Review: Joyous, Funny, Tender, and Thought Provoking: TOOTSIE Takes the Stage at MSMT

Following on the heels of a nostalgically, romantic ANASTASIA, Maine State Music Theatre’s second main stage show this season, TOOTSIE, demonstrates the company’s ability to turn on a dime. The 2018 David Yazbek musical, based on the 1982 film starring Dustin Hoffman, is a big, boisterous Broadway show that is joyous, tender, and thought provoking all at once and provides the audience with an evening filled with exhilaration and elation.

While the themes of the original movie remain in place - a valentine to the vicissitudes of an actor’s life and an exploration of the psychological and practical effects of the gender swapping ruse - this latest version of the book by Robert Horn takes care to address with sensitivity the issues raised by a man’s assuming a woman’s identity to further his career. Horn manages to strike an effective balance between psychological perceptiveness and unavoidable comedy.

Directed and choreographed by Marc Martino (Elise Kinnon, Associate Director/Choreographer) with unabashedly extroverted energy, the production is witty, lively, and laugh producing. Martino succeeds in delivering all the trappings of a glitzy, contemporary Broadway musical, while not losing a sense of psychological truth and character depth. His choreography - with its nods to legends like Bob Fosse, Julie Taymor, even Jerome Robbins - is effervescent, peppered with sly humor and stylish élan.

Music Director Brian Cimmet  (Jacob Stebly Associate Music Director) invests the score with bright color and vibrancy, and he helps the protagonist Michael/Dorothy delineate the dual sides of his personality with distinctive vocal registers.

Kyle Dixon’s decor retains a feel of the 80s original with more constructed pieces of scenery married with video projections by Jerran Kowalski. Dominated by several large scale units, including one suggesting the exterior of a Broadway theatre and its marquee, the scenery moves with brisk ease thanks to the fluidly choreographed transitions. The video projections add context, notably in the rushing street scenes of New York, the neon lights of Times Square, the gritty, shabby neighborhood for Michael & Jeff’s walkup apartment, and even some sly pre-show projected marquee quotes containing inside jokes.  Seifallah Salotto-Cristobal’s lighting adds dimension and a sense of place to the overall visuals, while Katie Dowse’s (Kevin S. Foster II, wigs) costumes cleverly explore the 1980s of the show’s present, as well as the 1950s of the show-within-a-show musical “Juilet’s Nurse.” Her outfits for Dorothy are ingeniously constructed to allow for rapid - often onstage – changes from Dorothy to Michael and back again.

Shannon Slaton supports the show’s upbeat vision with a sound design that is present and tingles with energy. Production Stage Manager, Mark Johnson, ably integrates all the moving parts.

The company embraces TOOTSIE’s cast of zany characters with gusto. In the dual role of Michael/Dorothy, Dan DeLuca, is a wild and wonderful force of nature;  he is appropriately quirky, neurotic, passionate about his work, and wrong -headed in his methods. Technically, the actor excels at “shape shifting,” moving fluidly and fearlessly between his male and female personae, changing vocal registers, inviting laughter in a tour de force performance. He impresses vocally in big numbers like “Unstoppable,” as well as in introspective ones like “Talk to Me, Dorothy” and manages to make the character both unapologetic and empathetic.

As Julie, Kristina Leopold projects an indomitable idealism and quiet passion for the actor’s life she has chosen. She gets to deliver some of the show’s most heartfelt narratives like “There Was John,” as well as a sultry cabaret number in “Gone Gone Gone.”

Jen Cody‘s Sandy is a is a bundle of neurotic energy about to implode. She manages to make the character sympathetic, at the same time that she offers a take on the inherent manic insecurity of an unemployed actor’s life, and her showstopping “What’s Gonna Happen” becomes a touching and comic refrain.

Nathan Cockcroft’s Ron Carlisle is every bit the arrogant misogynist director/choreographer who gets to demonstrate his compelling dance ability in several of the show’s big numbers. Pascal Victor Pastrana endows Max Van Horn with a combination of narcissism, machismo, quirky insecurity, and amusing cluelessness, and he lets loose with his powerful baritone in moments like “This Thing.”

Nick Gaswirth, as Jeff, brings the voice of unvarnished observation to the mix as he both interacts with Michael as his friend and stands apart, cryptically, commenting on his actions. His solo, “Jeff Sums It Up,” is a plain-talking, expletive-laced diatribe on the complicated scenario that Michael has created for himself and others.

In the supporting roles of Stan, Michael’s gruff agent, and Rita, the musical’s no-nonsense producer, David Girolmo and Charis Leos bring star power and impeccable comic timing. Girolmo portrays Micheal’s agent with a sharp tongued feistiness that adds sparks to their confrontation scenes, and his Act Two discovery of Michael’s ruse is hilariously limned from the speechless opening seconds to the tumbling off his chair and the explosive argument with Michael. Charis Leos’ Rita conveys a sense of worldly wise wisdom and feminine camaraderie, and she lends her powerful vocals to “I Like What She’s Doing” and “The Most Important Night of My Life.”

As Director Martino so expertly does, the ensemble characters each have detail and context, and as a group they provide the propulsive force in the storyline.

TOOTSIE demonstrates MSMT’s versatility and ability to excel in many musical theatre styles. Not only is TOOTSIE an hilarious and endearing comedy, but it is also a tasteful and sensitive exploration of society’s changing perceptions of gender roles and a probing of an actor’s mission to find the truth in a character and ultimately in himself. If Michael/Dorothy’s quest is messy and ethically questionable, his journey proves to be enlightening, not only for himself, but also for those around him. The audience responds to the genuineness of the characters, their essential self-searching which - though concealed behind the mask of comedy – is poignant and authentic. TOOTSIE will make you weep a little, laugh a lot, empathize, and ultimately embrace a deeper acceptance of self and others.

Photographs courtesy of Maine State Music Theatre, photographer, Jared Morneau

The show runs from June 25 to July 12, 2025, at MSMT’s Pickard Theater on the Bowdoin College campus, 1 Bath Rd., Brunswick, ME    207-725-8769 www.msmt.org