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Presents CATS February 13, 2004 - thru August 8, 2004
CATS is presented through special arrangement with and all authorized
performance materials are supplied by The Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatre
Library. 1065 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2400, New York, NY 10018
The Cast
(In order of appearance)
Asparagus (Gus).....Kurt Boehm
Bombalurina...........Debra Buonaccorsi
Bustopher Jones......Danny Tippett
Cassandra................Sabra
Demeter...................Cristina Flagg
Griddlebone.............Jen Quail
Grizabella................Janne Gulisano
Jellylorum................Tess Rohan
Jennyanydots............Laurie Saylor
Macavity..................Charles Abel
Mistoffelees.............Pat O’Neill
Mungojerrie.............Matt Conner
Munkustrap..............Darren McDonnell
Old Deuteronomy.....Michael Kenny
Rumpleteazer............Felicia Curry
Rum Tum Tugger......L. C. Harden
Sillabub.....................Keittra Colombel
Skimbleshanks..........David James
Victoria.....................Jenn Segawa
(Plus there are 8 swings and 5 understudies, I’ll list them later)
Directors Notes
About the show: Tonight is the one special night each year when
the tribe of Jellicle Cats reunites to celebrate who the are. They meet
once a year at the same junkyard and hold a ball to pick one cat who will
have the honor of going on to another life and be reborn. Although they
are all members of the same tribe they do not all live together. Some of
them have not seen each other or Old Deuteronomy, the leader of the tribe,
since the last ball.
This is the story of CATS.
February 14th, 2004 Valentines Day
I added the above paragraph because in this version of CATS, at the beginning of the show some of the cats were hugging each other at the start of the show. I also wanted to add that even though there were some locals in this cast, most of them also had been on national tours with some big names, and also on Broadway.
First I want to give you an idea of what the theatre looks like, it’s in the round, except for a break in every quarter section. The first level is the stage floor and also seating for the first two rows, I had seats at this level in the first row. The second level of seat and tables are up a level followed by a third level. It’s not a big theatre so I was a little scared as to how they were going to do this show. However, I was surprised at how well the utilized the space they had. Some of the cast were our waiters and waitress, mine was Old Dueteronomy, he was a lot of fun. They don’t serve the food that’s buffet style they just take drink orders, deliver, rolls, serve desserts and of course the bill. They don’t change into their costumes and makeup until dinner is over, our waiter told us it take 40 minutes to get into his makeup and costume. While the cast get ready the bus boys clear away the dishes, cleaned the stage floor many times, in fact they even got on their hands and knees to make sure there wasn’t anything on the floor the dancers could fall and hurt themselves on. After cleaning they brought in the props. On two ends of the theatre they put up two platforms which I’ll explain why in the next paragraph.
Act I
When CATS Are Maddened By The Midnight Dance
The theatre goes black, the orchrestra, located up in a kind of small
balcony area, was made to look like they were in the trunk of a car. Now
that was kind of cool, wish we were able to take pictures. They play the
overture while the cast sneaks on stage for green eyes, green eyes looked
to me like the cast were holding green flash lights that had cats eyes
on them. All around the theatre in the walls tiny white lights flashed,
also the walls around the theatre looked like a wooden fence.
The overture finishes and no one claps but I think that was because the audience wasn’t given much of a chance before Demeter runs on stage followed by the others( for those of you that seen the Broadway show this Demeter looked and sound a bit like Celina Carvajal).
In “Jellicle Songs For Jellicle CATS” each cat sings their line and instead of Sillbub swinging on the bar it was a male cat, I think it was Macavity (Plato). When the cast stands in the pyramid this cast sings part of the song at one end of the stage and than switches to the other end of the stage. The voices in this cast were very strong and beautiful, when they started to sing I was in awe.
Demeter’s costume was beautiful, it was burgundy velour, I bet she was a bit hot under all those lights. Mistoffelees was also in Black velour, and Sillbub’s costume was crushed gray velour, she had kind of an etcetra look. All the wigs were pertty close to the real ones in the video which brings me to the makeup. The makeup was GREAT! However it look a lot like the video makeup. We had two black and white cats beside Mistoffelees, one played Bustopher Jones who also doubled for Alonzo. As you noticed in the cast list Jellylorum and Griddlebone were played by two different people, now isn’t that different?
“The Naming of CATS” was done a little like Broadway, with the cast crawling around the stage singing and pausing every once in a while in front of us to stir. Shawn wanted to touch them but they made an anouncement before the show to please not touch or feed the cats during the show.
