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Suspense drives GHCT whodunit

Audiences who catch “Catch Me if You Can” will need to pay close attention to characters’

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By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer 6:55 PM Thursday, February 4, 2010

HAMILTON — Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre’s new play may be called “Catch Me if You Can,” but there ends its resemblance to the Steven Spielberg film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.

This Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert play, which premiered in 1965, is a whodunit revolving around a couple that is honeymooning in the Catskills. The husband and the wife argue, and the wife leaves. This all happens off stage, before the show starts, explained its director, Pat Ganz.

When the curtain rises, the audience realizes the wife has gone missing. Someone claiming to be the wife shows up, but the husband swears up and down this woman is not his bride.

The key figure in this mystery is Daniel Corbin, the male half of the couple who is charming but impatient and certainly flustered when his wife goes missing. He’s played by Brian Daniels.

“You really have to pay attention to everything going on with the other characters. Just like on the cover of our program, it’s a chess game,” Daniels said.

The chief inspector investigating the case is named Levine, a smart-aleck who is good at his job and provides the play’s comic relief. He’s played by Daryl Olthaus.

Molly Wanko plays the woman who may or not be the real wife, and Dick Bell plays Father Kelleher, a kindly man who wants to help, but who also understands more than he lets on, Ganz said.

“There are no stereotypes here,” Gantz said. “There’s just enough of what you might expect, but there’s also things that you wouldn’t expect of these characters.”

Ganz directed the show 30 years ago for GHCT and found that she kept thinking about it every so often, so she decided to give it another crack.

“I think it’s better than an Agatha Christie story because I think it’s more natural, more American — it has more things or audience would relate to,” she said.

Ganz said that each act has its own “reveal” that keeps the audience on its toes, but she can’t say much more than that because the success of the play hinges upon not revealing spoilers.

“When it was on Broadway, there were signs that said, ‘Please don’t give away the ending’ — because it’s no fun then!” she said.

ontact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.