Mrs. Doubtfire Reviews
The New York Times- Not Recommended
"...While the "Mrs. Doubtfire" movie may now be - understandably - considered transphobic, it is funny and likable and, most important, confident in what it is. Its musical counterpart feels unsure of what notes to hit, what jokes to rewrite and what updates to add to be relevant. The production wants the audience to both like and be skeptical of its straight male protagonist, and it includes gay characters but doesn't fully embrace them. A man in drag? C'mon, it's 2021. That's just another night in the city."
NY Daily News- Recommended
"...A good time for all ages, despite our beloved, battered Broadway, is exactly what the audience-friendly, warm-centered, modestly scaled "Mrs. Doubtfire" delivers. In other seasons, this show might have looked like more of the same. Fair enough. It's retro. It's old-school musical comedy. It's no font of formative innovation."
Associated Press- Somewhat Recommended
"...There are worrying signs the makers of "Mrs. Doubtfire" haven't really learned to see things from a different perspective. They think audiences will find a guy in a frumpy dress as surprising and funny as it apparently was when the "X-Files" first aired. And the song "Make Me a Woman," sung by a stereotypical, over-the-top gay couple, makes an appalling differentiation between hot women - Cher, Lady Diana, Jackie Onassis and Grace Kelly - and non-hot ones - Margaret Thatcher, Janet Reno, Julia Child and Eleanor Roosevelt."
Hollywood Reporter- Recommended
"...Ultimately, Mrs. Doubtfire rests on the shoulders of its star, and McClure more than proves up to the task. Indeed, he displays such consistent antic energy that you find yourself wondering whether he'll possibly be able to sustain it for eight shows a week. If the show manages to have a lengthy run, which seems likely, his shoes will ultimately be as hard to fill as Williams' were. And that's saying something."
Vulture- Somewhat Recommended
"...Can they give the mom, Miranda (Jenn Gambatese), more of an inner life? (No.) Can they add enough LGBTQIA+ representation to make us feel better about the guy-in-a-dress jokes? (Hmm.) 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 original's issues by making Daniel's new boss a woman? (Not exactly, since there are now three lady-boss types who present as humorless scolds.) By its very defensive nature, this sort of cover-yourself dance is always a box-step: one step forward and one step back."
New York Theater- Somewhat Recommended
"...It's hard to fault McClure, though, for the most mishandled comic scene in the musical. Daniel is in a restaurant where he is forced to dine at two different tables - one with his family where he's disguised as Mrs. Doubtfire; the other as himself with the TV executive (Jodi Kimura) who is considering hiring him to take over as host of a moribund children's TV show. This means frantic costume changes back and forth, and double drinking along the way, with Daniel getting increasingly drunk. But how to do this in real time on stage? The production introduces a musical number, "He Lied To Me," sung by a flamenco singer (Alena Watters), accompanied by two flamenco dancers, presumably for the entertainment of the restaurant customers. The number obviously exists to keep the audience occupied while giving McClure the time off-stage to get repeatedly in and out of his Mrs. Doubtfire get-up. This is funny at the outset, and at the climactic end of the number, but it's mostly just awkward, a lesson in the difference between a musical and a movie - or, certainly, between this musical and the movie, where the scene was a highlight."
Variety- Not Recommended
"...There's a case to be made that people just want to be reminded of childhood, coddled by stories they remember fondly, and held to a sympathetic breast that smells of mothballs and banana cream. Never mind about art - even popular entertainment ought to pack more of a punch than brandy on the gums. Besides, "Mrs. Doubtfire" the movie is streaming on Disney+."
New York Post- Not Recommended
"...Like a kiss from Richard Dawson on "Family Feud," the plot of "Mrs. Doubtfire" has grown creepy with age. Drag disguises are common onstage ("Tootsie" is an infinitely better musical and a far superior movie), but when you add young children into the mix and, um, a court order prohibiting the main character from being with them, it's uncomfortable for us. How can we embrace someone who is traumatizing his family?"
amNY- Somewhat Recommended
"...It works best at its most irreverent, as exemplified by a celebratory disco number led by Brad Oscar (as Daniel's brother Frank, who works as a hair and makeup designer) and J. Harrison Ghee (as Frank's professional and romantic partner Andre). As the two imaine how to turn Daniel into Mrs. Doubtfire, ensemble members make appearances as both glamorous (Donna Summer, Princess Diana, Cher) and unglamorous (Margaret Thatcher, Eleanor Roosevelt, Julie Child) celebs."
