Tony Nominee Rob McClure on MRS. DOUBTFIRE- 'Every Single Second Was Worth It'

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

We're here at Sardis, and I am sitting with one of my all-time favorite people who work in the theater

He has nominated for Best Actor in Musical for his incredible performance as Daniel and Mrs. Doudfire in Mrs. Doutfire

Please say hello to Rob McClure. Hello, my friend. Good to see you. Good to see you, too

Sardis, fancy. Pretty fancy, right? No, yeah. You looked dapper as ever

Thank you. Said smart casual. I wasn't going to wear a tie until I saw the word smart

I was going to do dumb casual. That's all I ever do is wear Italian because I can't do my hair

So you can do your hair, so I figured I always wear it. Barely. You have a great hair

Listen, tell me what this Tony nomination means for your incredible performance that you gave in Mrs. Doubtfire

You know, it feels, and I think it feels this way for everyone

It feels larger than our own work. It feels like a celebration of, you know, triumphing over this insane couple of years, you know

and anyone that's even open to be able to receive a nomination has gone through so much

Because we all know, you know, this is unlikely. Right? When we sign up for a life in the theater, you are signing up for unlikely

You know what I mean? It's just, it's a long shot. It's all a long shot

And then COVID came in and made the long shot even longer. So to be here celebrating this season and these amazing artists and these amazing stories

and these amazing storytellers. feels just larger than any single one of our performances

But watching you in this show, you have the audience in the palm of your hand from the second you walk out there

Oh, bless you. And that's a very rare thing because it doesn't happen all the time in the theater

but I love that synergy between a performer and an audience. And you have that thing

What was that like for you in this show? It's the thing I love most

You know, I fell in love with theater going to see community theater growing up in New Jersey when I was a teenager

and it was that synergy, that thing, more than anything. You know, sometimes I worry when I teach a lot

And when I hear people talk about, you know, their story or their journey

and they say, like, the first time I felt that spotlight, or the first time I heard a round of applause

a red flag goes off in the back of my brain, it goes, I don't know if you get it

Because it's not about necessarily what you're getting as much as it is what you're giving

and then the reciprocation of that energy, that's the thing that I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa

You know, this is unlike any other medium. This is something that feels ancient and essentially human

and the live storyteller and the live listener, and that exchange of energy was the thing that I responded to most

So to hear you say that the thing you feel in Mrs. Delfire

is that relationship is exactly the thing I'm madly in. love with so you that could not mean more to me um and uh you know it's the thing that this show

does so well it was the it's that um they use comedy as a subversive tool to get in to get in

and crack you open you know and uh we've been lucky enough to hear hundreds of thousands of

stories of people who who it got in there and cracked open and that makes every single second

of it worth it. Okay, because at your closing performance, you read a gorgeous letter

on stage, but you have so many of them during this run. I really do. I really do. I have

hundreds of letters. And you know, when any time they announce a new show, it doesn't matter

what it is, but particularly if it's an adaptation of a movie. The first thing people do

because it's Twitter, why? But why, though? Like, why even why, though? That's the first thing

Right? Why, though? Why would you make that a musical? Why, though? First of all, you have to find out if it sings, right? Does it sing? And I think our authors found a really great in as to why our story sings with the kids and what the kids are going through. But in terms of why, what is the larger mission statement of Mrs. Dalfire in a 2022 world? Well, I have hundreds of letters that were in my dressing room, now in my home, from people and the gamut of the way that our story impacted them. I have a letter from a woman who

that she found out two months before coming to see our show that she couldn't have kids

And she's been wanting to broach the subject with her husband but didn't know how and saw our show

And they had the conversation on the way home from our show and are now adopting. I've had letters from kids who said, my parents told me they were getting divorced two days ago

And now I'm seeing it and I think I'm going to be okay. I have letters from people who when we were in Seattle

There was a couple, an older couple, two women who came during previews, and then during our week of Christmas performances in Seattle, brought their 14-year-old foster daughter for Christmas, got her tickets, and after curtain call, we're going to tell her that they were adopting her on Christmas and used the message of our show to do

