By Simone Goldstone, NB Indy Soundcheck Columnist
It doesn’t matter what a family looks like as long as there’s love.
That’s the message of the musical “Mrs. Doubtfire” starring Tony Award nominated Rob McClure as Daniel Hillard/Mrs. Doubtfire. The play is currently touring the country, electrifying the original story by setting it in modern times.
A perfect balance of hilarity and heartfelt moments, “Mrs. Doubtfire” is coming to Segerstrom September 24 through October 6.
McClure talked to the Newport Beach Indy about the nationwide run of this spectacular Broadway musical.
NB Indy: Prior to Catherine Brunell (Broadway: “Mean Girls,” “Something Rotten,” “Les Mis”) joining the cast as Miranda Hillard, your real-life wife, Maggie Lakis, played the role of your on-stage divorced wife. Getting to work with your spouse, especially on a music about the bonds of family, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. How was it working with Maggie?
McClure: It’s the best. Maggie just finished her run when my daughter started kindergarten, and I’ll be right behind Maggie. After the six-year journey with this show, I only have three weeks left but I’m soaking up every second. Getting to work with Maggie was one of the great pleasures of my life. We’ve been together 20 years and it’s the seventh time we have worked together. Seeing her working with legends like Jerry Zaks (the Tony Award winning director) is like seeing your friend playing major league baseball.
NB Indy: What is your favorite part of the musical being set in the 21st century?
McClure: I would say that taking what they did in 1993 and having it set in modern times really removes the stigma of the divorced family. The movie was revolutionary in how it handled divorce. The happy moment wasn’t the parents getting back together. Unlike “The Parent Trap,” it was the first movie suggesting that the couple was better off apart, and what the musical has done is that it has further expanded that notion of unconventional families. A family can look like anything as long as there’s love.
Frank Hillard (the brother of Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire played by Aaron Kaburick) is this comic relief but in the play, him and Andre go on their own adoption journey and that runs parallel to Daniel as Mrs. Doubtfire. Watching that come to fruition at the end of the play furthers the message that a family can look like anything. And that’s important to tell now.
I’ve gotten letters from over 300 people who saw the show and were surprised how much the musical moved them. It’s an incredible story. I have one letter from a nine-year-old boy who said that he wished his father fought as hard to be with him as much as Daniel did. I got a letter from grandparents who said they thought they got over their own parent’s divorce who realized after the show that they didn’t. My favorite was a letter from a couple who were waiting in line in the parking garage after the play and decided to adopt a child.
NB Indy: What number do you like to perform the most in the show?
McClure: “About Time” is the moment from the movie where Daniel is working as a janitor at the TV station and the guy running it is past his prime. Daniel as the janitor sneaks on stage and has this time to himself, and the TV guy running it is spying on him. Our composer asked how we can musicalize Daniel improvising by himself. The idea was to give me a loop machine, it’s a looper station and I have a microphone and the machine can duplicate whatever sound I make with my mouth. So I build this huge end of Act One thrilling number alone with a loop machine. I’ve never done something that feels so dangerous. It’s just me and this machine and nobody can help me! It’s really exciting, and difficult, and challenging and I’m pushing all these buttons while I’m operating all these puppets.
“Just Pretend” is my other favorite number. It’s inspired by a deleted scene from the film where the eldest daughter, Lydia Hillard (played by Giselle Gutierrez) stops Daniel by the courthouse and says ‘you’re an actor, why couldn’t you and mom keep pretending for our sake?’ They wrote a number where she confesses how broken she is from the whole thing and the audience didn’t expect to be so taken aback by it.
NB Indy: How did you prepare for this role?
McClure: I didn’t have to go back to watch the movie, I’ve watched it so much growing up that I can watch the whole movie on the back of my eyelids. My last name is McClure and my grandfather’s side has a Scottish accent, so it was waiting to come out. Once you get in and design prosthetics that fit your face and teeth and you’re wearing someone else’s body, and you have heels on, your body starts to create the character and tells you what it needs. With hard work and time, these characters start to rear their heads. It was thrilling to see the transformation and do it 31 times a show [McClure has 31 quick changes from Daniel to Doubtfire]. The shortest is 18 seconds to transform. There’s something about it happening in real time that makes it so much more intense. I do these changes on stage- it’s not like I can go to the trailer and yell “cut!” The audience is in the trenches sweating with me as I rush to transform before Miranda comes in.
NB Indy: What is the funniest moment in the show?
McClure: When the social worker follows Daniel home to inspect his apartment, and Daniel is navigating trying to maintain both of those characters and personalities to be present for the social worker. [Director] Jerry Zaks is great–that’s when he thrives and shines and getting to execute his farce across the country has been amazing. It’s bulletproof—he knows exactly how to get the audience where he wants them. Getting to ride these waves of laughter from the audience is such a gift. Especially in this time and moment, to be in a room with people laughing uncontrollably is the best medicine. It’s an anecdote to this crazy moment we’re living.
NB Indy: You said the musical is about how any family can be a family if there’s love. What does that look like to you?
McClure: When the musical first approached my wife and I about going on tour, we had our 4-year-old daughter, Sadie, who is now about to turn six. Our kiddo had gone through the pandemic when live theater was shut down for 18 months. We knew we had to wait since theater was the first thing gone and the last thing back. Our kid had been through a lot and the notion that we had to uproot her and bring her to all these places on tour before she started kindergarten was a big one. So we said she’s gonna come to the theater everyday, and have a 50 person family that she travels the country with. She’ll be friends with the other kids in the show, and see the same 50 faces every day, and see more of this country than other kids will in their lifetime.
And that’s the message—as long as we pour love into this kid, as long as you pour in love, your life can be anything and unconventional. As long as there’s love we’re gonna be okay. Sadie just went to her first day of kindergarten as a happy kid with great stories to tell. This show has been one of the best and wildest rides of my life, and my final countdown of this show will be at the Segerstrom Center.
“Mrs. Doubtfire” runs Sept. 24 through Oct. 6. Visit www.SCFTA.org for tickets.