Washington Post- Somewhat Recommended
"...Still, slick production values only get one so far. The pandemic shutdown appears to have done little to shake Broadway out of its fixation with top grossers on IMDb as grist for the live-performance box office; a gizmo-saturated musical version of "Back to the Future" is currently on the London stage, with some New York producers attached. The quick change that's really needed now is to source material that doesn't start in the key of ka-ching."
Time Out New York- Somewhat Recommended
"...Directed by musical-comedy professional Jerry Zaks (Hello, Dolly!), Mrs. Doubtfire sustains a mild simmer that sometimes boils up into actual comedy, thanks mostly to Brad Oscar and J. Harrison Ghee as Daniel's queeny makeup designers and, especially, the inspired Peter Bartlett as a berouged and bewildered kiddie-TV host named Mr. Jolly. It's all diverting enough, to a point. But can a musical run on so low a fire? I have doubts! I have such doubts."
The Wrap- Somewhat Recommended
"...Efficiency takes this "Mrs. Doubtfire" only so far. Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick's songs are generic pop, indistinguishable from what's heard in "Trevor" or "Aladdin." Since most of the characters are drawn from a J. Crew catalog, they don't have much reason to sing. Maybe that's why one big production number is an online cooking class ("Easy Peasy") and another is a fashion show for athletic wear ("The Shape of Things to Come")."
Deadline- Not Recommended
"...If only the property's other obstacles could be so convincingly overcome. All the directorial panache Zaks brings to this lightning paced production, all the charm displayed by McClure, all the energy contributed by a tireless ensemble can't disguise the obvious: Mrs. Doubtfire just isn't worth the effort."
TheaterMania- Not Recommended
"...Director Jerry Zaks certainly doesn't provide an answer, delivering a high-gloss production completely lacking in originality. David Korins has designed a detailed yet nimble set that flies in and out like a member of the chorus. Catherine Zuber's costumes are campy and excessive while also providing for lightning-fast changes. The lighting (by Philip S. Rosenberg) and sound (by Brian Ronan) work together for a flashy and solid Broadway-caliber production that in no way changes the game, but gets the job done."
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
"...Third time’s a charm. After a few preview performances, this $17 million musical, adapted from the hit film of the same name, shut down with all of Broadway due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Nineteen months later, as theater slowly began to reopen, Mrs. Doubtfire resumed previews in late October of 2021, and officially opened on December 5th. A month later, however, with the COVID variant Omicron surging, performances halted again in January for a 9-week hiatus. After an additional month, Mrs. Doubtfire is finally back on the boards in glorious shape at the Stephen Sondheim Theater."
Daily Beast- Not Recommended
"...All the benefits of film, and all the limitations of theater when it lazily follows in a film's footsteps, are starkly evident in the numbing, dull, and astonishingly flat Mrs. Doubtfire, which opens Sunday night on Broadway. Most infuriating: It's showing at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, which seems an especially egregious blasphemy."
Broadway News- Somewhat Recommended
"...But most of the other songs are of the middling Broadway-pop variety, while the lyrics don't equal the humor of the book, providing the rest of the cast with few opportunities to shine. Gambatese, a veteran of several Broadway shows, brings a fine sense of exasperation mingled with natural sympathy to Miranda, but the role is no prize. As Daniel and Miranda's oldest daughter, Lydia, Analise Scarpaci gets to sing the family woes in an early number, and infuses a fine-tuned ambivalence into her role. The other young actors - Flynn as Chris, and Avery Sell as the youngest, Natalie - are also excellent. Peter Bartlett, playing the children's TV show host who's going a bit dotty, ultimately to be replaced by Daniel-as-Mrs. D, brightens his couple of scenes, although ghosts of gay stereotype hover."
Theatrely- Somewhat Recommended
"...I have been waiting years for Mrs. Doubtfire to make it to Broadway; it was even my pick of the fall. The film, the team, Rob fricken' McClure - it should all be a recipe for mega success, yet something was missing for me. All the ingredients are there, but perhaps some re-tooling is still necessary back in the kitchen. The heart is there, we just need a little more of the love."
Cultural Daily- Recommended
"...But luckily, this feel-good family show has the right creative and onstage talent to make it a winner. There's Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell, the team behind the hilarious satire Something Rotten; keen-eyed, four-time Tony winning director Jerry Zaks; and an energetic and versatile leading man/woman in Rob McClure, a delightful star who was the best thing about such musical near-misses as Chaplin and Honeymoon in Vegas. The book by Karey Kirkpatrick and O'Farrell does not significantly depart from the original screenplay as Tootsie's did, but there are enough inventive musical numbers by the two Kirkpatricks, slapstick farcical schtick, and genuinely funny dialogue to make for a joy-filled evening for kids and adults."