I don’t know who first said “let’s make a musical out of the hit movie “Catch Me If You Can”. Let’s assume it was Margo Lion, the producer, Jack O’Brien, the director, or Marc Shaiman, the composer, but clearly it was also decided to bring together virtually the entire creative staff of their last musical together, Hairspray, which had been a huge success.  In retrospect, this was not such a good idea, because their efforts have delivered a slick, by-the-numbers musical that only gets off the  ground once or twice during a long evening, and then only because the leading players are delightful and they bring some sense of excitement to the very conventional material. [Read more...]