Theatre 2026: Mrs. Doubtfire @ Princess of Wales Theatre

For me, there is nothing like the feeling of watching a musical for the first time and even better if it has a happy, feel-good story that leaves me smiling at the end of it. My husband Rich and I started off our 2026 theatre-going season in just that way by watching Mrs. Doubtfire, the Musical, based on the 1993 comedic film of the same name starring Robin Williams, Sally Fields and Pierce Brosnan.

In the movie, Daniel Hilliard is an unemployed voice actor, which gives Williams ample opportunity to show off his amazing mimic and improvisational skills.  Daniel dearly loves his three children (Lydia, Chris and Natalie) but is an irrepressible man-child who is not responsible enough to properly care for them.  Unable to put up with his antics anymore, his wife Miranda files for divorce and temporarily gains full custody of the children.  This will become permanent unless Daniel can establish a suitable home for his kids and secure steady employment.  Desperate to be able to see his children every day, Daniel asks his makeup artist brother to dress him up as a matronly woman and gets hired as the family’s Scottish nanny/housekeeper Mrs. Doubtfire. 

Mrs Doubtfire, the Musical does a great job of representing the major plot points, humour and heart of the movie while adding in songs and dance numbers to convey the story.  The show premiered on Broadway in 2020 but was shut down by COVID after just 3 preview performances.  Restarting at the end of 2021 and then temporarily shut down again at the start of 2022, the show never recovered from being derailed by the pandemic and only ran for 124 performances before closing for good.  It then moved to London’s West End where it was slightly revamped with changes to a few songs.  The show performed much better without the interruptions, ending up with 700 performances over 2 years.  The current North American road show is based on the West End adaptation.  Hopefully Broadway will give it another chance in the future.

Just like the movie, the musical begins with Daniel doing a voiceover for a commercial but getting fired when he cannot resist adlibbing to “improve” his lines.  While there will never be an actor to match the incomparable genius of Robin Williams, the actor Craig Allen Smith, who plays Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire, did an admirable job with his voices and impersonations including Mickey Mouse, Kermit the Frog, Yoda, Golem and more.

The opening number (“That’s Daniel”) runs through multiple scenes showing Daniel’s recklessness including sneaking the kids out of school, throwing a party for Chris against Miranda’s wishes and accidentally booking a stripper.  The montage also shows Miranda complaining to her therapist and the couple fighting.  One telling lyric states “He has three kids, she has four”, which succinctly sums up their issues. By the end of this song, the couple is in divorce court where Daniel poignantly pleads with the judge not to separate him from his kids (“I Want to be There”). 

An early highlight of the musical is when Daniel begs his makeup artist brother Frank and Frank’s gay partner Andre to “Make Me a Woman”.  Presented as a big musical number, the pair suggest different looks using Jackie Onassis, Princess Diana, Cher, Grace Kelly and Donna Summers as examples with ensemble dancers dressed as each of these icons. When Daniel says he needs to be more matronly, they turn to older women for inspiration including Eleanor Roosevelt, Julia Child, Margaret Thatcher, Janet Reno, and “a bit of Oscar Wilde”.  Using these role models, they come up with the perfect and now iconic Mrs. Doubtfire look with the wig, glasses, fake teeth, skirt, cardigan, flat shoes and purse.  In the same scene in the movie, Robin Williams did impersonations of Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, Barbara Streisand and the matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof as rejected attempts to make him a woman.

While the conversion between Daniel and Mrs. Doubtfire happens mostly off-screen or via screen cuts in the movie, the stage production repeatedly shows the character switching costumes in real time and it was quite the feat. The Mrs. Doubtfire blouse/skirt/sweater or dress costume as well as Daniel’s shirt and pants were each one-piece outfits that the actor simply stepped into and was zipped or buttoned up in. The Mrs. Doubtfire persona also required a body suit, mask, wig and glasses which took a bit more work to put on and take off.  Most of the time this was done quite quickly on stage in front of us, which was very impressive. During the last frantic switch in the final restaurant scene, there was a minor faux-pas as Daniel strips down to his underwear and for a split second, the underwear slipped slightly too far down exposing a bit of butt-crack.  The audience gasped and laughed at the sight and Smith acknowledged the moment with a smirk and butt wiggle after the underwear was safely readjusted.

Frank and Andre have a much bigger role in the musical than the equivalent characters in the movie.  One running joke involved Frank being a bad liar who shouts very loudly whenever he tries to tell a lie.  Eventually after Daniel’s older children Lydia and Chris discover his Mrs. Doubtfire secret, Chris also starts to shout when he tries to lie.

I always admired the movie for not following the typical Hollywood rom-com trope by making the new love interest Stu into a villain (although apparently this was originally considered).  Instead, he was a successful, charming and overall nice guy and a good role model for the kids, giving Daniel reason to be jealous, but also someone to emulate.  The musical includes a great song titled “No” where Stu asks Mrs. Doubtfire whether he has a chance with Miranda and she unequivocally answers “No” while providing hilarious reasons why.

Many of the memorable scenes from the movie are represented in the musical including Mrs.Doubtfire dancing with the vacuum, scorching her blouse around her (luckily fake) breasts while trying to cook dinner, and pelting Stu with a lime while claiming that it was some anonymous “drive-by fruiting”.  Also recreated was the iconic scene where Daniel is trapped without his Mrs. Doubtfire makeup by the Child Services rep and hides his identity by planting his face into a frosted cake.  This includes a dollop of icing from his chin that ends up plopping in the rep’s teacup.  In the filming of the movie, that icing mishap was not planned and Williams quickly improvised a clever line that ended up staying in the film’s final cut.

The other standard trope that the movie did not pander to, although studio heads originally pushed for it, was the typical “Hollywood romantic comedy happy ending” where Miranda and Daniel magically solve their issues and get back together to reunite their family.  Instead, a more realistic yet heart-felt conclusion was chosen. This led to a memorable scene where Mrs. Doubtfire explains that families come in all shapes and sizes and that mummy and daddy don’t always get back together, but that doesn’t make you any less of a family. The musical wisely kept the same ending and punctuated it with the final song “As Long as There is Love”.

This is a fun and joyous show that was well adapted from its iconic source material, made us laugh and entertained us from start to finish.  What a lovely way to start off the new year.