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Story by Cindy
I arrived in New York at 10:30 am with friends from Virginia, Mary, MaryR and Jessica. We checked into our hotel, and while everyone was getting settled in I went down to the lobby and met Selina, a friend from California. We waited for the others and than walked over to the Winter Garden Theater to buy tickets for the evening show of CATS, we had tickets to go see the matinee show of Swing at the ST. James theater. For those of you who don't know, Michael Gruber is now in Swing so we had to stop in to see the show. By the way the show was fantastic, I highly recommend it to everyone.
Ok, Back to CATS, we got stage seat tickets for the evening show. After Swing we had a little dinner went back to our hotel and celebrated my birthday, hee hee can't wait to see how the pictures turn out. We got some warmer clothes on because we wanted to be warm while we were waiting for the cast after the show. Jessica had baked some cookies for the cast so we went early to drop them off before the show. Someone back stage said jokingly that he'd pay her $7.00 dollars for the cookies LOL. We all laughed and later hoped that the cast got a chance to get some of the cookies.
As we entered the theater we noticed that the Rum Tum Tugger was being played by his under study David Spangenthal. I've seen David play Munkustrap but never Tugger and thought "Hmmm", this ought to be interesting. Also Billy Sprague Jr. was standing in for Tumblebrutus which is currently being played by Mark Moreau while Patrick Mullaney is away in Florida doing two months on another show. This will also be Celina's (Demeter) last show as a teenager cause tomorrow is her Birthday and she will turn 20.
The show started and as the overture played the cats with the blinking eyes came out. we had Skimbleshanks come down the steps of the stage seats. He looked around and than disappeared.
During the Naming of Cats We had Jennyanydots (Sharon Wheatley) and Coricopat (Billy Johnstone) singing the song in front of us. We could hear them both very well too. I always knew Sharon had a beautiful voice but never had the pleasure of hearing Coricopat (Billy Johnstone) so close up and I must admit he also has a beautiful voice too, which matches his personality.
Mistoffelees (Julius Sermonia) makeup is different than any other Mistoffelees that I've ever seen on Broadway. His makes Mistoffelees looks more like a kitten. When Julius dances he's like a burst of energy whirling around the stage.
Just a little note here, I will not in anyway compare Jacob Brent and Julius Sermonia. They are two totally different dancers with their own unique style of dancing.
During the Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer song Rumpleteazer (Tesha Buss) was given a spin by Mungojerrie (Roger Kachel) and when she stood up she acted a little drunk she smiled evilly and gave her garters a snap, this was very funny LOL.
The Rum Tum Tugger song was different with David doing the part, He had no problem finding a dance partner and he really had a good time swinging that tail around.
Sometime during the Jellicle Ball, I can't remember where, Plato/Macavity/Rumpus Cat (Keith Edward Wilson) saw us and he acknowledged us. Also Demeter (Celina Carvajal) noticed us, she came over to the stage seats and banged on the a piece of junk while peeking through a crack. We didn't hear her at first so she banged harder and when we turned to look she took off and sat on the tire so cat like, hee hee. I looked over at her and she just smiled sitting there so pretty.
During the Jellicle Ball at the part where all the cats are in a huddle after Victoria mates, The Twins, Coricopat and Tantomile (Silva Aruj) get up and sniffs the air. Than it's Misto's turn, he gets up sniffs, than stands and does a little thing with his hands, but the tech. must not have been on cue or Misto wasn't on cue. Which ever, the lights didn't start to blink right away and it just didn't go off too well, but if you've never seen the live show you would have never noticed. It's just that it's so amazing to see when it all goes all on cue. After the show I over heard Julius telling another cast member about the things he did wrong during the show. He shouldn't worry so much, that's what so unique about the live theater, things don't always exactly go the right or same way everytime.
Also during the Jellicle Ball we saw Munkustrap and Misto give a hi five after Munkustrap is walking towards the side of the stage after dancing, and Misto is sitting waiting to go back up to dance. When Pouncival and Mistoffelees do their solo dance during the Ball they do a beautiful job here, all their moves are so well matched. Beautiful job guys.
During the Macavity scare Mistoffelees went to Old Deuteronomy (Jimmy Locketts) side to help him off the tire and than leaves the stage, instead of hiding and than running off stage.
The Growltiger song was a little different today with a different Tugger and Mistoffelees. The line Mistoffelees sings "woe to the weak canary that fluttered from it's cage" was sang as a straight line instead of sung a little high and kind of made funny of . That's going to get some getting used to. LOL.
Demeter (Celina) has such a beautiful voice I just love to hear her sing the Macavity song and it was very nice to see Marlene Danielle back as Bombalurina they make such a good team. The Macavity song is another favorite song of mine, I love that Macavity (Keith Edward Wilson) he's so evil *grin*. Of course Keith is such a nice person that I have to laugh every time I see him play Macavity. Their just so totally opposites. During the fight scene, my favorite part is when Alonzo (Lenny Daniel) swings Macavity around, it looks like fun and than again a little scary to.
Mr Mistoffelees, Julius did a beautiful job here. Every dancer I've ever seen do Mr Mistofflelees always throws in something different and Julius didn't let us down there, he did some beautiful flips here and there. I forget to count how many turns he did because I was so engrossed in watching him dance that when I remembered it was too late. There was one very funny part during this song. It seams Tugger was so into singing he forget to help Misto off with his jacket and Bombalurina had to give him a little nudge to remind him of the jacket. LOL.
Grizabella goes to the heavy side layer and the show ends. After the show we all waited for the cast to come out so we could get pictures and some autographs of those that we never met. Jessica, one of my friends that was with me had never seen the Broadway show so this was a big treat for her. I tried to point out as many of the cast for her as I could so she could get their autographs but they all come out all at one time and it's so hard to get them all at one show.
Billy Johnstone (Coricopat) came out and we started to talk and than Julius (Misto) came out and I got his autograph and asked for a picture. Billy said he would take the picture of us so I handed him my camera and that was the last I saw of it for a while. LOL. He went around taking pictures of the cast and who knows what else. I do remember him asking me to pose for a shot though, I can't wait to get the film developed to see how it came out. Keith (Macavity) jokingly said I hope they all come out in focus. I finally got my camera back after all the cast had left the theater, a small group of them got together and posed for me, that was so sweet of them. Thanks everyone.
We also met Jon Erik's (Pouncival) father while we were waiting for the cast, he's so proud of his son. I guess if Jon Erik were my son I would be too, being that he's only nineteen and already has made it to Broadway. The cast was Kidding Jon Erik about his limo a waiting him, but in a nice way not to make fun of him.
Keith hang with us a little longer after everyone was gone, I think he would have even gone to McDonalds with us if we would have thought to ask. Celina, Billy and some of the others asked where we were sitting at Sundays show so they could give us a little wave or something. Anyway it was a great show and we can't wait for tomorrow's show. see ya than. Thanks everyone for a great show.
Cindy aka sunsh54
