Catch Me If You Can Books Neil Simon Theatre; Jerry Mitchell Spills Details

The previously announced musical adaptation of the popular Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can has booked a spring opening at Broadway's Neil Simon Theatre. Performances for the show, which features a book by Terrence McNally, music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman, will begin on March 7, 2011, with opening night set for April 10. The show will be directed by Jack O’Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. No casting has been announced.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies was originally set to open at the Neil Simon on an unspecified date after being previously delayed from a planned November 2010 opening. No announcement has been made on the Phantom sequel's Broadway fate.

“There are a lot of musicals being made from films, but with Catch Me If You Can we had to take a completely different approach,” Mitchell recently told Broadway.com. “You can’t tell that movie onstage the way it's told on film. Scott and Marc’s score propels the action into this 60s television spectacular concept that is happening in the [lead character Frank Abagnale Jr.’s] head as he’s telling the story. Not only is the music fun and fabulous, but it’s incredibly moving.” Mitchell also noted the design of the Broadway production will be different from the show’s initial tryout in Seattle in July 2009, and the ensemble has expanded from two to "10 lovely, beautiful ladies!"

Catch Me If You Can tells the true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a world-class con artist who passed himself off as a doctor, a lawyer, and a jet pilot—all before the age of 21. With straight-arrow FBI agent Carl Hanratty on Frank's trail, we're off on a jet-setting, cat-and-mouse chase, as a jazzy, swinging-sixties score keeps this adventure in constant motion. In the end, Agent Hanratty learns he and Frank aren't so very different after all, and Frank finds out what happens when love catches up to a man on the run.