Gabriel Vick outside the Shaftesbury Theatre where he is starring in the lead role in Mrs Doubtfire – a musical version of the 1990s comedy

I DON’T want to get cancelled by the foot soldiers of the culture wars for being a bad parent but I took the little Harringtons to see a man dressed up as a woman last week.

Let me reassure readers that they left the beautiful Shaftesbury Theatre completely clear on who was who and what was what.

There were no demonstrations outside either, by which I mean those incandescent people who love a traditional panto dame at Christmas but hate the idea of drag unlocking a child’s imagination at a library rhyme time.

As it happens Mrs Doubtfire – the 1993 film – has always been a point of critical debate with some declaring that it is transphobic, misogynistic or completely the opposite of both.

I had not really known what it is as Robin Williams, in all his zany films, was always a bit too much for me and I had avoided the movie in the same way I avoided Mork & Mindy, Toys, Patch Adams, Flubber and Aladdin.

With fresh eyes, the musical version starring Gabriel Vick in the lead role actually just seemed inoffensive fun and the show will prove to be an entertaining evening out for many no doubt.

This is, of course, the story of a man going through a divorce but trying not to lose access to his three children by posing as a nanny hired by his wife, who is reversing the old-fashioned stereotypical family dynamic seen in every soap and sitcom and is found earning more than her husband and keeping them all in a house swish enough to have an island work top kitchen.

Maybe I take everything I see and read in life as a personal attack, but it seemed a story about “fun Dad syndrome” which so many mothers clearly suffer from behind closed doors. That’s the one where the father does all the goofing around, makes the children laugh and thinks this is enough to be a “top Dad”. Legend!

Friends then observe from afar and gasp about how good he is with the kids, while the mother in the unit is left making sure the perishers actually have a clean uniform for school in the morning and does the majority of the tellings off.

It’s about time someone addressed this phenomena, and Vick’s Danny has to learn the hard way that it takes more than just being the fun guy. There were knowing looks from the two girls to my left as the message was hammered home.

The lore of musicals demands that everyone is reunited happily in the end but if you have seen the film you know there is a detour.

The show tells us how hard it is to confront the fact some long-term relationships can fizzle out, people change and sometimes even divorce can be the best option for all.

In figuring this out, the fantastic Laura Tebbutt as Danny’s wife, Miranda (there’s always a Miranda in any show with US roots) becomes the real star of the show.

Her spotlight song, Let Go, has much-needed emotion after a run of slapstick “he almost got caught out” set pieces which come before.

The weakness of the show is that there aren’t enough big numbers like this still rattling around your head on the bus home and refusing to budge the next morning too.

The musical version of Legally Blonde is a good example of how this is possible with the trend in film-to-musical crossovers.

Vick does not try to be Robin Williams even if he is asked to do the same frying pans routines.

This, I think, is very wise of him. His own impressions that perforate the show are highlights.

It was notable that at one stage he parodies Boris Johnson mumbling about lockdown parties leading to some of the largest whoops of the evening from the audience.

But this show doesn’t need to be overanalysed by the wokefinder generals, it doesn’t need to be scanned for a clash of cultures.

It should be taken simply as two hours of smart performance, and one or two well worked set pieces.

Smile, laugh, don’t take it too seriously.

The kids didn’t.