It was a freezing Thursday
night when I walked into the
Toland Theater in the CFA.
The theater was buzzing with
the energy of the cast as they
prepared to start their runthrough
for the night. As I’m
watching the performance, I
get the nagging feeling of déjà
vu, and start to think maybe
I’ve seen this before. My
suspicions were proven right,
when during intermission, I
got to talk with UW-L senior,
Quinn Masterson. UWL’s
spring musical, Catch
Me If You Can, is the stage
adaption of the 2002 movie,
starring Leonardo DiCaprio
and Tom Hanks. Quinn said,
“I hope this performance
takes the audience back to
the first time they watched
the movie. We want to bring
the movie to the stage.” For
those of you haven’t seen
the movie, the story goes
like this: it’s the classic tale
of good cop chases bad guy.
Although, not many would
agree that con-artist Frank
Abagnale Jr. is a bad guy, I
mean, who could resist that
charm and wit?
The musical starts with
young, seventeen year old,
Frank running away from
troubles at home. From
there he commences his life
of crime: sweet talking bank
tellers to accept bad checks
and fooling everyone into
believing he’s a pilot, then a
doctor, and then lawyer! But
all this comes to crashing
halt when the love of his life
enters the picture. All Frank
wants to do is settle down,
but how can he with FBI
Agent Carl Hanratty fast on
his tracks? Does Frank have
one con up sleeve? Will he be
able to live up to the family
motto of, “just make butter
out of cream?” In order to
find out you’ll have to come
see the show. It won’t be
something you regret. The
cast does an amazing job!
You’ll find yourself humming
the songs and chuckling at
the jokes long after the show
has ended, and with so much
happening in the show—
the crime, the suspense,
the humor, the adventure,
the romance—it has a little
something for everyone. The
production will be performed
for two weekends: Feb. 27
– March 1 and March 5-8.
Tickets will be sold one hour
before each performance
or can be bought Monday –
Friday from 1-4:30 p.m. and
Saturday from 10 a.m. – 2
p.m. That’s two weekends
in a row you have the
chance to see this fantastic
performance, so go buy your
tickets now! You don’t want
to miss out!