Actors Rob McClure and Maggie Lakis met in a regional production of “Grease” and have been together ever since. They married in 2009. Beginning on May 14, they will be playing a fictional married couple in the touring company of “Mrs. Doubtfire” when it is staged at The Saenger Theatre in New Orleans.
However, they are only married on stage for the first four minutes of the production. After that, they play divorced parents Miranda and Daniel Hillard, the latter becoming Mrs. Doubtfire in an elaborate scheme to see his children.
The 1993 film showcased the work of iconic actors Robin Williams and Sally Field, both tough acts to follow.
“Stepping into these iconic performers' shoes was no easy task, but I think the best way to honor them is to not do impressions,” Rob McClure explained.
“And, in my case, who’d want to try to impersonate the brilliant Robin Williams? … I do want the audience to feel what he made them feel. That’s what I’m after.”
McClure knows the character of Mrs. Doubtfire very well. He starred in the original musical on Broadway in 2019, when his portrayal earned him a Tony nomination.
At that time, another actress played his ex-wife Miranda in the production. Real-life wife Maggie had just given birth to their daughter Sadie when the musical began.
“Playing Maggie is a difficult role, because it’s easy to villainize this character, but who can dislike Sally Field, America’s sweetheart?” Lakis said. “In the musical, we try to show her point of view, and show just why the marriage didn’t work out. What’s wonderful is that in Act 2, Mrs. Doubtfire asks Miranda what went wrong in her marriage (of course, he was the husband, but Miranda doesn’t know this) so she details all the things that went wrong. It forces her ex-husband to sit and listen for the first time.”
The audience falls in love
The actors agree that good musical comedy brings in audiences with the laughs, then, once the audience falls in love with the characters, you hit them with the emotional underpinnings of the plot.
Before audiences realize it, they care about the characters. This is a show about divorce, but there’s no romantic happy ending. There is, however, a resolution when the characters get to redefine their family and find a new normal.
There’s plenty to entertain in this stage production, especially when the audience becomes a party to the behind-the-scenes transformation of Rob McClure from Daniel Hillard to the character of Mrs. Doubtfire.
Rob McClure struggles to maintain his disguise as a nanny in 'Mrs. Doubtfire.'
In the movie, Robin Williams is wearing prosthetics, which took hours every day before filming to transform him into Mrs. Doubtfire. McClure does this transformation 31 times in the course of the show and has exactly 90 seconds during some transformations and as little as 18 seconds during others.
And, it’s all in front of the audience. He has a four-person pit crew, as he calls them.
“When the audience sees how little time I have to switch identities, the stakes are very real, and the audience is wondering whether I’ll make it,” McClure said.
“I’m only a third of the way dressed when you see people heading toward me. This is something only theater can do, because the audience is on the edge of their seats knowing the director can’t yell “cut” and send me to the dressing room.”
Both actors have loved working with the children who play the three Hillard kids, and for some of them who are just starting out, they’re getting some invaluable advice from multiple Tony-award-winning director Jerry Zaks, who’s giving them a crash course in comedy.
He directed the 8-year-old in the musical to hold still for a laugh after delivering a line — something Zaks learned from Zero Mostel when they acted together in “Fiddler on the Roof.”
A New Orleans debut
The McClure/Lakis couple have performed in three national tours in numerous different productions together, and they've been to 48 of the 50 states. But somehow they'd never performed in New Orleans or Louisiana, so they’re looking forward to this stop on the tour.
They have both found it rewarding that the production has struck such a chord with audiences.
“There have been some huggy, teary stage door encounters,” related McClure. “I have had 300 letters written to me and some to 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' even one from a 9-year-old boy when I was on Broadway who said, ‘I wish my Dad had fought as hard for me as Daniel did to be with his kids.’
"Then there was a young couple who found out they couldn’t have kids and were inspired by Daniel’s monologue at the end of the show which talks about the fact that families can look like anything, as long as there’s love. It inspired them to adopt. You just never know how your story is landing with people.”
You can catch “Mrs. Doubtfire” at The Saenger Theatre between May 14 and 19. Tickets are available at saengernola.com.
Leslie Cardé can be reached at [email protected].
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'MRS. DOUBTFIRE'
WHEN: May 14-19
WHERE: The Saenger Theatre. 1111 Canal St., New Orleans
INFO AND TICKETS: saengernola.com or (504) 525-1052