I think I liked Catch Me if You Can. I am going to recommend it. To you. The reader. Hi reader. I didn’t love Catch Me if You Can. Just like I don’t love New Rochelle. New Rochelle, for those who didn’t catch it/haven’t seen it, is a suburb of New York City, and the home of Frank Abagnale Jr., the main character. My connection to New Rochelle is that it is close to my aunt and uncle’s house, where I was stuck for 4 miserable days over Thanksgiving break. I saw Lincoln, the movie, in New Rochelle. (I might have loved Lincoln–while I mull that over–you should see it, for I certainly liked it.) So what I’m saying is, that despite the fact that I didn’t love it, I liked it enough to tell you to see Catch Me If You Can. It is the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr., who runs away from New Rochelle and proceeds to forge checks, impersonate a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer while on the run. You can see Catch Me If You Can through the 16th of December at the Orpheum.
The show was intriguing enough to make me consider seeing the movie, which I have not seen. It is tempting to see the movie, see which version I prefer. This production, being a musical, had songs, some I liked and some I did not. I did not like“Butter Outta Cream.” I disliked it as a go to line and then as this song. I don’t know. Dairy products and rodents aren’t my favorite choruses. There were numbers I did like. I liked “Don’t Break the Rules.” The lyrics weren’t strong, but everything else was. The costumes, the choreography, the lighting and the singing all came together well. It led to me to think, ‘wow’. Not to say it, but I’ll confess it has been a while since a broadway show has led me to ‘wow’. Well played, Catch Me, well played.
There was one particular powerfully done, yet confusing scene. It comes out later about what that scene depicted exactly. I appreciated that. The audience discovered this at the same time as Frank. I would go into detail, but that would be a spoiler, and that would be in rather poor taste, seeing how I am recommending this to you.
One who saw the show probably noticed that the females of the chorus had awfully short leg coverings. One could react to this in many ways. One could go, ‘Uhhhhh, legs.” One could go ‘This is disgusting.’ I however, prefered to see them as temptation to Frank: temptation to do more bad things, dig a deeper h***. Of course this means that at the end, the chorus could have slipped on some trousers, now that the temptation was gone. I’m going to assume that was the plan, there just must have been a costume slip up, that yes, they were supposed to have pants. Consider this a warning: throughout the show, legs.
I would like to congratulate the person who developed the projections. They were good, not distracting, helpful in defining place in a production where place changes rapidly. You could tell it was suburban New York or a train station. The projections did a good job defining place without stealing your eye. (As one who might have read my past reviews, American Idiot had too many screens that were too distracting. Les Miserables came off too movie like, entirely removed the suspension of disbelief. So that is why this is so astonishing.)
So I guess I’m recommending it. It’s funny at the right moments, dramatic at the right moments, snazzy all the way through. It’s not a strong recommendation, because, as said by Obi wan Kenobi (Star Wars) in one of those prequels, “Only a sith deals in absolutes.” So instead of arguing whether “Only a sith deals in absolutes” is an absolute, maybe you could see this show. I didn’t love it, then again, I question whether I can love entertainment at all.
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