These days, if a family-friendly film gains popularity, chances are good that it will make the leap to the musical stage. And whether or not that transfer was deemed worthy, there are so many performing arts centers around the nation in need of product, the show will probably be sent on tour.
That explains the arrival at the Kravis Center this week of Mrs. Doubtfire, a so-so musical version of the 1993 Robin Williams flick about a divorced dad who impersonates a female nanny in order to stay close to his kids. The show had the misfortune of opening in New York in March 2020, running head-first into the COVID pandemic that shuttered all of Broadway three days later. Reopening in the fall of 2021, Mrs. Doubtfire barely made it to the one-month mark when it fell victim to another COVID variant. Still, the title brings a smile to theatergoers’ faces, and there are all those stages to fill.
Nor was the show’s fate aided by the existence of Tootsie, another middling musical with a cross-dresser as its focus. By the time Mrs. Doubtfire arrived with her prim cardigan, domestic apron and sensible shoes, audiences apparently had had enough of this plot point.
Still, expectations remained high for the show, since it was adapted by Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick (music and lyrics) and Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell (book) — the team that had debuted on Broadway with Something Rotten, a far more clever work.
They stick quite close to the movie’s narrative, which is anemic on plot. Daniel Hillard, a voiceover talent, local TV fixture and irresponsible parent of three youngsters gets shut out of custody and visitation when his exasperated wife divorces him. But when he hears she is seeking a nanny, he reinvents himself as Euphegenia Doubtfire and lands the gig.
Then it is just a matter of juggling his jobs and personas, and convincing us that none of his children recognize him under all the latex and padding. Those desiring to relive the movie have an ally in director Jerry Zaks, who duplicates most of its high points on stage.
The pleasant enough, but unmemorable score rarely advances the story, but is mostly filler, including a couple of good dance numbers — choreography by Lorin Latarro — set in the television studio. The joke-laden script overshadows the songs, so the show never makes a convincing case for why Mrs. Doubtfire needed to become a musical in the first place.
At the matinee I attended, Jonathan Hoover took on the heavy lifting of Daniel. He possessed the requisite high energy for the role, though he often substituted volume for nuance. Also a standout was Giselle Gutierrez as his elder daughter Lydia, dueting nicely with Hoover on the 11 o’clock number, “Just Pretend.”
Still, Mrs. Doubtfire is an example of lazy adaptation to the musical stage, with little evident effort to reinvent the material for the theater. Hoover’s frequent fast switches between Daniel and Doubtfire are fun, but that’s hardly enough on which to hang an evening’s entertainment.
MRS. DOUBTFIRE, Kravis Center Dreyfoos Hall, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Through Sunday, Nov. 3. $39 – $136. 561-832-7469.