So why? That's why. Yeah. My God, that's why. And if we can make you laugh hysterically amidst a pandemic, while subversively getting you to crack open in those

kind of ways That why My God that why And I so very very proud of it And I believe in it I believe in it And I always did And I always will because the people who made this show made it for those people And John Battiste gave a really great speech at the Grammys recently where he said

you know art isn't for everybody but art has a way of finding the people who need it most when

they need it most and I feel like Mrs. Delfire did that. Yeah and then there's your brilliant performance

we have to talk about it. I love you. What a track meet you're on in that show. Yeah. Yeah

Wild. One minute you're Daniel. One minute you're Mrs. Downfire. Then you're back and forth. And you would do

these rapid changes. And the audience would like, every time you came out would just

be hysterical. Like, how do that? Right? I mean, that's the cool thing is that

you know, people talk about theater magic. I was thinking about this the other day. That people

talk about theater magic, right? Theater magic. The thing I love about theater magic

is that it's not magic. That it's real. And it's right in front of them

That it's happening. Right? We don't achieve a crossfade in post with editing software

We achieve a crossfade with an orchestra and a stage manager calling a queue between five

different technicians, one who is on a fly rail, one who is driving automation downstairs

one who is driving the lighting board, and then we achieve a storytelling crossfade in real

time in front of you. That's theater magic, but there's nothing magic about it

There's a bunch of people executing at the top of their game to create the illusion of a crossfade

Now, you're a crossfade. How many people did you have put you together? So I had a team of four, three on every change

and then one sort of like alternate who would come in on different changes when we needed supplementation

But I did 248 quick changes a week, 31 a show. The longest I had to go from Doubtfire to Daniel was 90 seconds

The shortest was 18 seconds. And it's a head to toe, face to shoes, transformation

And it was really astonishing. And I really owe it to those dressers

the fact that we, those dressers and Brad Oscar and J.G. who became those dressers when I would do that change on stage in front of the audience

which again, theater magic, right? We show you. We let you see how we're doing it

And yet somehow that makes it even more magical, because what's really cool, and this is what we had on the movie

is that you know when you watch the movie, that when Daniel Hillard runs in the other room

and comes back 18 seconds later that he went into a trailer for four hours

Right? Right. Totally. In the show. You go for eight seconds. If I have 18 seconds, I have 18 seconds

But what's cool is that the audience knows that I have 18 seconds, and they see the people coming, and they get to sweat with me

And the fact that we pull it off. You know, when we were first designing the prosthetics

I went to this amazing company who builds prosthetics, and I walked in and they had all this work on the wall

They actually had Robin Williams cast on the wall from when they did his prosthetics for the night at the museum movies

And so talk about feeling like you're in the right spot, right? I walked in and they said, okay, we have plans for this

It's going to be six different pieces with adhesive. And I said, 18 seconds? I have to show you the script

Because what I said to them is, essentially, have you seen the movie? The thing they were pretending it was in the movie, it has to really be

Like something that he can go, like, that's what it actually has to be

And they said, well, eight times a week and it holds up and can't like rip when you take it off

No, because I have to put it back on. 18 seconds. 18 seconds is a key number

But they designed it. They figured it out, and they built it. We went through countless iterations of exactly what it should be

But they figured it out. My God, they figured it out. And again, that's what the audience responds to, is they go, whoa, they're really doing this

And somehow the reality of it is what makes it magical. The other sensational thing about your performance is, you know, we all knew Robin Williams

from the beloved film. Of course. You made Daniel your own. You made Mrs. Doubtfire your own

Thank you. I mean, I was part upon this movie, and I've known you, but the point is I just saw a brand new

I saw Ma Clores, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Daniel. I love you for that

I love you for that. I recognize that there is a, because I have it

this sort of like unmoving affection for Robin Williams and what he did in that movie, right

Nothing can get in that compartment of your heart that is reserved for that

So I wasn't going to bring, my version of his version because who wants to pay

to see that, right? Stay home and watch the movie. But what I was

hoping to do is through a different medium right? The second I start singing, it's a different

thing, right? So in a new medium, I was hoping to get you to feel

the way I remember him making me feel. That was the level of impression

that I was hoping to achieve. It was more an impression of what he did

to me than how he sounded or how he moved or what he did or what faces he made

or what impressions he did. So that was the thing I was hoping to tap into

And it takes trust. It takes a moment for the audience to go

all right, this thing has been proven by someone else. Prove it

But there is a wonderful moment, and it's not always the same moment, where I can feel the audience go

okay. You can be Mrs. Dalfire for the next two and a half hours. Okay. And it's a lot of times it is, you know, but we sort of roller coaster through the tumultuous

