Catching z's while they can

Every day is the same.

Wake up, stop at Barnes & Noble for a newspaper, get an oatmeal at Soup's On! in the US Bank building at Fifth and Pike, then walk the two blocks to a rehearsal space adjacent to Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre.

There, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman are surrounded by actors, singers and dancers, an army of technical people and an excited staff as they launch the musical "Catch Me If You Can," based on the 2002 film directed by Steven Spielberg.

At the end of the day, "We just go back to our apartment and collapse," Shaiman told me over lunch the other day.

You're kidding me. This is Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the two-man life of the party in New York and Los Angeles.

These are the guys who launched "Hairspray" the musical here in 2002 before bringing it to Broadway, where they scooped up Tony awards for Best Musical and Best Original Score in 2003.

They've worked with Bette Midler and Billy Crystal and were backstage at this year's Tony Awards, where they shooed Liza Minnelli away while they worked on a closing number for host Neil Patrick Harris.

And they're telling me they never get out?

"All I know of Seattle is the walk between the hotel lobby and the theater," Shaiman said.

The only one who has truly gotten to know the city is the partners' golden retriever, Walli. She attends rehearsal in the morning, and then has a walker who takes her everywhere: Green Lake, Capitol Hill, Alki.

"She has seen so much more of Seattle than we have," said Wittman. "Everything for us is at the theater."

This, of course, is great news for Seattle. Their collaboration helped get the theater world's attention as a great place to try things out.

Other musicals followed "Hairspray," though none with the same success. There was something called "Princesses," an ill-fated Randy Quaid vehicle called "Lone Star Love," and Mel Brooks' musical version of "Young Frankenstein."

When Shaiman and Wittman got ready to launch "Catch Me if You Can," they came right back.

Why Seattle?

"They'll have us," Shaiman joked. "But really, what can be more fantastic than a theater that I can think of as our theater?

"Seattle will forever be Oz to us."

Maybe so, but unlike Dorothy and her crew, they barely have time for new shoes or hairdos.

Only when Shaiman developed a sore throat did he get across Lake Washington — to a doctor in Bellevue.

"An $80 cab ride," he said.

There have been wanderings to places like Leroy Men's Wear on Pike Street, described by one online scribe as "a pimp store."

"It's brilliant," Shaiman said. "If you've never been there, it's a part of Seattle you need to find."

They're looking for a "mom and pop" Italian restaurant with plain bread and butter on the tables, not fancy olive oil.

And they imagine they will do more exploring after "Catch Me if You Can" opens at the 5th Avenue on July 23 (it runs through Aug. 16, before heading to Broadway.)

"All I used to know of Seattle was Bobby Sherman and 'Here Come the Brides,' " Shaiman said of the 1960s TV series. "I'm still looking for Bobby and all them brides."

Bride Bridget Hanley is from Edmonds. Surely that's worth a road trip ...

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

Easy come, easy go.