Frank Abagnale Jr. is a criminal. Criminally good-looking, criminally charming and criminally… criminal. After running away from home, he utilizes his checkbook of pseudonyms to masquerade as a PanAm pilot, a doctor and a lawyer — performing cons and check forgeries totalling over $4 million — all before his 22nd birthday. Today, Abagnale’s true story of a real fake has evolved from autobiography to Leonardo DiCaprio movie to Broadway musical: all under the same real name, “Catch Me If You Can.”
Marriott Theater is now showing “Catch Me If You Can,” starring social media star and “Hamilton,” “Back to the Future” Broadway alum JJ Niemann as Abagnale. The musical is largely based on Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film adaptation of the same-titled autobiography, but it exists in a world so vastly vibrant and stimulating that you really can’t compare the three versions. After all, one has JJ Niemann, and the others don’t.
Niemann is a performative tour de force as Frank Abagnale Jr, capturing the character’s boyish charm and sharp wit with ease while also treating the audience to subtle hints of all-natural JJ as he slips into Abagnale’s dress shoes. His smooth, buttery vocal range enables him to sing both intense openers, like “Live in Living Color,” and low-key power ballads, like “Seven Wonders.” And, to be quite Frank, Niemann is pretty incredible.
Abagnale shares the stage most often with his FBI pursuer, Carl Hanratty, played by the exceptional Nathaniel Stampley (“The Color Purple,” “The Bridges of Madison County”). In his two-act-long quest to catch the teenage criminal, Hanratty may seem antagonistic, but note that he is no villain: he is simply a lonely, career-driven government agent with no better Christmas Eve plans than to work all night in his office and wait for Santa — “with a gun.”
Though this is a musical adaptation of the 2002 movie, some die-hard “Catch Me If You Can” fans may find themselves mildly disappointed by some story changes in the musical version, as I did. Notably, the amount of money Abagnale steals is changed from $4 million to $2 million for no apparent reason. And his international exploits in France, while touched on a bit more in the movie, seem to take a backseat in the musical in favor of more character growth for Abagnale, Hanratty and Frank Abagnale Sr. (played by the brilliant Sean Fortunato, who embodies the “down-on-his-luck con man” beautifully). The musical’s altered story can get stretched thin quickly, and this reviewer missed the movie’s near-perfect pacing as the show strayed further away from both its source material and its central narrative.
But any die-hard movie fans looking for solid changes in this musical can look no further than the character of Brenda Strong: a nurse whom Abagnale Jr. meets and falls in love with during his stint as a doctor. Rather than the naive, young girl Amy Adams portrays in the film adaptation, this version of Strong is played by the commanding Mariah Lyttle (“The Wiz,” “The Color Purple”). Strong is still young here, but much more comfortable with herself and her intelligence than the movie’s — all through her big, show-stopping act two ballad: the only solo song in the show beyond Niemann’s subsequent “Goodbye,” “Fly, Fly Away.” And even though her character development ultimately amounts to little, Lyttle’s earnest and captivating stage presence makes her a force to be reckoned with, and one that I could not stop thinking about after leaving the Marriott.
To complement the amazing talent onstage, the ’60s vibes are immaculate. Airport benches function as beds, desks and bars as they circle the stage on a track, becoming whatever the scene needs them to be; and their movement never ceased to make me go, “how did they do that?” Hanging above the stage is an enormous circular video screen to make the time period pop even further, showing file cabinets in the FBI headquarters, pool water at the Abagnale’s and even 1960s TV show-esque character credits in the show’s opener, “Live in Living Color.” While they can get distracting at times, the inventive designs help make “Catch Me If You Can” all the more immersive.
And even though Abagnale’s story may not be entirely true nor consistently engaging, this musical will make you trust it with your life. After all, if you can’t trust these incredible actors or the incredibly creative team behind “Catch Me If You Can,” then what can you trust nowadays?
Now (apologies for the terrible incoming pun, you knew it was coming), go and catch it… If you can!
Click here to take a look back at our review of “The Thunderbolts*” from Spring of last year.
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