Book by Terrance
McNally
Music by Scott
Wittman and Marc Shaiman
Lyrics by Marc Shaiman
Directed by Richard
Block
Dramatic Productions
at Gungahlin College Theatre to 11 June
Review by Len Power
27 May 2016
With a music score by the ‘Hairspray’ team, Marc Shaiman and
Scott Wittman, you’d expect ‘Catch Me If You Can’ to be a winner of a musical.
Both the 2011 musical and the 2002 film are derived from the 1980 autobiography
of Frank Abignale Junior, a young confidence man who obtained millions of
dollars in forged checks, posed as an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer and
attracted the attention of FBI agent, Carl Hanratty, who pursued Abignale
across the country to bring him to justice.
Alexander Clubb is perfectly cast as Frank Abignale, singing
and acting the role superbly. Gerard
Ninnes as Agent Carl Hanratty couldn’t seem to make his mind up whether he was
playing his character straight or for laughs, but sang his numbers very well, especially ‘Don’t Break The Rules’,
the best song in the show. Jonathan
Garland gave one of his most appealing performances ever as Frank’s father and
his duet with Alexander Clubb, ‘Butter Outta Cream’, was very well sung. There was terrific character and vocal work
from others in the large cast, especially Janelle McMenamin, Debra Byrne, Josie
Dunham, Michael Miller, Hayden Crosweller, Pierce Jackson and Andrew Howes.
Musical direction by Damien Slingsby was very strong and the
orchestra played the music well. However, sound
balance was a problem with the orchestra too loud overall, making song lyrics
hard to hear. It was especially troublesome
when dialogue had to be spoken over the music.
Costumes by Kitty McGarry worked generally well. Women’s skirts would not have been that short
in those days, of course, but it’s forgivable here in a sexy song when there is
the danger of the girls looking dowdy these days with correct length
dresses. However, we saw far too much of
the nurses’ underwear in the number, ‘Doctor’s Orders’. What should have been fun became somewhat
sleazy instead. Apart from that particular dance, Rachel
Thornton’s choreography was simple but effective and matched the era of the
show very well. The minimal set worked
very well, giving the cast a large playing area with the orchestra placed
behind them on a higher level.
Richard Block directed the show strongly, keeping the pace
and scene changes moving swiftly. He has
obtained strong performances from his whole cast and produced an entertaining
show. However, the show’s creators didn’t
come up with anything special to make you prefer it to the 2002 non-musical
film on which it is based. The second
act isn’t as strong as the first act with too many unnecessary songs slowing
the show down. Nevertheless, it’s great
to have an opportunity to see a musical which hasn’t played Canberra before.
Len Power’s reviews
can also be heard on Artsound 92.7 FM’s ‘Artcetera’ program from 9am on
Saturdays.
