"Playwright and librettist Terrence McNally will write the book for the new Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman musical based on the2002 Steven Spielberg film, Catch Me If You Can, Shaiman told Playbill On-Line.

McNally's involvement in the project has long been suspected. Wittman and Shaiman are the Tony-winning composing team of Hairspray.

In landing McNally, Shaiman and Wittman are getting one of the two most sought after musical librettists in the American musical theatre (the other being Thomas Meehan). McNally has penned the books for Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime, The Visit, A Man of No Importance and The Full Monty. He won Tony Awards for the first two.

The three will work on the show with filmmaker Spielberg. Work is to begin in the last week of October.

Catch Me If You Can, the true story of a compulsive young con man and the federal agent who pursues him, starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, as well as Christopher Walken as the father of the DiCaprio character. The picture takes place in the 1960s, a period the writers feel comfortable in, having just worked on the 1962-set Hairspray.

Source: /www.playbill.com/"">Playbill

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