‘Catch Me If You Can’ Musical Lands at the Colony Theatre in Burbank

Everyone loves a good chase, and one is currently unfolding onstage in Burbank.

Catch Me If You Can, the Broadway musical inspired by the exploits of Frank Abagnale Jr., has landed at the Colony Theatre through October 18th, bringing fraudulent checks, false identities and a persistent FBI agent along for the ride.

Blake Jenner stars as Frank, a teenager who leaves home and reinvents himself through a succession of increasingly audacious impersonations. Passing himself off as a pilot, doctor and lawyer, he stays one step ahead of FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Joe Abraham) while pursuing the glamorous existence he imagines for himself. Along the way, Frank meets nurse Brenda Strong (Gabbie Adner), adding romance to a story otherwise propelled by deception and pursuit.

The musical follows Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. With a book by Terrence McNally, music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the stage adaptation opened on Broadway in 2011 and earned four Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical. Norbert Leo Butz won Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Hanratty.

At the Colony, Michael Donovan directs after helming the theater’s critically and commercially successful The Wedding Singer in 2025. Natalie Iscovich choreographs and Brent Crayon serves as musical director. The principal cast also includes Kevin Bailey and Leslie Stevens as Frank’s parents, along with Brad Griffith and Whitney Kathleen Vigil.

This staging leans into the show’s 1960s-variety-show conceit, giving Frank’s recollections a theatrical framework filled with period costumes, projections, energetic choreography and an ensemble. That splashier presentation is balanced by the relationships underneath the chase, particularly the unlikely connection that develops between Frank and Hanratty.

Catch Me If You Can isn’t exactly a fixture on Southern California stages, making its Burbank return a welcome opportunity to revisit a funny, clever and unexpectedly warm musical with a built-in dose of suspense. As for how much of Abagnale’s supposedly true story happened as advertised? Significant parts of his account have been disputed, adding another wrinkle to the tale. For a musical about an extraordinarily persuasive storyteller, perhaps that’s fitting.

Cover image caption: Blake Jenner and Joe Abraham in Catch Me If You Can, the musical, at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, CA. Photo by Ashley Erikson.

Catch Me If You Can continues at the Colony Theatre, 555 N. Third Street in Burbank, through Sunday, October 18th. Performances are Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets and additional information are available through colonytheatre.org.