Victoria the white cat was played by an very short and cute Asian girl. Mistoffelees was as tall as Munkustrap but he was a very good dancer. He sang his bit during “The Invitation To The Jellicle Ball” and than Munk sang his lines. During the song when Victoria stands up you could bearly tell she was standing because she was so short. When the cast danced to this song they stood all around in front of the audience instead of in rows. The dance didn’t seams as good when done this way but I could see the reason as to why they did it (Hint: the theater was round).
The Old Gumbie cat was cute, Her outer costume was a leopard pattern, underneath her costume was mostly black and leopard with shinny tinsel around her ankles and wrist and I believe there was some on her tail also. She was very comical and her voice was beautiful. The bug costumes were very different, they were kind of on the funny side. They looked a bit like clothes baskets turned upside down, except they were formed to fit around the shoulders, they had over sized tentacle and other funny decorations on them. The had forks and knives in their hands but not giant ones, these were just over sized. The dance was done just like in the video meaning that they shorten the song.
The Rum Tum Tugger was GREAT!, his costume was black with leopard around his wrist, and ankles, his belt in the front had a big silver disk attached to it. The only thing that I didn’t care much for was his mane, I thought it was a little too big in the back. Anyway he arrived from a little balcony up to our left, sang his ”MEOW”, everyone laughed. And than slide down this cool slide to the main stage floor, or should I say junkyard. He was full of energy jumping on to pipes and ladders, and than blew us away with his hip action, and of course he made all the little kitties meow in the show, and the audience at the end of his song.
The next song was listed as “The Remark” instead of “Grizabella The Glamor Cat” odd but it was done exactly like the original. Grizabella’s costume was almost like the Broadway Griz except her slouching stocking and silver shoes looked a bit to new, I’d like to see if they age any in a few months. Anyway Mistoffelees didn’t go up to her, instead he sat in the back on a pipe and watched with the rest of the cats. Munkustrap stood his gaurd as Demeter and Bombaluria sang.
Grizabella left the stage and Bustopher Jones waddles in from our left carrying his big spoon. The stoop he sits on was brought on by Mistoffelees who is also the cat that cleans it off with his tail. This was a fun number to watch and it was done pretty much like any other product.
The two that played Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer were so ALSOME! They entered from the same balcony as Tugger, sliding down the slidethrowing their sacks down first. This Rumpleteazer was power packed, her voice was strong and her dancing super. She was much smaller than Mungojerrie but when it came to the cartwheels she had no problem keeping up with Mungojerrie. Mungo was good too but Rumple really stood out.
Rum Tum Tugger sits on a ladder in front of the old car while Munkustrap sings about Old Deuteronomy to the tribe. They were very good because they kept looking towards where Old Deuteronomy would enter with excitment in their eyes, It gave me a feeling of excitment waiting for his arrival also. Just like on Broadway It was Mistoffelees who went to escort Old Deuteronomy to the Junkyard.
What I call the slow part of the Jellicle Ball (the beginning) the choreography was done a little bit different, the cats dance included the “doe see doe” and than the cast pared up and slow danced. This cast had an advantage that Broadway didn’t, they had just the right amount of male and female cat so two male cat didn’t have to dance together. The rest of the dance was pretty close to Broadway or video, and I have to say seeing it this closeup it was very exciting. I told Shawn to move back a couple of times because the cats came so close to us that we almost got a foot or butt in our faces, LOL. Delilah, sorry, I forgot to mention she and her Mom was with us, said “how did you like having a tail wiggled almost in your face” I said “it was quit nice”. During the Ball when the cats do running leaps across the stage I thought a couple of time I was going to a cat in my lap LOL, it was scary at time but also very exciting.
I thought our Grizabella was very good when she sang her song it almost made me cry.
Intermission was a blast, our waiters and waitress (the cast) had to come out and deliver drinks, and cash us out. It was funny having Old Deuteronomy come to our table in a bath robe to deliver drinks. RumTum Tugger was across the theatre from us in a section of teens that were bused in, when he came out they all went wild. Skimbleshanks was in the next section over where the owner of the theatre was seated, she had another cast member take a picture with him in his full costume. I wanted a picture so bad but they said we weren’t allowed, so that’s why there aren’t any pictures to put up.
ACT II
Why Will The Summer Day Delay When Will Time Flow Away
The Moments of Happiness was cool, as the cats can back on stage a
couple of them came right up to us, Shawn got the giggles from this. Old
Deuteronomy has a nice voice, Sillbub has a nice voice also too bad her
we couldn’t hear more from her.
