APPLETON — Simultaneously a heartwarming story of family and a laugh-out-loud funny spectacle, “Mrs. Doubtfire” captivated the audience at the musical’s Fox Cities Performing Arts Center opening night Tuesday.
The show was both a first and a last: it was the first time “Mrs. Doubtfire” has been performed in Wisconsin and it was the production’s final opening night before closing. The audience rose to the special occasion; roaring laughter reverberated through the house at some of the show’s jokes, and the audience gave spirited applause between musical numbers.
While not exactly a groundbreaking piece of musical theater, “Mrs. Doubtfire” is a touching story of love across different family structures and a wild ride of hijinks.
The musical is based on the 1993 film starring Robin Williams, but is updated for a modern audience. It tells the story of Daniel Hillard, a not-so-successful voice actor and immature father of three, who feels blindsided when his wife informs him she wants a divorce. After Daniel loses custody of his kids, he disguises himself as an older Scottish woman and gets hired by his ex-wife as a nanny, in an effort to stay involved in their lives. Almost immediately, Daniel’s ill-conceived plan runs into problems as “Euphegenia Doubtfire” takes on a life of her own.
The original Broadway run was ill-fated, as “Mrs. Doubtfire” began Broadway previews in March 2020 but closed down after just three shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show returned at the end of 2021, but then went on a three-month hiatus before returning to the Broadway stage for about one month, then took its final bow, unable to achieve desired ticket sales.
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The North American tour then launched in August 2023 with some of the same Broadway cast members, and has been on the road since, with Appleton as its final city.
For the lead actor, it’s a marathon of a production. So much so that the North American tour has two actors — Alex Branton and Jonathan Hoover — who split the number of shows each week.
Branton, who played Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire at Tuesday’s show, had an impressive gift for impressions, singing and comedic timing. During the course of the two-and-a-half-hour show, Branton went through dozens of costume changes, some occurring right on stage. The actor was clearly a man of many talents, and even used a loop machine to live-mix the song “It’s About Time,” a rap about telling time that Daniel improvises while working as a janitor at a TV station. Judging from the audience’s reaction, it was a crowd-favorite moment of the show.
A large part of the charm of “Mrs. Doubtfire” is the physical comedy. There was something inherently comical about Mrs. Doubtfire’s facial prosthetic that covers the entire lower half of Daniel’s face and neck. Branton’s larger-than-life mannerisms and hilariously nimble dance moves while dressed as the elderly woman were incredibly entertaining. The show’s ensemble, too, exhibited this energy in the musical numbers “Make Me a Woman,” during which Daniel’s brother Frank (Aaron Kaburick) and Frank’s husband Andre (Marquez Linder) select the makeup and outfit for Daniel’s Mrs. Doubtfire transformation, and “Easy Peasy,” where a cast of characters from YouTube how-to-cook videos enter the stage and break out in a tap dance.
But beyond the slapstick comedy and jokes, “Mrs. Doubtfire” has reflective and emotional moments that share the important message that a family’s love doesn’t change even if its structure and dynamic does.
The most poignant example of this is the second-to-last song “Just Pretend,” a duet between Daniel and his eldest daughter, Lydia (Giselle Gutierrez). For Daniel, it is a sweet — albeit abrupt — development of emotional maturity. For Lydia, it is a moment of a daughter’s understanding that her father’s love will never go away.
Gutierrez was a standout performer of the production. The young actress’s rich alto voice was unique from other singers in the show, and exemplified the teenage daughter’s sorrow and anger about her parents’ divorce, as well as her budding maturity in recognizing the benefits of their changing family dynamic.
The other two Hillard children, played at Tuesday night’s performance by Jake Beser and Sunny Lauren Hoder, were also delights on stage, with powerful vocals and great comedic delivery.
And Daniel’s ex-wife, Miranda Hillard, played by Broadway veteran Catherine Brunell, displays important character development through the show. At the beginning, she is an exhausted mother who feels she has spent years parenting not only her children but also her husband, but as the show continues, she finds new joy in the way her life changes after divorce. Brunell delivered a powerful solo in the Act 2 song “Let Go,” in which she unknowingly tells her ex-husband, dressed as Mrs. Doubtfire, about the emotional toll of her marriage. Brunell’s emotion in the song is palpable, and she contributes a relatable, realistic description of heartbreak to the storytelling of a largely silly show.
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In general, the music of “Mrs. Doubtfire” provides a compelling narrative and has a few catchy moments, but falls short of providing showstopping tunes that stick with the audience after the curtain closes. Nevertheless, it’s an enjoyable show that both pays homage to the movie — with some lines written word-for-word — and develops its own characters and storytelling.
“Mrs. Doubtfire” runs at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center now through Sunday. Tickets can be purchased online through Ticketmaster, or by phone at 800-982-2787, or through the PAC ticket office in-person or by phone at 920-730-3760. The PAC ticket office is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.