Catch Me If You Can - 5th Avenue Theatre Opening Night
Last night saw the World Premiere of Catch Me If You Can, the musical based on the life of master opportunist and fraudster Frank Abagnale Jr. Abagnale Jr was a silver tongued con man from
Playing the roles in this musical are Aaron Tveit as Abagnale Jr and Norbert Leo Butz as Agent Hanratty. Bolstering their efforts is a man who may be forever best known as Luke Duke in the TV show Dukes of Hazzard, Tom Wopat.
The show is not perfect but it’s pretty fantastic. Where it’s good, it’s very good indeed. Where it’s not so good, it’s really not so bad. As with most musicals that aren’t Cabaret, the tunes are hit and miss, but Tony Award winners Terrence McNally, Jack O’Brien, Jerry Mitchell and Marc Shaiman cleverly save two of the finest numbers till just before then end, so the theatre goer will be left satisfied.
Kerry Butler plays Brenda Strong, the ordinary girl employed as a nurse at an
The song that followed is Tveit’s finest moment. Simply called “Goodbye”, it is the lead character’s crowning glory as he has one last chance to address the world after Agent Hanratty, his longtime pursuer collars him. Tveit delivers it powerfully and shows why, he is a great lead man for a musical, as his acting and his singing are both up to scratch. On opening night, Tveit holds nothing back in the deliverance of this song, and I hope the night you go to see it, he is equally generous with his effort. Tveit was pretty faultless throughout and delivered his occasional comedic line with talent.
The comedic lead though was Butz as Hanratty. A sad lonely work obsessed man, Hanratty’s role calls for a little more acting than singing. Butz is no canary, but one of his songs, in which he rapid fires the lyrics is highly impressive. “Here I Am (To Save the Day)” is the third of my favourite numbers, and the most memorable of the first half.
That song apart, Butz carries his acting role well and allows us into the mind of an agent who is rapidly becoming obsessed with one criminal. He has scenes with both Frank Jr’s father (Wopat) and his mother, Paula, played by Rachel de Benedet. The first scene, set in a bar, is beautifully illuminated, and eschews the stereotype of necessarily portraying all late night drinkers as sad loners, although Frank Abagnale Sr is clearly that. However, Hanratty’s scene with Paula, Frank Jr’s mother, could have been better. Not because it was bad, it was great. There just wasn’t enough of it. 
Benedet was divine as the French post war émigré, who had used Frank Sr to escape from an obliterated
The back up singers were strong with Romelda Teron Benjamin hitting her mark with some big notes and impressing the audience in doing so. Nick Wyman provided a solid back up with five smaller parts, none of them great parts, so credit to him for his selflessness and professionalism. Linda Hart as Carol Strong played the accordion which saved an otherwise pointless number, so please turn the sound up on her instrument, and laissez les bon temps être ecoutés.
This is a great show and in Aaron Tveit, the producers have bagged an enormous talent. The cast gave a huge effort, told Frank’s story seamlessly, the orchestra and the audience were both used cleverly within the script to great effect, and they picked a bunch of folk who can act, or sing, or both to entertain us. And entertain us they did. Catch it if you can!
The show runs July 23 – August 16, 2009.
Photos: Chris Bennion. 1 Aaron Tveit as Frank Jr, 2 Kerry Butler as Brenda Strong, 3 Norbert Butz and Tom Wopat as Hanratty and Frank Sr.
Comments
the singer you named as Romelda Benjamin was Anastacia McClesky. You credited the wrong woman with a great voice.
Thanks Ralph, but I explicitly contacted the Theatre press office this morning to confirm this.Perhaps we just liked different singers best.
Yes, you do have it wrong Romelda Benjamin does not have any solos in the show it is Anastacia McCleskey.
Both Romelda and Anastacia have solos in the show and they both have amazing voices.
I'm sorry, I saw this last night and thought it was a huge waste of time and money. Though the singing was spot on I didn't care about any of the characters, the music was derivative, the scenery designer needed to pick with one cohesive illustration style and stick with it, and the ending of the show (which gave the impression that they just ran out of ideas of how to stage it, and yet went on forever) was by far less entertaining than the curtain call.
How long is the show?
It's an OK show, it's not a GREAT show by any stretch of the imagination.
i LOVE fly fly away. what a beatiful song.
Butz is no canary? Do your research.
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