The Arts / Reviews

Theater review: 'Catch’ fetches laughs despite a few holes

By David Burke | Wednesday, June 18, 2008 | () comments

Dave Rash, left, and Archie Williams open a package in Richmond Hill Players’ “Catch Me If You Can.” (Contributed Photo)

IF YOU GO

What: “Catch Me If You Can”

When: 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday, June 14; 4 p.m. Sunday, June 15

Where: Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, Geneseo, Ill.

How much: $8

Information: (309) 944-2244 or RHPlayers.com

Maybe it was the curve ball of a Rod Blagojevich punchline at the opening night of Richmond Hill Players’ “Catch Me If You Can” in Geneseo, Ill., that got me thinking about Drew Peterson.

Like the erstwhile suburban Chicago cop, Daniel Corban’s (Al Whitmore) wife is missing. Like Peterson, he feels the finger of suspicion pointing at him.

But unlike Peterson, Corban’s wife waltzes back into his life.

Granted, the woman (Dawn Rena Lang) doesn’t look like his wife, but she knows every detail of their two-week-old marriage. With physical and mental threats, she’s keeping him nearly hostage in the Catskills lodge where they’re honeymooning.

“Catch Me If You Can” is billed as a comedy-mystery, and unlike the 2003 version performed by Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse in Rock Island, relies on the former more than the latter.

Much of that is thanks to two performers on the far reaches of the experience spectrum.

Dave Rash steals his scene as a sandwich shop owner, complete with a credible Yiddish accent and great comedic timing. The Geneseo veterinarian gets special kudos in the program for 49 performances in the theater’s 40 years. Legend has it that he milked cows in the Richmond Hill barn long before it was a theater.

The other laudable performance comes from stage manager Drew Carter, who had to step in as the detective (a meaty role in the show) days earlier after health problems sidelined the originally cast actor. With script in hand and supposedly no experience on stage, Carter showed promising comedic timing, even garnering laughs in his first 10 seconds on stage.

Lang also shows potential in the role of the wife, alternating honeymoon sweetness around guests with vitriol toward her husband when they’re alone.

On stage most of the night, Whitmore has too rumpled of a look to believably play the auto advertising exec we’re supposed to believe he’s playing — but shows the angst of the character well.

Archie Williams is creepy, whether he wants to be or not, in the role of a priest, and Renaud Haymon and Carla Stevens make a nice last-minute appearance as Corban’s boss and boss’ wife.

Although it is played primarily for laughs, director Kevin DeDecker and his cast build up some nice, tense dramatic moments as well. The up-close, in-the-round atmosphere at the barn made a handgun prop, integral in one scene and kicked aside in another, more noticeable than it would be on a proscenium stage.

The Blagojevich punchline (as well as one using Dr. Phil) pointed out some snags in the space-time continuum that easily could have been corrected. The 1965 script includes some J. Edgar Hoover references, but also has a line that proclaims, “This is the computer age!”

By keeping the show set in a more ambiguous time, the Richmond Hill production would have been more of a show to catch.

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com. Comment on this review at qctimes.com.