‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ Review: An Unmemorable Broadway Musical Banks on Familiar Material
“Mrs. Doubtfire,” a polished and pandering new musical from Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, has been dutifully trotting the bases of its source material (the 1993 film starring Robin Williams) for two hours by the time an aggrieved daughter pleads with her dad: “Please tell me you have a plan to end all of this.”
Lydia (played by young standout Analise Scarpaci) may be referring to the drawn-out and predictable comedy of disguise in which she has been woefully caught. But her weary impatience could just as easily apply to the rote and persistent assembly line of commercial Broadway musicals fabricated from VHS favorites. Bemoaning their unoriginality, stale perpetuation of nostalgia and money-grabbing impetus has become a cliché pastime all its own.
Keep Reading
‘Mrs.Doubtfire’: 90’s Property Goes from Protest-able to “Just” Regressive
Last Thursday, when I stood up to applaud the boisterous, giving-all-they-got ensemble of Mrs. Doubtfire, I found myself marveling at the joy I got out of what was so clearly a cash grab. Unlike recent attempts at monetizing well-known properties & cultural touchstones (hello, Diana!). Mrs. Doubtfire is full of exciting, justifiably large musical numbers, […]
Read More
Six on ‘Six’
Our cohort got together to talk about their love of Six, the Broadway musical about the wives of Henry VIII, which recently opened on Broadway (read our review here). Framed as a pop concert where each queen gets a chance to tell their story, the musical by Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow references pop music […]
Read More