For Rob McClure, Robin Williams is Mrs. Doubtfire. So much so that when the Tony nominee learned he'd landed the title role in the upcoming Broadway musical adaptation of the raucous family comedy, he didn鈥檛 have to debate whether or not he would re-watch the original movie. 鈥�Mrs. Doubtfire is in me if I didn鈥檛 watch Mrs. Doubtfire ever again,鈥� McClure says. 鈥淚 would still have every single frame of that movie under my eyelids when I close my eyes.鈥�
Yet, as he steps into the pleated skirt for the film's musical adaptation鈥攚hich began its pre-Broadway tryout in Seattle November 26鈥攈e鈥檚 working on compartmentalizing. 鈥淥f course, I鈥檓 terrified of Robin Williams鈥� shadow, but I also so want to honor it,鈥� says McClure. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 be doing a service to him if I was doing a bad impression of him, and I wouldn鈥檛 be doing a service to him if I was doing a good impression of him.鈥�
McClure plans to calibrate a balance between what Williams created and his own sensibility. And the actor actually has previous experience on which to draw.
鈥淢rs. Doubtfire as a human entity kind of exists outside of Daniel Hillard,鈥� McClure poses. The more he examines the role the more the housekeeper exists in the mind of the zeitgeist than in one actor. 鈥淲hat [Robin] tapped into for that woman is so iconic, it actually feels a little bit like Chaplin. When I played Chaplin the man, I could bring a lot of Rob McClure to that. But once the hat and the cane and the mustache go on and The Little Tramp shows up, people have a pocket of their heart that responds a certain way to that thing鈥攁nd if you screw with it, they鈥檙e going to resist it.
鈥淚 feel like Daniel Hillard can very much be me, but when Mrs. Doubtfire shows up, if I don鈥檛 honor the expectation enough, they鈥檒l resist giving me the love they already have for her,鈥� he continues.
But it鈥檚 also important to remember that this Mrs. Doubtfire is inherently differently because the musical is more than a staging of the movie with songs.
Moving the property to theatre means reimagining technical moments鈥斺渨hen we get to that restaurant scene, every time [Robin] goes into the bathroom to change he gets five hours in a trailer, and I鈥檓 doing it in real time鈥濃攅xploring the roles of the kids, and new moments of comedy and musicality. Book writers Karey Kirkpatrick and John O鈥橣arrell, composer Wayne Kirkpatrick, and director Jerry Zaks have updated the story for 2019, which, according to McClure, simply means a better picture of 鈥渨ho we all are now. Ignorance we鈥檝e moved past since the movie came out, we don鈥檛 need that.鈥� What Mrs. Doubtfire does need is farce and family.
Equal parts bleeding heart and comic whiz, McClure may be the one man on Broadway who can pull off simultaneous earnestness and absurdity.
Between leaning into an ancestral accent (鈥渕y grandmother on my dad鈥檚 side talked like Mrs. Doubtfire鈥�), his new fatherhood (he and his wife Maggie welcomed Sadie into the world between readings and workshops), or the trove of comic roles he鈥檚 played (from Avenue Q鈥檚 Princeton/Rod to Beetlejuice鈥檚 Adam Maitland), McClure鈥檚 arsenal is stocked.
Parenthood, in particular, enriches his perspective in the role. 鈥淚鈥檓 a very practical actor. I don鈥檛 believe you need to do heroin to know what it鈥檚 like to play a heroin addict, you know what I mean? But there are some things that just get richer, and being a parent is one of them,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 would do anything to spend time with her, especially if someone was taking it away from me. It really is a story about how far a parent would go for their kids.鈥�
The importance of that story has been ingrained in McClure since childhood. 鈥淢y earliest memory of the movie is all of my friends who were from divorced households and what that movie did for them,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ecause every movie up until then was a parent trap: Mom and Dad are getting divorced, let鈥檚, as kids, figure out a way to keep them together, and the happy ending was them getting back together.
鈥�Mrs. Doubtfire was the first one that said, 鈥榊ou know what? I think they鈥檙e better off separate and so are you for it. But it doesn鈥檛 mean you鈥檙e not a family. It doesn鈥檛 mean that you don鈥檛 love each other, and it doesn鈥檛 mean you鈥檙e not going to be OK,鈥欌� McClure says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a story worth adapting, and it just so happens to be at the core of a really brilliant comedy.鈥�
