5th Avenue's CATCH ME Earns 4 Tony Nominations

The announcement of Tony Award nominations raised a round of cheers this morning in the Emerald City as The 5th Avenue Theatre's Broadway hit Catch Me If You Can received four nods from the American Theatre Wing's honored establishment, including Best Musical. In the last ten years, The 5th Avenue Theatre has sent five dazzling new musicals to The Great White Way (Hairspray, The Wedding Singer, Shrek: The Musical, Memphis, and Catch Me If You Can), with each production earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical. Hairspray and Memphis each captured those top honors, and the Seattle-based theatre titan is keeping its fingers crossed for another triumph.

"We are thrilled that Catch Me If You Can has received four Tony Award nominations," said 5th Avenue Executive Producer and Artistic Director David Armstrong. "It is an integral part of The 5th's mission to develop new musicals and to expand this great American art form. So when a production that we developed and launched here in Seattle achieves this level of recognition on Broadway, it is especially rewarding."

Catch Me If You Can earned nominations for Best Musical, Best Orchestrations, and Best Sound Design. Additionally, Norbert Leo Butz earned a nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of FBI agent Carl Hanratty, a role he originated at The 5th. Catch Me If You Can, which opened in July of 2009 at The 5th, made its Broadway debut on March 11, 2011 with an April 10 opening. The New York Daily News heralds the production as "Sexy... gorgeous... classy," and The Huffington Post raves Catch Me If You Can "delivers a genuine jolt of pleasure to the audience again and again."

The Book of Mormon's Casey Nicholaw earned two Tony Award nominations of his own for Best Choreography and Best Direction with Trey Parker. Nicholaw received his first professional gig at The 5th when he choreographed The Prince and the Pauper in 2001, and will return to The 5th, the theatre where it all began, when he directs the premiere Aladdin: The New Stage Musical this July.

More about The 5th Avenue Theatre
The 5th Avenue Theatre is one of the nation's best incubators for new musicals. In the past decade, it has produced ten premiere musicals, five of which have been produced on Broadway, and two of which have won Tony Awards for Best Musical (Hairspray and Memphis). The 5th Avenue Theatre is also known for its world class, critically acclaimed productions of musicals chosen from both the contemporary canon and the Golden Age of Broadway.

Unique in its Chinese-inspired design, this exquisite theater opened in 1926 as a venue for vaudeville and film. In 1980, the non-profit 5th Avenue Theatre began producing and presenting top-quality live musical theater. Today, under the leadership of Executive Producer and Artistic Director David Armstrong, Managing Director Bernadine Griffin and Producing Director Bill Berry, The 5th Avenue Theatre attracts an annual attendance of more than 287,000 and ranks among the nation's largest and most respected musical theater companies.

In addition to its main stage productions, The 5th Avenue Theatre is also committed to encouraging the next generation of theatergoers through its extensive Educational Outreach Program which includes: The Adventure Musical Theatre Touring Company, The 5th Avenue High School Musical Theatre Awards, the Student Matinee Program, and Spotlight Nights. For more information about The 5th Avenue Theatre, its season and its programs, please visit www.5thavenue.org.