Review: ‘Catch Me If You Can’ has a real live-wire con man at the Marriott Theatre
Marriott Theatre’s revival of “Catch Me If You Can” is fueled by a zippy, eye-catching performance from JJ Niemann, a rising young Broadway star from “Hamilton” who has amassed a massive following on social media, and who apparently has enough clout in Gotham to attract no less than Marc Shaiman, the composer and co-lyricist of the the 2011 Broadway musical based on the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie, to his opening night in bucolic Lincolnshire.
The story’s lead character is Frank Abagnale Jr., a famed all-American con man whose multifarious schemes including his successfully posing as a doctor, as assistant state’s attorney and both a TWA and a Pan Am pilot (or so he claimed), but whose real raison d’etre was to spend the pre-digital 1960s engaged in forgery, identity theft and other forms of bamboozlement for fun, gratification and profit. The film, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks and was a huge box-office success, zeroed in, noir style, on the FBI agent Carl Hanratty, who chased Abagnale, Javert-like, across the years.
The musical was less of a hit. It ran for just 171 performances and didn’t even get an Equity tour. As I recall from the initial Broadway production, one of the structural problems was that the material didn’t easily sing as a musical, and the unfortunate addition of a Brechtian structure (Frank told his story in flashback form, essentially becoming the star of his own TV variety show) ended up diminishing the dramatic tension as well as the potential thrill of antics better explored in real time.
Caper movies, with their squirrelly plots and zany second acts, often struggle as musicals, although the late Terrence McNally did his considerable best as the writer of the musical’s book to amp up the requisite emotional context, probing Frank’s background and turning him into a far more likable character than he really deserved. In exploring broader themes of fakery and disillusionment, he went with a template familiar from “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” but he struggled mightily to turn Frank into J. Pierrepont Finch — who was a window-washer turned savvy climber but not a criminal.
McNally also played with the idea that the older man trying to catch Frank was, at least in this warped universe, a kind of surrogate father who developed genuine affection for his quarry. But if the whole conceit didn’t (and frankly still doesn’t) fully work, the score from Shaiman and Scott Wittman certainly was a very jazzy and workable song suite, as the well-sung Marriott production makes clear.
The rising director Jessica Fisch certainly has a kind of early Matthew Broderick template in her head for her confidently insouciant star, but she also comes up with a lot of creative ideas throughout the video-encrusted production, beginning with downplaying the outer frame and embracing the retro, “Coffee, tea or me?” vibe without needlessly undermining it for some greater purpose.
“Catch Me If You Can” is a musical from an era when sardonic amorality was in vogue and the show would fall apart if turned into a moral fable. Aside from the impish Niemann, who really pops all night long and can surely handle Deidre Goodwin’s lively choreography, Fisch also has the redoubtable Nathaniel Stampley, an actor with nary a fake bone in his body and thus a fine choice for an FBI agent whose lines mostly flow along the lines of, “They always make a mistake in the end.”
I was never convinced Frank was in love with his girlfriend Brenda (Mariah Lyttle), the character who catches his foot in the door, to borrow from “The Music Man.” That needed more attention. Still, the playful Niemann certainly makes clear he could play any number of lead roles in any number of future musicals. He’s one reason for musical-theater fans to see this show, but another is that in this case, the Marriott has tried some fresh and clever ideas, even as it features a cast with such capable actors as Sean Fortunato (strikingly moving here) and the sly Jessie Fisher, the pair playing characters unlucky enough to be Frank’s parents and unable ever to catch their kid at anything, really.
Review: “Catch Me If You Can” (3 stars)
