March 29, 2024

Catch Me If You Can Hits Interlochen Stage

July 22, 2016

While we won’t spoil the ending for you, the penultimate scene of Steven Spielberg’s movie Catch Me If You Can is the opener, where protagonist Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo Di- Caprio) is a contestant on the old game show To Tell The Truth. In it, Abagnale dares the audience to decide whether or not he’d really managed to impersonate a pilot, doctor, and lawyer — all while still a teenager. Spielberg did an impressive job of bringing Abagnale’s true life story as an accomplished con artist to the big screen, and now Interlochen Center for the Arts is taking that same story and giving it the Broadway treatment.

EPIC ENDEAVOR

Catch Me If You Can, the musical, got its start in New York City in 2011, where it was a huge hit at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre, snagging four Tony nominations and hosting sell-out crowds throughout its run.

“The play still has the epic sweep of the movie,” explained Bill Church, the director of theater at Interlochen. “We ‘go on’ planes, we have stewardesses, and of course we still follow the same plot of this kid con man and FBI agent Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks in the movie, who chases Frank down.”

What makes the play even more fun is the music — flashy production numbers that emerge from the plot and borrow from the sounds of ’50s and ’60s television variety shows, much of which hews close to lounge music.

“Catch Me If You Can actually makes a great musical!” Church said.

MACH-ONE TALENT

Interlochen’s version of the play is a student production, albeit an ambitious one, as staged by actors from the academy’s six-week high school musical theater production camp. Only 40 students are accepted to this particular program.

“It’s a rigorous audition process,” Church said. “It’s a combination of some live auditions as well as some on tape, as these kids are not just from the U.S., but from all over the world.”

And the band, also made up of Interlochen talent, sits right on stage so that they are a more integral part of the show.

“This is a big dance show too,” Church added, “and it has an extensive set design that’s really going to challenge our designers, but I know our head set designer, Elinore Loomis, can pull it off.”

“The whole thing is going to take a lot of preparation. As the campers arrived, their first 3–4 days were spent auditioning for parts in the show, and then we started rehearsals toward the end of June.”

Church said he’s looking forward to the dance numbers the most, along with one of Agent Hanratty’s songs.

“One of the biggest songs in the whole production is his song “Don’t Break the Rules,” Church said. “That one’s going to bring the house down, for sure!”

Catch Me If You Can - The Musical will be performed in Corson Auditorium at Interlochen Center for the Arts on August 4 at 7pm. Tickets are $28 adult/$25 senior/$10 youth. For more information visit tickets.interlochen.org

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