CATCH ME IF YOU CAN Begins Tonight at Progress Energy Center in Raleigh

North Carolina Theatre, celebrating 30 seasons as the region's premier non-profit, professional regional theatre, and Broadway Series South, the anchor presenter of First National Touring shows are proud to launch into their second collaborative season with the presentation of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts tonight, November 6^th – 11^th.

Based on the hit DreamWorks film, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN captures the astonishing 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.

The charming, high-flying con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr. will be played by Stephen Anthony and Carl Hanratty, the FBI agent who is always on Frank's tracks, will be played by Merritt David Janes. Additional casting includes Aubrey Mae Davis as Brenda Strong, Caitlin Maloney as Paula Abagnale, Amy Burgmaier as Carol Strong, D. Scott Withers as Roger Strong, Travis Mitchell as Agent Branton, Ben Laxton as Agent Dollar. Durham native and former Riverside High School student DerRick Parks has been cast as Agent Cod, alongside Amanda Braun, Ashley Chasteen, Taylor Collins, Vanessa Dunleavy, Michael Graceffa, Colleen Hayes, Mary Claire King, Trevor Leaderbrand, Casey Renee Rogers, Daniel J. Self, Allyson Tolbert, Nadia Vynnytsky. Another castmember with local ties is Bradley Allen Zarr, originally from Rocky Mount.

This engagement follows hot on the heels of the recent Broadway run, where the show received considerable acclaim.  The New York Times exclaims, "Hot diggity!  This portrait of the con artist as a young man comes to ecstatic life."  WOR Radio calls it "absolutely marvelous" and proclaims CATCH ME IF YOU CAN "A real BROADWAY musical with showstoppers to enthrall just about everyone." 

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