Review: MRS. DOUBTFIRE at Capital One Hall

When a husband is as hyper, irresponsible and over-the-top as the one in the movie “Mrs. Doubtfire,” a lot of flaws can be forgiven if he’s played by Robin Williams.

The late actor was so quick, funny and disarming that such nonstop zaniness is practically welcomed in the character. Played by anyone else, he’d come off as a huge, unreliable annoyance that anyone in their right mind would consider separating from.

That’s the problem for the second national tour of “Mrs. Doubfire” which played Capital One Hall in Tysons, Va., over the weekend. 

The lead of the non-Equity production, Craig Allen Smith, is expected to be an unconventional dad who is also master of a lot of voice impressions — and have the pipes  to carry the songs in the musical adaptation. Plus he has to be adept at putting on and off a dress and elaborate prosthetics at a time when such gender fludity — even for a laugh — is often something of a political hot button in places like Virginia. 

The musical version of “Mrs. Doubtfire” has had a tough time since the beginning. It opened previews on Broadway in March 2020, three days before Covid shut everything down. It wouldn’t open until the end of 2021, but abruptly went on hiatus after a month. And when it reopened two months later, it would only last another month. 

The musical “Mrs. Doubtfire” had its longest run in London (whose footage misleadingly illustrated ads for the Tysons stop) and an earlier national tour that starred Rob McClure, who got a Tony nomination for the title role on Broadway. 

The current tour is none of that. It’s a non-equity tour that started in Elmira, N.Y. and had stops in Charleston and Morgantown, W. Va. before hitting Tysons. It’s in Springfield, Mo., Little Rock and Fort Wayne this week.

With tour direction by Steve Edlund, after the original direction by Jerry Zaks, there is a similar kind of zippy pace to the work, with one scene quickly shifting to the next as the story we know unfolds: losing custody of his kids, the hapless actor pretends to be a Scottish nanny in order to get in to see them each day after school.

As quickly as the action comes, the songs — music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick —are largely unmemorable ditties that take up time rather than advancing story. The book is by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell tries mightilly to update the 1993 film with more topical references to Taylor Swift and the like but the laughs aren’t found in the dialogue but in the broad, boobs-on-fire jokes we vaguely recall from the film (if we aren’t thinking of the similar “Tootsie” a decade earlier).

There’s a question about tone, too, as the number of Elmo, Kermit and Miss Piggy impersonations make you think they’re particularly catering to the kids of a family audience. But there’s enough double entendres amid all the cross-dressing to make you think it’s more a PG-13 thing. 

If the “Some Like It Hot” cross-dressing seems a little outdated as a basis for knee-slapping theatrical yuks, it also lacks a bit of credibility, especially since the prosthetic face Smith has to wear as Mrs. Doubtfire looks like a garish mask from the back of the hall — how could it ever fool a smart wife and clever kids up close? (Especially since the brogue tended to come and go as the night crawls on).

As much effort as the dad makes to get back in his kids’ lives, there’s a whole other plot about him trying to get on a kids show in the same getup. It stretches things a little longer, such that there are a dozen songs in act one, and another 10 in the second. 

The female voices tend to fare better overall. Miranda Campbell, as the hapless wife, has a strong voice, as does Alanis Sophia, playing the elder sister. There’s quite a large company, enlisted to do choreography which is, like the music, mostly forgettable. 

It’s quite an able cast overall, though —better than community theater quality, but certainly not up to Broadway standards (or even Equity touring). 

Its desperation for laughs (which don’t come easily) makes it seem jolting when they suddenly stomp on the brakes for an emotional scene.  It usually involves something between the kids and the parent who has departed, a common enough occurrence in a divorced-filled land that it could strike a familiar chord. But they  happens so quickly, and end so soon that these moments seem more like aberrations. 

Trying to recreate anything Robin Williams has done may be the biggest obstacle to the work’s success. And nobody’s holding their breath for a musical adaptation of, say, “Dead Poets Society.” 

Running time: About two hours and 30 minutes, including one intermission. 

Photo credit: Theodore Lowenstein, Alanis Sophia, Craig Allen Smith and Ava Rose Doty in “Mrs. Doubtfire.” Photo by Joan Marcus. 

“Mrs. Doubtfire” played Capital One Hall in Tysons, Va., October 17-19.