"Catch Me If You Can"
Meadow Brook Theatre
Rochester, Mich.
Through Nov. 2, 2025
Not all lost shows need to be rediscovered. Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert’s “Catch Me If You Can,” now performing at Rochester’s Meadow Brook Theatre, is an example of that. Not to be confused with the “Catch Me If You Can” musical based on the 2002 Leonardo DiCaprio film, the Meadow Brook show, directed by Travis Walter, is a comedic mystery about a man trying to find his missing wife during their honeymoon. It ran on Broadway for only 111 performances in 1965 – for good reason.
The play is set in a Catskills summer home in 1965. Daniel Corbun (Stephen Blackwell) is frantic waiting for his missing wife Elizabeth to return or for Inspector Levine (Timothy Goodwin) to give him an update on her whereabouts. Levine arrives, nonchalant about the missing persons case, followed soon by a priest (Tyrick Wiltez Jones) and a mysterious blond woman (Ashley Wickett) who claims to be Corbun’s missing wife and knows surprisingly a lot about their relationship. With Corbun’s $100,000 life insurance policy and Elizabeth’s $400,000+ inheritance, a lot is at stake for the mystery to be solved.
With no photos of the couple or apparent eyewitnesses to support Corbun’s claims of an imposter, he often appears to descend into madness, repeatedly falling into the traps set by his fake wife. The antics increase over the course of the show’s (unnecessary) three acts, introducing eyewitnesses and murders, culminating in a double surprise ending.
While the plot may appear to be compelling, it is not. The story is silly, the dialogue is tedious, and, despite being billed as a “chilling thriller,” there was nothing chilling or thrilling about it. It’s an amusing comedy at best. The surprise ending was fast, convoluted and unsatisfying. I’m confident the more than two hours of “clues” dropped throughout the course of the show did not add up to the final reveal, but I wasn’t invested enough to check.
One of the production’s points of pride is the Corbuns are from Michigan. And although the handful of references to Detroit and Harbor Springs are written into the original script, they’re generic enough to be easily replaceable with cities from any other state.
Despite the story, however, the cast was excellent and made the most of the disappointing source material. Blackwell’s Corbun held strong as a man increasingly frantic about his missing wife, fighting for his sanity while constantly being gaslit. Wickett as fake Elizabeth flowed smoothly between being a convincing loving wife to an apparent madman and cold-blooded imposter. One of my favorite performances was Phil Powers as delicatessen owner Sydney. His animated, brash character was reminiscent of Paulie Shore but significantly more endearing.
But none of that was enough to save the show, although the audience members around me did not appear to share in my sentiment. But for me, “Catch Me If You Can” didn’t catch.
