Les News, 042011

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Last night David and I made our way to the Neil Simon Theater on Broadway to see the new musical Catch Me If You Can. Altho I had not seen the film, I was very anxious to see this show because one of my favorite Broadway actresses, Kerry Butler, stars in the show. I was only marginally familiar with the story so I hoped that seeing it cold would be entertaining. For the most part, I thought the show was OK … but, unfortch, it wasn’t nearly as exciting or upbeat as I was hoping.

The staging, set design, costumes and overall look of the show are really it’s strongest assets. You can tell that a lot of thought about the time period went into the staging and production of the show. The overriding problem for me was the story … the long, drawn out … not very exciting story. You’d think that a show with an exciting title like Catch Me If You Can would be upbeat, sexy and feature lots of action and showy dance numbers. Sadly, that is not the case. Most of the story in Act I was just rattled off in dialogue … there weren’t too many catchy numbers to sing along to. Of the songs in the show, I couldn’t even remember any of them after the show was over … well, except for one song. Kerry Butler belts out a showstopping number (Fly, Fly Away) at the very end of the show that is THE best song of the show. I was very surprised, tho, that Kerry isn’t featured AT ALL in the entire first Act … and she is billed as the female lead. Thankfully, Act II picked up considerably and manages to save the show from being a total snooze but as a whole … the show only ends up “OK”. That being said, I’m very glad I got to see the show and did enjoy myself, for the most part. I will say that Catch Me If You Can isn’t a show that I would ever feel the need to see again and it’s not a show that I would call a Must See. Lead actor Aaron Tveit is fine in his role as Frank Abagnale, Jr. but for me the real star of the show is Norbert Leo Butz who plays FBI agent Carl Hanratty. He was the best actor/character in the show. David and I had fun but we’ve seen better shows. If you’re a fan of the Catch Me If You Can story, this show might be for you … otherwise, you may be a bit disappointed by the show’s lack of real excitement.

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