GUS: The Theatre Cat was of course cut up but I did like what they did with it. When Gus sings about the time he played Growltiger the lights dimmed in the back, than a spot light come up on Griddlebone standing in the back with a big rose in her hand, she starts to sing the Italian Aria and the old Gus listens. Towards the end he joins in, the lights go out on Griddlebones and a spot light is on Gus, he than sings again in his old shaky voice and is than lead off stage by Jellylorum.
I’d have to say Skimbleshanks The Railway Cat was Shawn’s most favorite song in this show. Old Deuteronomy starts to sing, I looked around expecting Skimble to be laying asleep in the small balcony to our left but to my surprise he was up high on some boxes towards the back of the theatre. This Skimble was a, every good Skimble, he had the voice and moves that you see in the video, someone did their homework. They built the train with an old red umbrella, I think they had hubcaps for wheeles, long broom handles, big red sheet and some other stuff I can’t remember. They of course moved the train around stage and than, the part that Shawn loved so much was when the cats fall down and the train falls apart, he laughed right along with them. Sometime during this all the cat that plays Plato, but he’s listed as Macavity in the program slipped off stage.
Macavity enters from the back of the theatre laughing and all the cats scream Macavity, the Hench Cats enter from the orther end of the theatre sneaking up to Old Deuteronomy. Macavity than stops laughing and yells to them “grab him”. They throw the net over Old Deuteronomy and lead him off, than Macavity, borrowing a line from the London version, point to Demeter and yells “I’ll be Back for you”.
Demeter and Bombalurina sing Macavity: The Mystery Cat, these girls were GREAT! Unlike the Broadway cast there were enough female cats to dance in the back so they didn’t have to use two male cats to fill in. I was happy to see that they didn’t change the dance to this song I loved how it was done on Broadway. Macavity, disguised as Old Deuteronomy, enters from the front of the stage with his head bent down all the kittens go up the him but Demeter sniffs him and knows it’s Macavity, she chases the kittens away and than jumps on Macavity’s back, rips off the his disguises. Munkustrap, seeing that it’s Macavity goes after him, they do the fight dance with a few alterations, Macavity throws Munkustrap down and Bustopher Jones, who has now turned into Alonzo takes over the fight with the others joining in. Macavity, holding his side, jumps on a high pipe, kills the lights and makes his get away.
The cast sing Macavity’s not there. One of the female cats shines the spot light around and when Tugger starts to speak she shines it on him as he sings about the Magical Mr Mistoffelees. I loved the whole show all except this one song and the reason being was that it was even shorter that it was in the video. Poor Mistoffelees song was scaled down to almost nothing. There were no conjuring turns, of course, he did dance a little bit and than went right into selecting Casandra to be his assistant. He put her under the red sheet, shakes it a bit, and out comes Old Deuteronomy. Rest you know, dance around, hugs Old deuteronomy, he couldn’t jump up in his arms because he was almost taller than Old Deuteronomy. Mistoffelees does his leaps and than dance right on off stage. One thing I forgot to mention, his costume was pretty good, he had the white chest, rest was black his jacket light up, and he kept it on threw out his whole dance.
The cast settles down, Grizabella, enters and of course the cats all look away, Mistoffelees reappears on the other side of the stage, the only reason I noticed him was because his jacket kept lighting up every once in a while. Grizabella sings Memory beautifully, than Victoria goes up and touches her followed by the rest of the cast. Old Deuteronomy choose her to be the one cat to be reborn, she is surprise and honored as Old Deuteronomy escorts her to the Heavyside Layer. I was wondering how they were going to send Grizabella up because this theatre doesn’t have that capablity but they did it and it worked. The theatre starts to fill with fog as Grizabella is escorted up the high boxes in the back of the theatre, mean while the fog gets thicker, than a set of round lights come down by this time Grizabella is completely covered by the fog, the light than go back up, the fog stops and Grizabella is gone.
The Addressing of cats was of course done with the cast standing all around the stage in front of the audience, we got to hear all those great voices up close. Again I saw Mistoffelees on the other side of the stage lighing up his jacket, either he was doing it or he had no control over the lighting mechanizem.
When they finish the cast all go to the back of the theatre and one by one they take their bows. The lights come up and so ends the show.
Swings: Vincent Kirk, Renee Sambataro, Brian Jon Moran, Heather Beck,
Chris Causer, Lisa Ferris, Alan Wiggins, Alyssa Ketterer
Understudies: Heather Beck (Grizabella), Vincent Kirk (Munkustrap),
Jen Quail (Jennyanydots), Renee Sambataro (Victoria), Russell Sunday (Old
Deuteronomy)
All though all were locals in this cast some cast members have been on national tour production of other shows, some even appeared on Broadway. However, in my opinion, this cast was VERY good, and if you live anywhere near Columbia I recommend that you see this show.
The End