After 14 years of marriage and nearly two decades as a couple, Rob McClure and Maggie Lakis have built a bond that can withstand many a challenge — including, it turns out, getting divorced eight times a week.
That’s what the actors do as the stars of the “Mrs. Doubtfire” musical. McClure portrays Daniel, the struggling actor who, amid a painful separation, poses as a geriatric Scottish nanny in a ploy to spend more time with his kids. Lakis plays Miranda, Daniel’s estranged wife, who has grown weary of his man-child antics. As the couple’s relationship crumbles onstage, the actors’ real-life connection provides the foundation for that fissure.
“Someone asked me, ‘Oh, is it fun to yell at your husband?’” Lakis says. “It’s actually just not an issue. He’s so lovely and wonderful and giving and such a dynamic and present performer that I just love working with him. So even those scenes, I just feel like we can go there together.”
McClure adds, “It will feel like two people who’ve been together a very long time and who have built a family together. Hopefully, we can convince [the audience] that we are these people going through this tumultuous moment.”
While McClure originated the dual roles of Daniel and Mrs. Doubtfire — earning his second Tony nomination — Lakis is new to the musical comedy, which was adapted for the stage by “Something Rotten!” creators Karey Kirkpatrick, Wayne Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell.
“I just love the fact that they’re actually a couple,” says director Jerry Zaks. “They’re willing to take chances with each other, and in the rehearsal room, there’s nothing more fun than navigating and orchestrating that.”
Although McClure appeared earlier this year in the Broadway-bound production of “Spamalot” at the Kennedy Center, he turned down the opportunity to continue with that show — ceding his part to Ethan Slater — in favor of reprising his “Mrs. Doubtfire” role on the road.
“It was something that I fell madly in love with,” McClure says. “So when they approached about the tour, it did feel like there was some unfinished business. And once Maggie auditioned for Jerry Zaks and he wanted to cast her as Miranda, I thought, ‘Well, now that certainly makes this a whole lot easier to contemplate.’”
Sharing the stage is nothing new to McClure and Lakis, who met in 2005 while performing in a regional theater production of “Grease” in Marlton, N.J. They have since toured together with “Avenue Q” in 2007 and “Something Rotten!” in 2017, and co-starred in productions of “Our Show of Shows” in 2012 in Flat Rock, N.C., and “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway” in 2018 in St. Louis. But this is the first time the couple have toured as parents, with Sadie joining them on the 10-month, coast-to-coast trip before starting kindergarten next fall.