DOUBTFIRE Title Change? Is it dropping the "MRS"?

This might just be the stupidest thing I've heard all day.

They also changed their color scheme from pink to blue.

I dunno...I kind of like it. It's very ... clean...

Of course at one time a musical based on a filmed source material usually changed the name to proudly proclaim it was a different entertainment entity. "All About Eve"="Applause". "81/2" = "Nine", "The Apartment"= "Promises, Promises". Even when based on books, "7 1/2 Cents" became "The Pajama Game" and "The Year the Yankees Won the Pennant" was changed to "Damn Yankees".

Of course now an adaptation isn't about if a specific film actually feeling like it "sings" (or not). It's the name recognition that is the value in the source material.

I think they were getting some backlash and just wanted to dodge it before it became an issue. Like with Tootsie's advertising.

MattieIce2018 said: "Their site seems like it hasn't been fully updated if that is the direction they're going with branding - the title in the tab at the top of the screen is still "Mrs Doubtfire Broadway," and in the "About" section the show is referred to as "Mrs Doubtfire." The web address is also still "mrsdoubtfirebroadway," "doubtfirebroadway" just redirects."

The first two items you list are 99% likely to be human errors missed while a person made all the other changes throughout the site, and changing the destination URL can impact SEO ranking, something they probably didn't want to mess with in the middle of all the announcement chaos.

Oh, and doubtfirebroadway.com was registered by 20th Century Fox in 2012, so I doubt it has anything to do with licensing, since they are basically loaning their domain to the musical.

I don't think the "Mrs." is required at all for the title. There's not really any other inference to make from "Doubtfire" that isn't the film.

Updated On: 5/11/21 at 10:52 PM

All the key art still shows the full Doubtfire costume (and the new promo still has the voice) so I seriously doubt they'd be changing that, like you said. I am, however, curious, how this show will do when it opens. I saw it last spring and while it needed some work throughout previews (in fact, the writers discussed in an interview that they were using the shutdown to rewrite at least two of the show's numbers that they felt ran too long or had other problems with), I thought the score was quite strong overall and that the book stayed faithful to the story while completely avoiding the more problematic language in the original film. However, after the announcement yesterday, there were comments on many of the articles accusing the show of transphobia and/or calling for the production to be cancelled. Of course, I know that social media comments aren't always representative of general opinions, but I am curious how the show will be received, both critically and by audiences in general.

Updated On: 5/11/21 at 11:17 PM

Nobody gives a flying you-know-what about the NYT ABCs in 2021 –– certainly not enough to change an entire title just so it can appear 8 letters sooner in the alphabet.

of course no one reads the New York times...

but the TKTS booth is alphabetized

Time out is alphabetized

Variety is alphabetized

and after a very quick look... by gosh so is TICKETMASTER

This will be because 1 person complained about the ‘Mrs’ ..

Stupid doesn’t even cover this change.