divorce very quickly in our show We sort of hit it hard This family not working It not and we tell that story in a different way than the film So very quickly the musical

goes, this is not the movie, right up front, right? So the audience goes like, oh, okay, I have to

lean in. This is not just going to be the movie put on stage in front of me. Okay, this is new

new information, new information. And then that first time I pick up the phone to call Miranda as Mrs

to Dalfire. There's this really cool moment where I lift up the phone and the audience

here is the very first, hello. And I swear to you, it's like the back

of the hair on the back of my neck stands up and I can viscerally feel the audience

go, okay. You know what I mean? It's this wonderful permission, right? They give me permission to play a character

that they love. And once they give me permission, I can take the character anywhere

and they come on the ride. But it is, I respect, their hesitance. I do

because I'm as big a fan of that thing as they are. I don't want anybody

to break it. And you earn it. Well, that's the hope. Right? That's the hope

Thank you. Bless you for saying that. Thank you. Eight times a week. I love you. Okay. Jerry Zax

Come on. So it's a comic genius, this one, working with a comic genius director

I mean, that had been incredible. Unbelievable. To be in the room with him creating your Daniel and Mrs. Delphart with Jerry Zax

Yeah. Because he's the type of guy who directs you by telling you stories of where he learned what he's about to tell you

Right? So he says, after you say that line, don't move. Don't move

They're going to laugh. As the crest starts to dive the laugh, that's normally where you would say the next line

Don't move. They'll laugh again. That's like jumping out of a plane without a parachute because if you wait and they don't laugh

scrambled face and cheese, no thank you, right? So the laugh dies and you wait and they laugh

again and I go backstage and I went they laughed again he said you know what I was doing the

tour of fiddler on the roof opposite zero mastel and I did a bit in zero's that's who you're

dealing with right so he knows and if you you know he's the parachute if jerry sacks makes your

parachute it's the parachute's gonna work you know I mean you know because he's he's he helped

build the parachute you know it's a it's a wild thing and he is um when you're doing comedy

he's certainly who you want, sort of shaping it. But then he also has the sense to know

when someone's playing outside of the comedy math and making magic, a la Peter Bartlett

Jerry Zack says, Comedy 2 plus Comedy 2 equals Comedy 4. And then Peter Bartlett shows up and says

what if it's 7? And Jerry Zax goes, you made me laugh

So I guess sometimes it's 7. You know what I mean? He has the sense to know that some rules are made to be broken

And if it works, it works. Because there are some people who live inside those rules to a fault

But Jerry knows. Jerry knows how to surf it. And sharing a room with him

And also, he cannot talk about this art form without crying. He cries all the time

If he talks about his family, if he talks about his daughters, if he talk, I'll give you a story

There's a moment in the middle of Act 1. It doesn't feel like a particularly poignant moment for me

at least it didn't at the moment. So I'm Mrs. Delfire. I've just had a moment, the first introduction to my kids

and my oldest daughter gives me huge attitude because she's not interested in a nanny

She wants dad. Why isn't dad here? Who is this crazy old Scottish lady

No. And she gives me severe attitude, right? And there is a moment where she comes up to Mrs. Delfire

and she says, hey, I'm sorry. You were just doing your job. And she said, hey, I'm sorry

you were just doing your job. And Jerry said, wait, stop, Annalise, who is brilliant

He said, Annalise, don't worry about showing her that you're apologizing. Just apologize and mean it

Because if your dad under there sees his daughter, do the right thing

And Jerry started to cry. Imagine how proud he is under there watching you, not knowing it's him under there, be such a grown-up

And I'm like, God, something I hadn't even really thought about, that Daniel underneath there is watching his kid grow up and do the right thing

That's the eye that's watching you rehearse. That's shaping the story. I mean, I can't, I've never felt safer

Yeah. It's such a great show. I think Mrs. Dowfire is one of the funniest and one of the most clever

and just brilliant musicals. I loved it. I'm so loud. For sure

And they're who it's for. Yeah. I mean, they are who it was for, and I cherish it, and I cherish the fact that it will live on

I know that they're planning a tour. There's a UK production that's about to happen

and I do, I've seen what it has to offer, and I've seen it land on hearts and minds in a really

profound way, and I will always be proud of having gotten to do that eight times a week on Broadway

