Catch Me If You Can
Opening Night: April 10, 2011
Closing: September 4, 2011
Theater: Neil Simon Theatre
The unlikely adventures of a young man who creates an astonishing array of identities – airline pilot, doctor, lawyer – none of which he has any qualifications for. Based on the Paramount Pictures film and the autobiography by Frank Abagnale Jr. and Stan Redding.
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April 10, 2011
"Catch Me If You Can," the eagerly anticipated Broadway musical based on the breezy 2002 Leonardo DiCaprio film, is a product of essentially the same creative team behind the mega-hit "Hairspray." It’s even playing in the same theater as "Hairspray" and shares an early 1960s setting.
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April 10, 2011
The key to turning "Catch Me If You Can" into a Broadway musical was within the very title of the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie that served as the source. It encapsulates the thrill of the chase, a quality sadly lacking in the show that opened Sunday night at the Neil Simon Theatre. And it conveys the slippery charm of the lovable trickster rogue — in this case, Frank Abagnale Jr., the youthful master forger of those predigital swinging ’60s, a guy who fooled banks and airlines but was eventually brought down by his own need for love.
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April 10, 2011
The Bottom Line: This musical adaptation of the Steven Spielberg film scores on showmanship but shortchanges its lead character.
READ THE REVIEWApril 10, 2011
News that the guys from "Hairspray" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" were making a musical based on the movie "Catch Me If You Can" raised a couple of intriguing — also daunting — questions. How? And why?
READ THE REVIEWApril 10, 2011
New Broadway shows this spring are lousy with cads. There’s J. Pierrepont Finch in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," Harry Brock in "Born Yesterday" and pretty much all the dudes in "That Championship Season." With the hero of "Catch Me If You Can," add one more scoundrel.
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April 10, 2011
In "Catch Me If You Can" — the new musical based on the 2002 Steven Spielberg film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks — teenaged conman Frank Abagnale Jr. recounts his daring escapades in the format of a 1960s TV spectacular; each step in crime is shown as a perky-but-flat variety-show production number. That’s the conceit of the new tuner, and the problem as well. Impressive star performances from Norbert Leo Butz and Aaron Tveit, a lively production, the best sounding new music currently on Broadway — all built around a succession of glossily frenetic, non-compelling production numbers.
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April 10, 2011
As befits a lad of the 1960s with a talent for smooth come-ons, Frank Abagnale Jr. prefaces the story of his life with the promise that it will have “more curves than a Playboy bunny.” But as presented in the new musical “Catch Me if You Can,” which opened Sunday night at the Neil Simon Theater, this portrait of the con artist as a young man (portrayed by Aaron Tveit) seems to consist mostly of straight lines, like the kind you use to connect the dots in picture puzzles.
READ THE REVIEWApril 10, 2011
Frank Abagnale Jr., the former con artist whose memoir inspired a Steven Spielberg movie, managed to pass himself off as an airline pilot, a pediatrician and an attorney before turning 21. One feat that Abagnale did not attempt was writing and starring in a stage musical about his youthful adventures. And now we know why.
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April 10, 2011
It reunites most of the creative team from "Hairspray," boasts energetic ’60s music and a fantastic performance by Norbert Leo Butz. It even has leggy chorus girls in small skirts and big hair. Yet "Catch Me If You Can" flounders. How is that possible?
READ THE REVIEWApril 10, 2011
It’s true that inside every chunky person is a slim one trying to bust out. Same goes for "Catch Me If You Can," a new Broadway musical that is tasty but buried under empty calories. How can you fly with excess baggage?
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