Variety "Catch Me If You Can" review

[adamgreer]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 10:07pm

Pretty positive. She thinks it's too long and too ballad heavy (the only ballads she likes were Fly Fly Away and Goodbye), but has a lot of potential. Wants it to be lighter.

Liked the choreography.

Good reviews for Butz, Wopat, and Butler.

A rave for Tveit, in what she calls a "a star turn."
Catch Me If You Can

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 10:20pm

How nice to read a review for this that was actually well-written! It certainly doesn't hurt that it's positive as I'm rooting for this one.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 11:30pm

CONGRATS MARC! Can't wait to see it on Bway! Love "Fly Fly Away".

P

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 11:41pm

She liked "Fly Fly Away"?!? And she could understand what Butler was singing? Yikes.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 12:20am

Maybe they added surtitles. I could barely understand her when I saw it last week.

Long it is. And ballad heavy it is too. I would have thought a chase musical would move faster.

Wopat's role needs trimming. Steals too much of the focus.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 9:32am

Tveit seem to be getting nothing but high praise - love it!

[Sparklesss]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 2:57pm

Agreed, haven't heard one bad thing about Tveit or Norbert...

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 3:58pm

Wow, this review is so different from the FIRST WIVES CLUB review. It sounds like the show has some issues but it's not a massive failure, and the critic seemed to be rooting for the show to succeed and offered what I thought was some helpful points for the creative team to work on as the show makes its way to Broadway. The Variety review of FIRST WIVES CLUB basically begged for everyone involved to keep that hot mess from coming to NY.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 4:06pm

It should be noted that THE FIRST WIVES CLUB and CATCH ME IF YOU CAN were reviewed by two different Variety critics, though.

[madophelia]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 4:28pm

So very true. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN's review was by a woman, while THE FIRST WIVES CLUB's was by a man, who have been fairly universal in dissing the subject matter. In other words they've been dragged into this show against their will, against their reason, and against their character (to paraphrase Elizabeth Bennet).

That being said, one cannot necessarily rely on a woman to give a positive review to female-oriented material, as often they feel the need to act like they are men and not subject to stereotypes.

BTW, I noticed that no one is griping about the lack of *big* marquee names in this cast. Odd...

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 7:41pm

It is definitely a male minded musical. All the women are portrayed as sluts or naive (or both). Oh yeah...and Linda Hart plays the accordion (please cut this. I adore Linda Hart but her part is useless). I'm slightly amazed that a creative team made entirely of gay men came up with something without one powerful woman. They could easily cut all the female roles without really impacting much of the plot.

This is the kind of show that would sound great on a cast recording but cause the viewer to go "Huh?" when viewing it with McNally's uneven mess of a book.

I think Tviet could actually be used more. He's a fantastic triple threat and there are large chunks where he's missed. Norbert is superb but he gets far too much stage time in relation to the, let's face it, more interesting Tviet character (not knocking Butz here but the story is really about Abergnale).

Again, as I've said, for a chase musical it's really slow.

And Wopat's part has been explanded far too much.

Mitchell's choreography is top notch but I kind of wish he'd have directed it too as the piece would feel more fluid. O'Brien's direction is very uninspired.

EDIT: Wanted to add about the direction. The scenes between Abergnale and the detective never overlap as they should. There's too much waiting for scene shifts (I image they don't want to completely steal City of Angels' half color half black and white idea but if you're going to steal at least rob the whole bank).

It felt like City of Angels (they even steal the black and white motif) meets Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Mackie's costumes were lackluster and often misplaced. Rockwell's LCD screen was annoying (is this really the future of set desingn? I hope not).

This all is fixable. There just needs to be more focus on Abergnale, the pace needs to be picked up x 10, the score needs a few bouncier tunes, and McNally either needs to be replaced (where is Meehan when you need him?) or forced to cut his extraneous dialogue. I'd say at least half of the score, completely fine songs all, isn't integral to telling the story.
Updated On: 8/9/09 at 07:41 PM

[maia3]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 7:42pm

Has this booked a theater yet? I am dying to see it.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 7:46pm

Nope. No theatre booked.

Keep in mind this is technically a 5th Avenue production. There are no producers over the title or mentioned in the playbill. I also find it odd that Dreamworks doesn't appear to be attached since it's their film.

[AKTFan]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 10:37pm

I saw "Catch Me" for a second time today (First time was opening night) and I actually liked it better the second time after being just so-so about it the first time around.

Like a lot of the reviews and the comments on threads say about this show, it does have some work to do to but I think its on the right path and in its current state is still a good show worth watching.

Today's matinee started at 1:30 and when I walked out and checked my watch it was 4:20. So yes, some of the songs need to either be cut entirely or changed and I feel the relationship between Abagnale and his dad and Hanratty could be developed more to make the story more cohesive.

Every time Aaron was on stage I was totally trasnfixed by his amazing performance. If this transfers to Broadway, he definitely has the chance to go from breakout star to Leading Man status.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 10:40pm

BobbyBubbly, the protagonist's last name is Abagnale, not "Abergnale."

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 11:16pm

Whatever her name is she needs work.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 11:20pm

"BTW, I noticed that no one is griping about the lack of *big* marquee names in this cast. Odd... "

By this point in his career, Marc Shaimen is the big marquee name in the show and deservedly-so.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 11:24pm

Actually I think "the creators of Hairspray", as all the publicity in Seattle reads, is the star of the show. Audiences are desperate to be part of the Hairspray phenomena 7 years ago in the same city.

Not the same this time around, unfortunately.

And though he's hardly a film or television star, a good chunk of the audience knows who Butz is.

[fengshuihellnyc]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 1:07am

I have to say... I love everyone involved in the show... AND to be REALLY HONEST the show looks and sounds like a HUGE DUD! The video they previewed on here was terrible.

[NotYourMemories]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 7:33am

I can see how watching some video clips might give the you impression that this show is a dud, but I've seen it and I agree with both the Variety and the Seattle Times reviews. There's potential here, an amazing cast and a strong score, but there's some real work to be done to make this into a great musical.

I read an interview where Scott Wittman where he said this show was like Les Mis with chicks. This is an intriguing idea: What if Jean ValJean and Javert made friends and teamed up at the end (and it was the 1960s with lots of chicks?) This is the story that needs to be focused on.

I also think there's an issue with the songs not meshing with the story. I had a chance to listen to some of the demos months ago, and most of those songs have made it into the show with little change. It's a great demo, but the end result feels a bit like a "jukebox" show, where those pre-existing songs have been forced into a not entirely related storyline.