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Saturday 2:00 pm Matinee Show
We got up early, got dressed and arrived in front of the Winter Garden Theatre for our meeting with two others we met on the internet some time ago, Karen and Susan. They were a little bit late, but when they arrived Karen walked up to Cindy and handed her a tape and said "I think this belongs to you". Cindy was a little stunned (you should have seen the look on her face), than we all started to laugh. We talked awhile than decided to get something for breakfast at the Belly Deli across from the Winter Garden Theatre. We talked mostly about fridays show and the new Mistoffelees. Than we all parted ways to go back to our hotels to get ready for the 2:00pm matinees show of CATS.
This time we had we had second row seats right in the middle of the stage, and the two people in front of us were children so we had a perfect view of the stage. Michael shouldn't have any problem seeing us. We opened our programs and as we did we held our breath. we were relieved when we found no replacement for Munkustrap.
Karen and Susan were sitting in the next section over, front row seats. Karen looked up at us and smiled and mouthed "Michael's here". We were so excited, and than again Kyra was still broken hearted again because Patrick Mullaney was still standing in for Mistoffelees. There came an announcement that the show would begin in 3 minutes, but it was more like eight. It was like they were waiting for something.
The show began at 8:10 pm, the Cats came down the isles with the blinking eyes, than disappeared. Than came Demeter (Celina), she ran out and than crawled into the big pipe. Than Michael came out and slide down the of the trunk of the car, than the others came out. Michael crawled down and than as he stood, we noticed that he had a little trouble getting to his feet. When he opened his month to sing "Are you blind when your born", we noticed his voice was a little shaky. After everyone sang their parts, they started to dance, Michael was moving very slow. When he lifted Victoria we noticed he had no problem, so we ruled out his back problem. I also noticed he did do all the turns like the rest of the cast but kind of slow, and while they were singing he was mouthing the words.
In the Naming of Cats Michael stood right in front of us and mouthed the words to the song, all the while closing and opening his eyes every once in awhile. Like saying to himself, I can do this. When We saw this my heart went out to him, and I was thinking, Michael can't go through the whole show like this, why did they let him go on stage like this. I wanted to cry, don't they care about him. When they got to The Old Gumbie Cat song Michael seamed to be moving even slower, when he was suppose to do the hip shaking thing, he barely did it. Right after Munk helps Jennyanydots (Sharon Wheatly) take off her coat and shoes, Munk hangs the coat on the post next to him and goes off stage. When Munkustrap, Jellylorum, Demeter and Bombalurina come back to dance with the rest of the cast, we noticed right away that Munkustrap was being played by someone else. Craig Waletzko was now Munkustrap we saw him play Munk at fridays show.
Back to the Naming of Cats, Michael went out into the audience and brushed up against a little child and after the switch we heard the child tell his parents, that's not the same catman. They were sitting a row behind us, and we thought we were the only ones to notice it. We were relived for Michael but than sad too.
On the Bustopher Jones song, when Bustopher is singing and the cats are all standing around him, we noticed Munk wasn't on the right side of Bustopher but last on the left. he than switches to the middle when Bustopher does his inspection of the cats. Also in this song we saw Misto. step on Bustophers tail again, but that was the only mistake we saw him do. The rest of the show was just as good as the night before.
Rum Tum Tugger (Stephen Bienskie) was one dynamite cat today, and after the show we got a picture of him and told him how much we enjoyed his performance today. We talked to Patrick (Misto) again and Kyra asked him about Jacob and he told her that Jacob was out of town and wasn't due back till Sunday. He also said Jacob wasn't coming back to the show till the end of August. we also talked to Patrick about his performance today and Friday night, he said he was very nervous Friday night and had practiced all day today to correct the mistakes he made Friday. He told us that all that practicing paid off today when he received a standing ovation after his dance number and than again at the end of the show when the cast individually take a bowl. He's a very sweet person, We got our pictures taken with him and he signed our Playbills.
We also talked to Craig Waletzko (Munkustrap stand in today), and got a picture and him and autograph. We asked about Michael and he told us that Michael had been out with the flu the past five days. At the end of the show they announced that Craig Waletzko play the part of Munkustrap, even though we knew it all along. Anyway we asked why they didn't announced it at intermission time, and we were told that if they did that it would destroy the charactors image of the role for those that didn't notice the switch.
We than met David Spangenthal, another Munkustrap stand-in, Cassandra (Lynne Morrissey), Joey Gyondla, (stand-in for Pouncival), and an excellent one at that, and a very sweet Craig Ricks (Bustopher/Asparagus/Growltiger). We were suprised when we met him cause he had a mustache and beard that you couldn't tell with all that makeup on. Jon Paul Christensen (Skimbleshanks) was also great, I think he was better than the video Skimbleshanks. We also got pictures and autographs from him too.
We met and talked with most of the cast that day that we can't remember them all. They are the nieces group of people we've ever met and they were very excited and happy that we wanted all their autographs and pictures. We were surprised that after sweating their butts off for two hours and forty minutes, that they had so much energy left to come out and talk to us. We guess they were just hi on adrenaline.
August 7th 8:00 pm
We didn't have tickets for the evening show so we decided to go to dinner and than come back after the show because we had friends at the show, and to see if Michael may have come back even though we were sure he wasn't. As we stood there we finally realized that we were probably coming to have to leave New York without meeting Michael for the third time.
While standing there and looking towards the building we saw this white smoke coming out from the theatre. We looked at each other than someone in our party said " Oh I guess Grizabella has just gone to the heavy side layer. Than we all started to laugh being relived that there wasn't really anything wrong in the theatre. The smoke lasted a while and we started to talk to some other people who were waiting also to see the cast. We discovered they were the fanfic authors of Confusions and Conclusions (Gintora n' Paxsar's Lair! see the link to their site on our link page.). They flipped out when we told them we have read all their fanfic's.
Than we noticed this guy sitting on a firehidrend behind us, but we didn't think anything of it. When the first person came out the tan door someone in our party asked if they were in the show, and he said no but he is and pointed to that nice guy sitting on the firehidrent. We all turned and looked at him and asked who he was and he said he was a stand-in for Munkustrap, but wasn't needed today. He also stands in for Alonzo, Plato/Macavity/Rumpuscat and RumTum Tugger. We had him sign our playbills and he signed Cindy's right over his face, Cindy looked at it and than him and said "now I can't see your beautiful face". He looked at Cindy with a surprise look, and Cindy started to laugh and he laughed a relief laugh. He than said he was sorry, Cindy told him it was ok and we all started to chat awhile longer till he had to leave, with another cast member.
When our friends came out from the theatre they said that Craig stood in for Munkustrap again. We were a little disappointed but kind of expected it. We stayed any how and got autographs of all the cast we didn't get earlier. Some of them remembered us from the other two shows we attended. We talked to Stephen Beinskie (Tugger) again and was literally taken with him and we love the energy he had. We thought WOW! this guy just did two shows today and was still going strong. We also chatted with Patrick Mullaney (Misto) again, and he and Stephen asked if we were going to be at the Sunday show. We said no we were going home early Sunday, and they said awwww, please stay you guys are so much fun. After being coaxed into staying for Sundays show for about a half an hour we finally said ok.
This is the end for now see Sundays show for the rest, the best is yet to come.
