This is a big weekend for lovers of music and musical theatre in the Music City. A major Broadway smash based on a hit film and the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival tour both play Nashville.
Catch Me If You Can
Based on the hit DreamWorks film and the incredible true story that inspired it, the first national tour of the high-flying Broadway musical Catch Me If You Can has landed in Nashville at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Hall and runs through Jan. 27.
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-‘60s 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.
Based on Frank Abagnale’s New York Times bestselling autobiography, the hit 2002 film of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg, starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale, Jr. and Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty, with Christopher Walken as Frank Abagnale, Sr., Martin Sheen as Roger Strong, and Amy Adams as Brenda Strong. The musical
here has strong spoken and dance performances in those great roles. Tickets start at $15 and are on sale now at www.tpac.org, by calling 615-782-4040, and at the TPAC Box Office, 505 Deaderick Street, in downtown Nashville. Remaining performances are Friday at 8 pm; Saturday at 2 pm and 8 pm; and Sunday at 1 pm and 6:30 pm.
Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour
Stunning vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater joins bassist Christian McBride and his quintet for a tribute to the longest-running jazz festival in the world. Since its inception in 1958, the Monterey Jazz Festival has presented nearly every major jazz star from Billie Holiday to Louis Armstrong to Esperanza Spalding. This very special presentation will capture the festival’s adventurous, exuberant spirit with an evening of joyful fun, classic songs and original compositions at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center Jan. 25, at 8 pm.
Playing bass, Christian McBride is joined by Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, Chris Potter on saxophone, Benny Green on piano and Lewis Nash on drums. Monterey is one of the longest running jazz festivals in the world. The dream of founder Jimmy Lyons, the festival became reality in 1958 when the first Monterey Jazz Festival featured artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, John Lewis, Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Max Roach and Billie Holiday. Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour 55th Anniversary celebrates the festival’s legacy of expanding the boundaries of live jazz presentation. The show reflects Monterey’s ‘traditional/un-traditionalist’ attitude, as well as the jazz-with-a-purpose exuberance and joyful fun that continue to be the hallmarks of the festival to this day.
