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Despite its place of honor in the Gen-X nostalgia zone amongPretty WomanandMean GirlsandMoulin Rouge!
Doubtfireis not an obvious candidate for musical adaptation.
Seems creepy, but Williams made it seem somehow pure and delicate.
So even before it begins, the stage version has to fight on two fronts.
First, theres Williams.
The role is his, and his shadow stretches long over the stage.
The musical needs to pay him homage, including lines that are so beloved (A run-by fruiting!)
that a dude in my row punched the sky when he heard it.
Williams was a comedy machine one that ran so hot you could see it throwing off bolts and sparks.
Can anyone in the world imitate that?
As this shows Doubtfire, Rob McClure doesnt, exactly.
McClure has a different, more glancing touch, though deft as a diamond cutter.
The second elephant in the theater is, of course, the cross-dressing.
A guy-in-a-dress bit can be a conduit for mean-spirited bigotry, transphobia, the works.
Certainly its keen-eyed about masculinity: Daniel only blossoms when he puts the constant performance of manhood aside.
Considering the number of childish jokes, its a complicated film with a complex morality.
If he wants to be a woman he has every right to be!
Thats not what hes talking about.
Hes talking about putting on a disguise to deceive his ex-wife, says Andre.
The creative team dusts its hands; theyve taken care of people thinking this is a musical about transness!
No one can be offended now!
But then they immediately make a whoopsie in the misogyny department.
Will Daniels new guise look like … Princess Di?
The lissome women from the chorus dance around in tiara, disco gear, sequined jumpsuit.
Or will he choose another model?
Say Eleanor Roosevelt, Janet Reno, Julia Child?
Now the men of the ensemble come out, pirouetting in tweed skirt suits.
is also always happening onstage.
Can they give the mom, Miranda (Jenn Gambatese), more of an inner life?
Can they add enough LGBTQIA+ representation to make us feel better about the guy-in-a-dress jokes?
Can they make the eldest daughter Lydia less of a cipher?
(Yes, by giving her several songs, which Analise Scarpaci kills.)
Can they solve some of the originals issues by making Daniels new boss a woman?
(Not exactly, since there are nowthreelady-boss types who present as humorless scolds.)
Theyve even taken the Mrs.off the posters.
They push certain problems down and down, all while grinning anxiously.
It doesnt happen often, but when something gross does bubble to the surface it stinks like a bog.
Physically, the show has two core comic tools.
The first is what Rob McClure can do with his Doubtfire getup.
He plays a broom like a guitar!
He sets fire to his rubber bosom!
He break-dances in a fitnesswear parade for Mirandas new line!
The second comic tool is more broadly applicable: farce.
The liveliest scenes are the ones in which Daniel has to get in and out of Doubtfire at speed.
A full Doubtfiring took Robin Williamss team four hours.)
Well, it doesnt exactly sing.
Theres a third elephant onstage, and its the songs.
The rest of the time, though, the songs dissolve into forgettability.
Occasionally they have forgotten each other.
So the shows pleasures ebb and flow.
I will say, I assumed that Id findMrs.
Yet theres a central proposal in it that is still radical.
Doubtfireis still a utopian dream.
In so doing, he manages to flourish creatively and emotionally.
But maybe thats where these messages are most useful?
Anyway, poppets, I can dream.
Mrs. Doubtfireis at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.
