OCTOBER 2ND 1999 2 & 8 PM


Saturday October 2, 1999, 2:00 PM

I'm going to skip the arrival bit and head right to the chase. LOL. This story was attended by Mary and Cindy and these are our accounts of Saturday Matinee and Saturday evening showing of CATS.

Originally we only had tickets for the Saturday evening show but we got to NY early and decide to go to the box office at the Winter Garden Theatre and purchase tickets for the matinee show.

While waiting in line in the lobby we noticed Michael Gruber's name was still on the cast list. When we got up to the box office we asked the salesperson if Michael was still in the show, he said he didn't know but if we go around to the back stage door and ask they would be able to tell us for sure. We asked the the box office salesman for stage seats on the right cause we've seen the show from almost every angle of the theatre except the right side of the stage. We got the front row seats on the right side of the stage AA #'s 24 & 26, WOW!! what a great view.

Not only is this Tugger territory but a great hang out for the cats during the Pekes and Pollicle song. (note: if you never seen the show live before the stage seats are not the best place to sit, because there are some obstruction).

Before the show Mary wanted to go to the back stage door and ask about Michael, but I wanted to eat lunch cause I was starved. So Mary waited by the door and I got lunch and went up the road a bit, away from the theatre to eat my lunch in peace. While I was having lunch I saw Stephen Bienskie (Rum Tum Tugger) come flying by. In the mean time Mary met Keith Wilson (Macavity/Plato/Rumpus cat), Billy Jonhston (Coricopat, but today he was Mungojerrie) and Jacob Brent (Mistoffelees) at the stage door. When she told Jacob I was up the street, he asked why I was up there. Mary said I wanted to eat lunch in peace (how embarrassing, thanks Mary), but I was done my lunch by than and wanted to see if that blip that flew by was really Stephen so I waited right where I was. Mary called my name and I turned and saw Jacob standing there looking at me, I didn't want to be ignorant so I walk back to talk to him for a while. After Jacob left I went back to my place, I wasn't there but a few seconds and here comes Stephen. He saw me and lite up, and gave me a high five. As we walked up to the theatre we talked a bit and than he asked if I was coming to the show, I said yes and he said see you after the show. After Mary found out that Michael wasn't in the show and that the theatre just hadn't taken down the his name, we left and went to the front of the theatre to wait for the show to start.

While waiting for the show to start, we had a good view of the back stage on the opposite side where the changing rooms are during the show (dressing rooms are up stairs). We saw some of the cast stretching and talking. The show started and it being the Matinee show there were a lot of kids there, so when they saw the cats with the blinking eyes you could hear screaming. We were suprise to see a cat with blinking eyes on stage in our section he startled Mary a little cause it was unexpected, it was Gus (John Dewar). The show started and WOW! It was so cool to be this close to the show. The Jellicle Song was so powerful this close up I could feel the voices and music vibration all over my body I was in total awwww.

During the Naming of Cats we had Victoria (Missy Lay Zimmer) and Pouncival in front of us, Pouncival (Christopher Gattelli) left and just Victoria remained. You could hear her so clear and it was interesting, as she says the words she stares right at you and doesn't even blink, like she's looking right through you. than she stopped singing and started to stare off into space while the rest of the cat continue to sing. Than they all finish leave the stage and Victoria starts to do her solo dance.

Old Gumbie Cat song: The new Munkustrap ( Jeffrey Denman) Tickled Jenny's feet, where Michael used to balance on them. After the show Jeff told us he wanted to play his character as a more Benevolent Munkustrap. Jeff Laughed and smiled a lot more than the way Michael played Munkustrap. On the part of this song were the kittens are wearing the mouse mask I noticed Skimbleshanks was one of them. When the bugs come out on stage one of them slamed their knife down right next to Mary and scared her.

Rum Tum Tugger: this song was the same as usual. The only difference was that Tugger kept coming over to us and playing with us through out the show. Bustopher Jones: On Broadway he's much more likable. He plays with the audience. His tail is longer and when Mistoffelees pulls on it he puts his hand up to keep Bustopher from falling on him. He also throws his white flower to a woman in the first row. Mongojerrie was played by Billy Johnstone he usually plays Coricopat, Billy was an excellent Mungojerrie. After the show we asked Billy why he was playing Mungojerrie he told us that Roger Kachel hurt his foot and will be out for a while. So they brought back Ramon Flowers to play Coricopat until Roger comes back. Deuteronomy was played by Joel Briel today at both matinee and evening shows.

