The 5th Avenue Theatre announced today that it will be holding a special benefit performance of their World Premiere musical Catch Me If You Can on Wednesday August 5 to benefit the Compass Center, a non-profit agency serving homeless and low income individuals and families in the greater Seattle area.
The benefit is to honor of the memory of Teresa Butz, who was a board member of the Compass Center.
Five dollars of every ticket sold for this performance will be donated to the Center, with half of the donation coming from the theatre and half from the show’s New York producing partners.
The Compass Center serves homeless and low-income men and women over 18 years of age, a vulnerable and underserved population in Seattle and King County. It is a culturally and ethnically diverse population, consisting of individuals with varying strengths and needs.
Tickets for this special performance and all other performances are available over the phone by calling 206-625-1900 / toll-free 888-5TH-4TIX (584-4849), in person at the box office at 1308 5th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101, or online at 5thavenue.org
Friday, July 31, 2009
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8 comments:
Hi David,
We saw Catch Me If You Can on Saturday matinee yesterday. I commend the parts of the show that were exceptionally well done. The casting was great with each actors and actresses well cast for their roles in the musical play. The scenic designs and costumes were excellent. They were very creative and set the scenes well. The choreography was very good with the dancers and ensembles all added impact to the musical play.
It was a good show but I had two major suggestions for improvement.
The first one is the overuse of the foul languages (son of a bitch, fuck, etc) through out the show especially the God Dammit. If the writer wanted to get a shock effect on these play, they did and also made it a play not for children to see. The use of foul languages were inappropriate and would have been a very good play otherwise. The use of adult languages such as "men have to have their balls" was another script that did not add to the impact of the message of the play. I believe that if they clean up the script and find other words to fill in the crude, foul language, it would be a better play for everyone including the children to see.
The other part that needs improvement was the opening with the loud band overpowering the voice of Frank Jr. or Aaron Tveit. There were some parts of the play where the big band was too loud for the audience to here what was the words to the songs being sung. It would be better if the singer's voices and lyrics to the songs were being heard to understand what they were saying.
Overall, it was a very good musical production and would be better if the two aspects were corrected. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to let you know my evaluation of the play. I believe it has a possibility of going a long way.
Have a successful 2009-2010 series!
I appreciate all your work for the 5th Avenue Theater.
Arlene Doennebrink
My wife and I were visiting Seattle from Kelowna, British Columbia and made last nights "Catch me if You Can" performance as part of our weekend.
Incredible show! I wish we could see it again, and hopefully will when it goes Broadway.
This morning in our hotel I search Frank Abagnale to learn more about him (as we often do after seeing a movie based on a real life)
Frank Abagnale spoke 3 years ago at a graduation ceremony. You might find his account of his life interesting. (The movie followed pretty closely, although at the end of the musical it is explained how long he spent in prison based on the movie. Frank gives the actual account which you might want to update for your show)
Again, bravo!
Blake Roberts
Ooops,
forgot to leave the link to the Frank Abagnale speech I mentioned above. Here it is below
Blake Roberts
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6271800786378394176
David, At the performance last night they said go to the 5th Ave website to leave comments, but other than this blog, I don't see how to do that. I assume there's another way? Thanks.
HI David -
We saw Catch Me if You Can Sunday evening. Wow! Lots of foot tapping, fun-loving music. The dancing was well choreographed and performed. The casting was very well done. I loved the idea of "live in living color" and FBI Black and White. Also loved the interaction with the audience and the idea of it being a live TV show. It work really well! Lots of material to work with here as you (hopefully) head to Broadway. You asked for suggestions, and so I am offering a couple of things that I noticed.
1. The sex/burlesque stuff was a bit overdone. The whole first half was saturated with it. I did not come to see a PlayBoy follies. I know that some of this is part of his story and in the movie, but I think that it was taken too far in the play.
2. Along those lines - I noticed that (and I'm not going to be PC about this AT ALL) you have 4 skinny white girls with tight everything and 2 black girls with good voices and less than tight bodies. The costumes accentuated this - especially in the Pan AM Stewardesses get dressed number. The bikini type undergarments of the four white girls at the front of the stage contrasted sharply with the fully body undergarments of the two black girls at the back of the stage. They all need to wear the same thing - full body cover up. Costumes continued to be a problem when they got dressed and the Pan Am outfit worn by one of the heavy girls in back (covering her up to her neck) didn't go on smoothly and was not recoverable for her - too much fabric to try to get velcroed correctly the first time. Why is she covered up to her chin and no one else is? It's a cute outfit, but doesn't work in a hurry (poor girl could get it to look right and dance and just danced with a smile and an "oh well" that said the show must go on - WAY TO GO!!!). Lose some of the fabric around her chin and give her a fighting chance to get it on right.
One a similar note - the greek goddess outfits of the nurses wanting to play doctor were nice, but again - too much difference between what the skinny white girls are wearing (or what little there was) and all the fabric the heavier black girls were trying to work around.
On the flip side - why do the pilots get to have their pants on and the girls come out with not much more than their birthday suits?
3.The language - this play would be rated "R" for language if it were a movie. That could be toned down a lot without losing anything from the show (and it would stop detracting from it).
4.Fly, Fly away was BEAUTIFULLY sung!!! But such a change from the character portrayed up to that point. It might flow better if her character shows less "mousie" and more strength before he leaves.
Just my two cents. We enjoyed the second half of the show more than the first. We both loved how the FBI agent's character evolved and were surprised by that (neither of us had high hopes for him in the first half). He was actually one of my favorite characters!
Break a leg!
Carrie
My wife and I saw the musical on Sunday night, talk back night. We liked the musical. It was new. which is great. Most of the rest of the season has plays that we have seen time and time again.
I disagree with those that commented that the play was too adult. Except at Christmas time, I go to see plays with adults, not kids. This is not Disney.
The actors were great and the dance numbers were great. Music and lyrics were good; but, there were no show stopping numbers and no songs a lyrics I can recall a couple of days after the performance.
It seems like none of the new musicals have much in the way of show stopping songs and it is disappointing to see many of the new musicals based on movies. I can see why Disney does it, with tie-in promotions and cross product sales. But, this is Broadway. Do the play and then let Hollywood do the movie.
I hope the play makes it to Broadway. I can see it running for a while; but, I am not sure it will run a long, long time. It may match the run of Young Frankenstein, which was also a Seattle preview. Runs in NYC will also depend on what else is running and the economy. At NYC ticket prices, everything depends on what else is playing and the economy.
Not sure where to leave this, but at the show you had asked for comments. First, it was a fabulous show. The cast was superb. There were a few soft spots, however, that you could lose without impacting the entirety. Live in Living Color, the opener, was weak. Fifty checks was very strong and could replace it easily. Two other numbers in the first act you could lose without impacting the book or the whole, You Gotta Pay for Love, added little or nothing to the story, and Butter Outta Cream was extremely well performed but unnecessary. The third act, Brenda's song Fly Fly Away was way too long, laboriously performed and added little or nothing. She could have made the same sentiment in a brief statement. But the show overall was really magical. Butz, Tveit and Wopat were exceptionally strong. Just loved it. Joyce Lane, Seattle, WA.
Hate to be the only grump, but my son (a college theatre major) and I both thought the music was quite derivative and boring. Don't see this making it to or on Broadway without making the music more original. Having recently seen Rent, as I head Goodbye (one of the better numbers), Goodbye Love was playing in my mind and the melody of the latter was so much was so much more interesting.
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