“Catch Me If You Can” is opening tonight.
It is a musical adapted from the movie with the same name, which is based on a true story.
“The basic plot is that [the main character], his parents get a divorce, and he’s like, emo, so he runs away from home,” senior Sarah Day said. “He starts impersonating all sorts of different careers and forging checks for millions of dollars, and then the FBI is chasing him. It’s about him and him running around the world. He loves women, too.”
The musical opens on Thursday, with the theater dark on Friday due to the playoff game at Salina Stadium that night. Tickets will cost $5 for students and $10 for adults, available online or at the ticket booth.
Junior Kort Comeau plays the lead character, Frank Abagnale Jr.
“Frank Jr., he is kind of just a cool dude,” Comeau said. “He does whatever he wants. He doesn’t really care who it affects. He becomes a fake pilot, a fake doctor, a lawyer at one point. He does all kinds of crazy stuff to make money, and really, his main goal is just to get his family back together.”
Day plays Frank Jr.’s love interest, Brenda Strong.
“She’s very hard working, but she’s very young. She ran away from home, and then she meets Frank, Jr, and he’s this really suave, cool guy, and she falls in love. It’s all about her figuring out how to be confident and talk for herself. She second guesses what she says, and is very insecure. I think a lot of teenagers can relate to that, too.”
As one of the stage managers for this production, junior Alyxandria Aldrich, calls cues and runs the show to make it more student-led.
“It’s actually very scary as my first time, because musicals are always super hard,” Aldrich said. “I’m very glad to have my other stage manager, Eleanor Burk, to help along with the process, because she has been assistant stage manager before. She’s really been guiding me, it’s really helpful having two stage managers to split the workload.”
Comeau is also stepping into a new position, this being his first time with the lead role. As a junior, Comeau was surprised to get casted for it.
“We have a lot of seniors who also deserve the role, and I know seniority plays a pretty big part in casting sometimes,” Comeau said. “It’s very exciting. It’s a really difficult role to play.”
Getting the role meant a lot to him because he grew up loving the movie and Frank Abagnale Jr., Comeau said.
“Freshman year, I was in a pretty bad place, hanging around the wrong people, not doing good,” Comeau said. “Then I joined Newsies, and it was just amazing. It was a great experience. It was a new way to find new people, to express myself.”
Comeau said theater consumed his life after that.
“I’ve been in shows, but never had any kind of role anywhere near this big,” Comeau said. “I’m really excited just to really show people what I’m capable of.”
The talent in the cast and ensemble is impressive for high school, especially with difficult choreography and music, Comeau said.
“It’s a lot of work, to [sing and dance] at the same time …” Comeau said. “Like, I don’t dance a lot throughout the show, but I sing a lot, and I can’t imagine having to dance while I’m doing that like the ensemble does.”
If you have seen the movie you can pay more attention to the singing and dances, Aldrich said.
“Like, people’s voices, my gosh, I get blown away every time watching backstage,” Aldrich said. “Our scenic design is so great to look at. The costumes are amazing. The songs are very catchy. It’s a funny show, but also serious and it’s a little bit sad show. So many dramatic moments.”
This theater group has also had a few encounters with school legend Joyce the ghost, one happening during this show, Day said. Joyce Diller was a theater student in Salina in 1949 who was later killed in a car crash, and she is now rumored to haunt Central’s theater.
“It’s not a great idea to use glass on stage because it can break,” Day said. “Two of our people in tech theater were back there and watched one of the cups just crack and a shard of it fall off … Joyce doesn’t want us to have glass on stage again, so we got plastic.”
The troupe is using Joyce’s 1949 yearbook in the musical as an easter egg, which is a small, hidden reference to something. There are also other easter eggs, like checks that say six seven, and a pilot ID badge with the lead from Les Mis’ prisoner number, 24601.
“People should come and see this show, because we put so much work into the theater program,” Day said. “I don’t even know if people have any idea how many hours we spend here. Everything about the show is very fun. You’ll be on the edge of your seat.”