Pekes & Pollicles: Munk, when he says "the big police dog was a way from his beat" he uses a deep goofy voice he than laughs, during the part were the cast sings while putting on there hats and shoes, most of them are on our side of the stage and we were totally unprepared for what they did next, they turned around to us and Gus gets right up close to us and says in a very deep voice "WOOF WOOF" and than Tumblebrutus and Alonzo turned and made lots of barking noises, than they all turned and barked. Than they line up and sing like in the video, but when it comes to the part where Skimble and Misto do there little dance, Munkustrap does this really thick Irish accent. Than they all go into a huddle and along comes Tugger with his bag pipes and he run right through the huddle and knocks everyone down. The rest of the song is pretty much the same.

Jellicle Ball: After the Macavity scare, when Alonzo comes out, Misto comes out almost right behind him he stays close to the side of the stage and rubs his body up againist a post. He just stays there awhile playing with Jennyanydots who's also to the side of the stage laying on a ramp that's up high. Being so close up to the cast we got to hear Jacob's voice much more clearer, especially when he sings with Skimble and Pouncival, here he uses a deeper voice than what he uses to sing "we like to practice our airs and graces". We also noticed how beautiful Tumblebrutus (Patrick Mullaney) voice is. We always knew he was an excellent gymnast and never thought to listen for his voice until we were this close to him.

INTERMISSION

After intermission the cats come back on stage slowly and one by one. Old Deuteronomy is already on stage in fact he's there during intermission, You can go up on stage and look around but you aren't allowed to take pictures of him or of anything else. They always do something new every week, this week Munkustrap came on stage kind of early and he just sits there looking out at the audience for a while, than Sillabub comes out and she sneaks up to Munk and crawls under his front paws. He in return knocking her down, but in a playful way and they roll around the floor for a while. The lights go down and Deuteronomy starts to sing, I love this song cause it's so interesting to see all the cats react to Deuteronomy when he sings certain parts of the song.

Growltiger has got to be one of my favorite parts of the show, But I've already told you about this song in my other reports, ( if you want to read more about Growltiger read my August 24th report). When the ship drops down from the back wall the crew is already on deck, their all dressed in these funny looking costumes. They each have big baggy pants on and each costume is a different color, Munk is wearing yellow and orange striped pant, big top and big fur like mittens on, Misto's was mostly blue and white striped with the same kind of mitts. Tugger had a kind of wooden leg so he couldn't move to well. They each had some weird hats on to match their costumes (Note: Misto takes his wig off before this song so they can put the glitter in it for his number, so his hair under the hat looks a little funky). I can't remember what the others wore, (I think I need to see the show little more to remember what everybody else was wearing). Growltigers costume is black and orange srtiped with some tan in it. He has a patch over one eye and a bandanna around his head.

Saturday 8:00 PM

During the evening show Demeter was played by Larissa Thurston and Celina Carvajal played Bombalurina. These two were really good together. At the evening show we sat in the Orchestra section row AA #'s 2 & 4 right next to the ramp. The show was pretty much like the matinee show except we saw it from different seats. Tugger still came over and acknowledge us.

In the begining durning the Jellicle song Misto (Jacob) was doing a little bit of the dance that the girls do in the Macavity song. During the Pekes And Pollicle song Misto and Skimble were laying on the ramp next to us and Misto got up in a sitting position and was watching the others like they were doing something wrong and he was giving them a dirty looks and than he laid back down.

At the end of the show when all the cast come back on stage one by one and take a bowl, Deuteronomy (Joel Briel) did a cart wheel onto stage (Cool).

After the show we went to the stage door to catch the cast and tell them how good they were, and we got a chance to meet the new Munkustrap, He's very tall and thin like Michael is. We also so met Billy Johnstone(Mungojerrie), Billy is a very sweet person. I also finally got to meet Tesha Buss (Rumpleteazer) and I got a picture with her. I got a nice big Hug from Stephen (Tugger) he told us he's was staying with the show and that he wan't going anywhere for a while.

We took a picture of Mary and Jacob together. Than I took one of Jacob alone for Kyra because she couldn't go to the show. So she made me promise to get a picture of Jacob for her. We talk with most of the cast for awhile, Jacob told us back in September that he might be leaving the show in early October, because that was contact renewal time and he wasn't sure if he was staying. But when we talked to him October 2, he said that he would be staying till December or maybe longer. I don't know what he ment by that but next time I go to the show I'll be sure to ask him.

While I was getting Keith to sign a picture of himself that was taken last time I was in NY, Mary Asked Jacob where he got all his great Cat moves from, Jacob told her that their taught some of the moves but some of his come from him watching his two cats, he said he watchs them for hours. Mary asked are they male or female and he said two females. Than Mary said "Oh don't you have a dog" and Jacob said "no it would be too hard to take care of a dog in NYC". We asked the same question of most of the cast that we talked to that day and some of them said they owned cats and that they watch them to get their cat moves. It's now late and we all need to go home and get some rest, but we'll be back tomorrow for the Sunday Matinee show. This story is by Mary & Cindy and the Broadway cast of CATS. Thanks everyone.

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