Let me start this review by giving a basic disclaimer. I’m not a huge fan of the whodunit, and it’s a rare set of twists and turns that can really hold my attention. Even rarer is a production of this kind of script that is well put together enough to overcome my sincere lack of affection for the genre.
Unfortunately, the show currently playing at Richmond Hill is not such a show.
The material, an oldie by Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert, is reasonably clever, featuring a premise that isn’t as flimsy or predictable as many such scripts are. But the production itself has a huge flat expanse that covers a good portion of Act One, and the lively performances that spice up the second act come too late to save the show.
Al Whitmore plays Daniel Corban, a big shot in luxury auto marketing, who has been honeymooning in a Catskills summer house. Whitmore couldn’t come across less like a slick marketing exec, and he lends the character a dense and folksy affability that totally does not work for the role. His Daniel is dim enough to be fooled by the many lies he hears throughout the show, though the role is written as though Daniel does pick up on much of what is going on. The resulting disconnect is enough to skew the entire production.
Here’s how the rest of the scenario in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN goes: Corban’s wife has been missing for several days, and a representative of local law enforcement, Inspector Levine (Drew Carter, a last-minute replacement in the role), has been called in to find the missing newlywed. A Father Kelleher and a young woman claiming to be Mrs. Corban show up, and the Daniel character has never seen either of them before.
Though the night I attended opening weekend included an appearance by Carter, whose work that evening was his third time on stage – ever – and had him referring to a script in hand, this character was at least as sharp as Whitmore’s, and often seemed to be the better performance.
Altogether, the first act goes on for quite some time – a huge part of why the show seems much longer than two hours – but the appearance of additional characters after intermission perks things up quite a bit.
RHP veteran Dave Rash steps onto the stage in the first seconds of Act Two, carrying a take-away box of deli sandwiches (and, inexplicably, three cups of coffee in a "brunch for two"), and he earns laughs and applause before he ever speaks an entire line. What Rash really does here, as Sidney, the ancient owner of a delicatessen, is take the entire show, tuck it into the pocket of his old-fashioned windbreaker, and walk off with it – and that’s all before anyone else joins him on the stage for the rest of that scene.
Renaud Haymon and Carla Stevens (as Corban’s boss and the boss’ ladyfriend) also bound onto the stage in the second half, and these two experienced performers – like Rash in his scene – are a breath of fresh air that comes too late to rescue the whole production. Haymon and Stevens seem to be having a total blast, and their fun moments pass way too quickly.
Without Rash and the other late arrivals, there is little about this show to deserve a positive recommendation, but audiences who are happy with a middling-to-mediocre whodunit -- and anyone who will willingly sit through anything to see Rash – are most likely to enjoy this CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.
The rest of you might not want to bother with the chase.
