Casting of principals and the company of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, the new musical based on the hit DreamWorks film, was announced today.
Adapted from the screenplay by Jeff Nathanson and the book written by Frank Abagnale Jr. and Stan Redding, the original musical boasts a book by four-time Tony Award-winner Terrence McNally, who joins forces with the collaborative team behind the hit musical Hairspray (which also premiered at the 5th), including five-time Tony Award-winning director Jack O'Brien, Tony Award-winning choreographer Jerry Mitchell, and Tony Award-winning composing team Marc Shaiman (music & lyrics) and Scott Wittman (lyrics).
Playing the role of FBI Fraud Agent Carl Hanratty, the man who tracks down clever con-man Frank Abagnale across several continents, is Norbert Leo Butz, most recently seen on Broadway in the revival of David Mamet's Speed the Plow, and last seen in Seattle on the national tour of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a performance that won him a Tony, as well as awards from Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and the Drama League. Other notable productions include originating the role of Fiyero in Wicked and performing in the original cast production of Rent, while more recent productions have included Is He Dead? and The Last Five Years.
Playing the role of Frank, the silver-tongued con-man who impersonated an airline pilot, a lawyer, and a doctor and made off with millions before his 21st birthday, is Aaron Tveit, most recently seen in Hairspray and Wicked on Broadway, and who will take up the role of Gabe in the upcoming Broadway production of Next to Normal.
Tom Wopat, whose musical career includes City of Angels, Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters and most recently his Tony-nominated performance (his second) in A Catered Affair will play the part of Frank Sr., whose troubles with the IRS start his son on his criminal career. (Wopat's extensive experience in musicals hasn't quite dimmed his original fame as Luke Duke on the original Dukes of Hazzard.)
Returning to Seattle after premiering the hit musical Hairspray here at the 5th are Kerry Butler as Frank's enticingly innocent girlfriend Brenda and Linda Hart as Carol, Brenda's mother. In addition to originating the role of Penny Pingleton in that show, Butler has starred in Bat Boy: the Musical, the first on-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, and the Tony-nominated role of Cleo, the roller-skating Muse, in the recent hit musical Xanadu. Hart was the original Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray and her stage career includes the seminal 1987 revival of Anything Goes, the revue Sid Caesar and Company, and Livin' Dolls, which won her an LA Theatre Award.
The rest of the company is a collection of Broadway, regional, and Seattle talent, including Rachel deBenedet, Matt Wolfe, Timothy Piggee, Tod Branton, Clarke Thorell, Brandon Wardell, Angie Schworer, Romelda Benjamin, Anastica McClesky, Taryn Darr, Shanna Palmer, Jillana Laufer, Kyle Vaughn, Mo Brady, Jason Kappus, Karl Warden, Nick Wyman, Nikki Long, and Joey Pizzi.