And in a weird way, the sort of unique point of view that this show had about love and how far you'd go for your loved ones is something that kept me going through the pandemic, right

I 18 I at home for 18 months going is my show going to come back Is my show going to come back Am I sitting here waiting for this damn pandemic to press pause or go away so that I can tell

this story again? How far would I go to be with that company again, to be with those kids again, to be with

the Hillard family, to do the thing I love again, in the place I love to do it again? I'm going to stick with it

I'm going to stick with it. And we came back, we went away. We came back, we went away

We came back and now finally are going away. but man talk about having a story to tell

that fuels me with the reason to show up and do it again every time you know so in a weird way if it was a different show

I think the pandemic would have been even harder but this group of people and this story in particular

are the are the story I want to have been telling during this

yeah because my final question I think you just answered a lot of it was like

you know you were part of the season when Broadway came back because those two years was so horrible for everybody yeah I mean I used to walk

the streets and cry practically all the markets. I know what's going to happen to our lives

We loved what we do. We all love. We work in the theater. We don't work in something

else. And it was taken away, but you were one of the first shows to open

during, you know, to get Broadway up, the lights were open again at your

beautiful theater, and you got to do it. You shut down, but you opened again. Yeah. And they got to do

it. So what did that mean to you? And what does this Tony nomination mean to you

Because of that. Yeah. There are a couple of things that are going to stay with me forever. That being one of the first shows back

certainly, being the show in the Stephen Sondheim Theater when Stephen Sondheim passed away

That's going to stick with me forever. And I feel like you and I share this sentiment

Early on in the pandemic, maybe within the first six months or year, there were a lot of headlines about is the theater dead

Is the theater gone? And I feel like every couple of years that conversation comes up

The theater is just for ancient subscribers. Really? Come look at these TKTS lines

Come look at the student rush lines around the buildings. Go on TikTok and search hashtag my musical, my high school's musical

Hell, look hashtag legally blonde and tell me that this is a dying art form

It's thriving. It's exploding. There are people every day falling as madly in love with it as you and I did

And we knew that. When we saw those headlines, we went, are you crazy

Theater will outlive COVID. I promise. People have been telling stories to each other

and it having an impact on them in live performance and live venues, big and small

for all of human history. The notion that somehow is COVID. That's why people in their homes were like

can I use my laptop to make theater? Like they were figuring out any way

to tell stories in a way that felt theatrical again. And they did

They came up with some really innovative things, but we all know deep down, getting back to the beginning of our conversation

It's that exchange of energy in the same room. And it was that collective humanity, that very energy that COVID stole from us

So every show that is brave enough to show up anyway with producers brave enough

to bring that much money to the table, to try and play this insane game we're playing

where we walk into the theater every day and we spit into these damn two. tubes every day and we don't know if those tubes are going to tell us that we can't come

back to work for 10 days. It's an insane time to be doing this. So anyone doing it is heroic

because it's never been harder. So the fact that I get to be a part of such a brave season

for just attempting to make it happen. When I look around Radio City on the 12th, that's what I'm

going to see. Some of the bravest storytellers I've ever had the pleasure of working with or working nearby

because it's insane right now. But we do it anyway. Because theater's not dead

Well, I have to tell you, you were, I think, my first live interview back, and I said

there's no way we're going to get Rob McClure. I said he's still in previews. The show is changing every

day. And I got to interview outside the Stevensonheim, and I felt like a million bucks of like, oh my

God, this is what I do. Yeah, we're back. We're back. And, you know, you were between a matinee and an evening

Mm. And you did it. And I was like... Well, because there are, you know..

Remember the why voices I was talking about before? Yeah. Why? You are the anti-why

You're a beacon of everything I love about this, right? You sit us down and you go, how's it going

How's it going? Are you good? Is your show good? How's everybody? How are the fans liking it

How is it working? out. I've never once ever felt your heart root against someone attempting to make art

ever. And that's the reason why between shows on a two-show day during previews, I go

Richie wants to talk to me outside the theater. All right. And then you ran to dinner. Yes. And you had just had notes

I got soup and I chucked it down and did the second show because I recognize in you

someone who gets it. And I love you for it. I adore you. I always have

Back at you. I wish you the very best next Sunday. he gave one of the best performances of this season or any performance

or any season of doing what you do up there, and you make magic, and you have the audience in the palm of their hand

and that's what you do. I love you. I love you. See you soon. See you soon