Review: Mrs. Doubtfire by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
When making a movie, no one truly knows if it will be good or whether people will like it. In fact, many of the most beloved movies today were box office bombs including The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, Fight Club, and It's a Wonderful Life. Certainly, there are many ways to make financially safe movies that are based on winning formulas -- like the standard romcCom or the late night, gross-out comedies. Adam Sandler has proven himself efficient in both of these sub-genres , his films taking in a world-wide gross of more than five billion dollars. Yet, before he was box office gold, he was as risky a bet as any novice actor doing their bit. Over-the-top actors from Will Ferrell to Jim Carrey to Christopher Walken are known for going big. Some might say obnoxiously big, making them not everyone’s cup of tea, but the important distinction is that they are a lot of other people’s cup of tea.
Combing his manic physicality and his overflowing bounty of impersonations with his hyperactive performance style, Robin Williams was arguably the king of this kind of comedy. Actors of this stature are widely beloved, yet the common complaint is that you are not watching the character they are playing rather than the actor. As in it’s Adam Sandler as a fireman, Adam Sandler as a wedding singer, Adam Sandler as the underwater basket weaver . . . Broadway loves creating productions based on well-known intellectual property because it’s a guarantee of ticket sales to devotees of the given IP. However, in the case of a Robin Williams’ vehicle the problem becomes that they no longer have Robin Williams. The musical School of Rock faced the same challenge. Lacking Jack Black, they had to cast the best Jack Black impersonator they could find.
This isn’t the case with Craig Allen Smith who plays Daniel Hillard (Mrs. Doubtfire) in the current US touring production. He's not doing an impression of Robin Williams impersonating Mrs. Doubtfire but comfortably makes the role his own. To do so he has to go big; he does so with aplomb. This is not to say he reinterprets or reinvents the role. He stays firmly in the character’s arc throughout the performance. He is saved from doing by the many, some subtle, updates made during the movie’s transition into a modern musical adaption.
Simply put, when they made the movie, the producer’s main objective was to squeeze in as much of Robin Williams and his hijinks as humanly possible. But the musical creates space for the story’s other characters. The character of Miranda Hillard (Melissa Campbell) is de-villainized in the current interpretation. Rather than being the nagging wife keeping Daniel away from his beloved children, she's a more well-rounded character. She gets to tell her side of the story more completely. This shifts the blame from her to Daniel’s inability to control his own selfish behavior. It is important to note that no one really remembers the movie character as a villain, but that's due to Sally Field’s incredible performance and ability to create pathos with the subtlest facial expression.
The characters of Frank and Andre have their own tender storyline of trying to adopt a child. This creates an interesting parallel to the main plot. Other changes to the production include updating the references to some more recognizable to a modern audience, removing the racial stereotypes, and changing the impersonations Hillard does to match Craig Allen Smith’s own. Hard to believe that it’s been over three decades since the movie’s release! And for all these reasons, we can paraphrase the old expression: the current production has aged better than the movie. Of course, it hasn’t aged at all but that doesn’t mean it is complete revision either. In both the film and the musical, Daniel’s deceptive behavior, though hilarious, is not forgiven. Yet, while the movie seems to focus more on him being punished, the musical’s ending is all about hope, growth, and change. Making the moral of the story: you do not to be married to be a good parent, though being a loving parent is not the same as being a good parent.
The music and book for this production are incredible; however, the song lyrics are often overly trite. The set is bare-boned and about as make-shift as a high school production. There is a well known but little talked about phenomenon with Tuesday night shows at Bass Concert Hall (Tuesday, or any night that is the first night of a touring production stop, is akin to a dress rehearsal because the cast and crew must adapt to the eccentricates of the new space). It’s rarely discussed out of politeness for the crew, but I feel compiled to point out that the sound mixing was very poor. So much so that the drums were drowning out the vocals—unfortunat, considering how many of the artists were giving absolutely killer singing performances. The standouts included Alanis Sophia as Lydia Hillard, Hudson Vander Voort as Christopher Hillard, and Melissa Campbel as Miranda Hillard. The dancing was on point. But the most impressive aspect was the show’s excellent pacing and with infectious musical numbers. To use a cliché, there was never a dull moment.
Mrs. Doubtfire
touring company
September 15 - September 27, 2026
September 22 - 27, 2026
Bass Concert Hall, Austin
