Catch Me If You Can begins at Miami International Airport where Frank Abagnale Jr. is finally cornered by FBI agent Carl Hanratty. As Hanratty pulls out the handcuffs, Frank asks if he can at least tell people why he’s being arrested. When Hanratty reluctantly agrees, Frank looks to the audience with a twinkle in his eye; he will tell us his story in “a show”.

Jake Speer and cast. Photograph © Robert Catto

The lighting changes, dancers appear – chorus girls in tiny sequined frocks, men in white slacks and tops with pastel stripes – and Frank and the company launch into the glitzy number Live in Living Color, as if they are appearing in a television entertainment show from the 1960s.

From there, the musical whisks us through Frank’s story, which is based on the extraordinary life of a real conman named Frank Abagnale Jr. who, in the 1960s, between the ages of 15 and 22, racked up $2.5 million in debt using forged cheques. During that time, he assumed eight different identities, and pretended to be an airline pilot for Pan Am, a lawyer, and a pediatrician. Wanted in...