‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ taking its final bow on Broadway month after reopening
Talk about a drag.
“Mrs. Doubtfire,” the Broadway musical about a divorced dad who dresses up as a female housekeeper so he can continue to see his kids, is taking its final bow in about two weeks.
The Tony-nominated show’s third Broadway engagement, which started in mid-April, will conclude on May 29 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre due to slow ticket sales as COVID continues to spread and keep tourists away, producers said in statement late Thursday.
“Even though New York City is getting stronger every day and ticket sales are slowly improving, theater-going tourists and, especially for our show, family audiences have not returned as soon as we anticipated,” producer Kevin McCollum said. “Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to run the show without those sales, especially when capitalizing with Broadway economics on three separate occasions.”
Based on the 1993 Robin Williams comedy film of the same name, the show — directed by four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks — was one of the early casualties of COVID, having started previews three days before Broadway shut down in March of 2020. Previews resumed last October, with the musical officially opening in early December. Then it was again put on hiatus during January’s surge in cases before returning in April.
McCollum praised the “extraordinary Broadway cast, crew, orchestra, creative team, and entire company” for having “risen to every challenge thrown at them over the last two years with a remarkable amount of resilience, good humor, passion, and love for one another.”
Rob McClure, who stars as the dad-turned housekeeper in “Mrs. Doubtfire,” was nominated for a Tony earlier this week in the category of best leading actor in a musical.
The show — which received six Outer Critics Circle nominations, including outstanding new Broadway musical — will have a month-long run in Manchester, England, in September, before embarking a year later on a U.S. tour.
