two’s big reveal in “Welcome to La Rosa.”
The music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Ethan Popp are terrifically rendered throughout the work and terrifically executed by Mark Binns with a small, but large sounding orchestra.
Kudos to David Korins for scenic designs, to costume designer Catherine Zuber and to Philip S. Rosenberg (lighting) and Brian Ronan and Craig Cassidy for well-executed sound designs.
The national tour of Mrs. Doubtfire finishes its tour this weekend at the Saenger Theater, 1111 Canal Street, in New Orleans as part of the Broadway Across New Orleans season. For tickets, click here or call the box office at 504-287-0351.