Get ready, world: Euphegenia Doubtfire is Broadway-bound.
The creative team behind the hit musical “Something Rotten!” is at work on a stage adaptation of the film “Mrs. Doubtfire,” Entertainment Weekly reports. The show’s book will be written by John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick, the latter of whom will team up with Wayne Kirkpatrick for the music.
Four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks, whose 2017 “Hello, Dolly!” revival starring Bette Midler was a smash, is attached to direct.
“‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ is such a beloved story, both laugh-out-loud hilarious and extremely moving,” Fox Stage Productions and producer Kevin McCollum said in a Tuesday statement cited by Playbill. “Getting this team together and crafting ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ for the stage has been pure joy. We can’t wait to get into production.”
Casting and a production schedule for the show have not yet been announced.
The 1993 movie starred Robin Williams as Daniel Hillard, a struggling actor who disguises himself as a British nanny named Mrs. Doubtfire to spend time with his three children after losing custody to his ex-wife, Miranda (Sally Field). Following rave reviews from critics, “Mrs. Doubtfire” raked in a reported $441 million at the box office worldwide, and is cited alongside 1982’s “Tootsie” and 1959’s “Some Like It Hot” as a cinematic benchmark for featuring a leading man in drag.
Plans to bring “Mrs. Doubtfire” to Broadway have been brewing for some time. In 2015, composer Alan Menken told Entertainment Weekly he was working on a musical adaptation with David Zippel and Harvey Fierstein who, incidentally, starred in the film version as Daniel’s brother, Frank.
Drag, meanwhile, has become an increasingly popular motif on Broadway in recent years. In 2013, Billy Porter won a Tony for his role as Lola in the musical version of “Kinky Boots,” and the following year, Neil Patrick Harris received the same honor as Hedwig in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”
A musical version of “Tootsie” is slated to open on Broadway in 2019.