CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is based on the book and hit 2002 DreamWorks film of the same name directed by Stephen Spielberg with screenplay by Jeff Nathanson and book by Frank Abagnale, Jr.
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN captures the astonishing true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a world-class con artist who passed himself off as a doctor, a lawyer, and a jet pilot-all before the age of 21. With straight-arrow FBI agent Carl Hanratty on Frank's trail, we're off on a jet-setting, cat-and-mouse chase, as a jazzy, swinging-sixties score keeps this adventure in constant motion. In the end, Agent Hanratty learns he and Frank aren't so very different after all, and Frank finds out what happens when love catches up to a man on the run.
'Catch Me If You Can' makes Abagnale a sympathetic figure guilty mainly of charming everybody. Tveit is handsome and sings well, but overuses his Colgate smile and lacks the pizazz necessary to sell the snake oil. This Frank is a junior, all right: many personas but little personality. Butz, on the other hand, has charisma to spare -- which is saying something, since he puts the 'ratty' back in Hanratty. His body hunched at an angle, a greasy-looking hat perched on his head, he creates a fully rounded character, and displays unfailing musical-comedy flair.
Jerry Mitchell's choreography is also a bit of a grab-bag - a little kick-line here, a little Fosse there - though it's consistently both energetic and spirited. In fact, the entire cast (which also includes Tom Wopat as Frank Abagnale Sr.) seems to be working very hard to put over the material. Under the direction of Jack O'Brien, though, Catch Me If You Can moves mostly in fits and starts. The first act ends abruptly, without a big production number, and throwaway songs like '(Our) Family Tree' with Brenda and her parents tend to stop the show in its tracks. In the end, you have a rooting interest in both Frank and his cohorts on stage. You want them to get away with just about anything. But the creators of Catch Me If You Can have rigged the game against them. What should have been a fun lark of a story seems almost stodgy, like your grandmother's idea of a good time.
2005 | New York |
Reading New York |
2007 | New York |
Reading New York |
2011 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2012 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Norbert Leo Butz |
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Tom Wopat |
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Kerry Butler |
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lyrics | Marc Shaiman |
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lyrics | Scott Wittman |
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Music | Marc Shaiman |
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | Larry Blank |
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | Marc Shaiman |
2011 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Norbert Leo Butz |
2011 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Aaron Tveit |
2011 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Score | 0 |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Stephanie P. McClelland |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | The 5th Avenue Theatre |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Joan Stein/Jon Murray |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Joseph & Matthew Deitch/Cathy Chernoff |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Amuse Inc. |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Loraine Boyle |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Rodney Rigby |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Rainerio J. Reyes |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Barry Feirstein |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Jamie deRoy |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Paula Herold/Kate Lear |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Margo Lion |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Stacey Mindich |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Yasuhiro Kawana |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Scott and Brian Zeilinger |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | The Rialto Group |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | The Araca Group |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Michael Watt |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Barbara & Buddy Freitag |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Jay & Cindy Gutterman/Pittsburgh |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Elizabeth Williams |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Johnny Roscoe Productions/Van Dean |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Fakston Productions/Solshay Productions |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Patty Baker/Richard Winkler |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Nederlander Presentations, Inc. |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Warren Trepp |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Remmel T. Dickinson |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Larry Blank |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Marc Shaiman |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical | Norbert Leo Butz |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Musical | Steve Canyon Kennedy |
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