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Sunday October 3, 1999
Mary and I were sitting at dinner last night and she said to me I want to go to the Sunday matinee show of CATS. I looked at her a little surprised cause I was just thinking that same thing, but didn't know how to ask her and since she's the one who drove I was at her mercy. So we got up early checked out of the hotel and had the hotel hold our bags till after the show. We went and had brunch and, than at noon time we went to the Winter Garden Theatre and purchased stage tickets for the matinee show. We got seats A 20 & 22, we didn't tell any of the cast that we decided to stay, but I don't see how they could miss us cause we're right up on stage second row.
We met up with Cat Morgan before the show, and as we were hoping, he graced us with some old cats stories of the original cast and of the current. I finally remembered to ask him about the original Mistoffelees, the late Timothy Scott. Timothy was my favorite cat and he was the best dancer, I miss him so much. Until the video Timothy was the only one I had ever seen play the part of Mistoffelees, how ever since than I've seen Jacob Brent, Jonathan Taylor, and Patrick Mullaney.
The Usher that took us to our seats remembered us from Saturday and she stayed to talk to us for a bit. Our seats were just one row back from our stage seats we had at the Saturday matinee.The show started and again we had gus with the blinking eyes in our section, he's a real character.
During the Jellicle song Rum Tum Tugger comes out up above on sort of like a little balcony and when he sings his lines, he smacks his hand up against a prop and it makes a loud noise. The first time I saw him do this it startled me, but now I look forward to it. Also on this song we had a hard time hearing Jacob when he sang "the pipers assistant" his mic may not have been working too good today.
In the old Gumbie Cats song, when Munkustrap is clowning around with Jennyanydots he tickles her feet and than plays with them and than he gives the biggest smile. During the tap dance part it's Skimble who comes up behind Jenny with a fork in stead of Pouncival like in the video.
Rum Tum Tugger song: Tugger always chooses someone in row K to dance with, while the cast is dancing on stage. While Tugger is out in the audience dancing Munkustrap is standing on the big tire in the back giving Tugger mean and dirty looks. So if your going to the show and want to dance with Tugger sit in row K. But if you don't don't sit there cause he just might choose you.
In Bustopher Jones song today, when they get to the part where the male cats all line up for inspection, Mistofflelees is off playing around with another cat. Alonzo, with an exasperated look on his face, realizes Mistoffelees isn't where he's suppose to be and has to go get him and put him into the line with the rest. Mistoffelees all the while smiling than starts to fix himself, and Munkustrap who's standing beside him turns to Misto he starts to fix Munks fur and ears. It was so funny, we never saw them do this before. Which is what makes this show so unique, their always doing something new to keep people like me interested.
On to Old Deuteronomy, Tugger is standing in back on the tire and the cats are all rolling around on the floor while Munkustrap is singing, Tugger is all smiles and laughing, but when Old Deuteronomy comes on stage Tugger gets mad stomping his foot and putting his hands on his hips because Old Deut. is ignoring him. When Old Deut finally notices Tugger, Tugger get all smilly again and motions to other cats, like saying see he like me. Than Tugger helps Old Deut sit on the tire continuing to stand over him while Munkstrap starts to sing Pekes & Pollicles.
Here's some little tid bit I thought I throw in here, and they all pertain to the Broadway show. Grizabella's tail is about 5' long, Mistoffelees has a patch of white fur on his left side. Rumpus cat wears some kind of helmet on top of his head under his head costume ( I would imagine this is to protect his head when he pops up throw the trap door in the stage). Munkustrap wears one brown shoe and one black shoe. Ok enough for now, back to the show. While talking to Cat Morgan Cindy asked him about Timothy Scott (original Broadway Mistoffelees) and he told us that Timothy was only 5'1 which is about 5 or 6 inches shorter that Jacob is ( what a great dancer I wish he was still with us).
After intermission as the cast slowly comes back on stage one by one, Gus comes on by himself and Jellylorum come on later. Gus sits on the floor and not on a stump, Mistoffelees come out and fix's Gus's garment around him all neat he than gives Gus a smile, than he goes off to join the others. During one of the song (I think it was this one) the lights go down and we noticed the clouds in the back ground looked like they were moving, it was so beautiful.
Macavity song: The hench men don't throw a net over Old Deuteronomy they just drag him off stage by way of the left ramp. After the the Macavity fight and the lights go off. One of the cats that shines the spot light Demeter and Alonzo as they rub heads, not Munkustrap and Demeter. Munkustrap is off to the side and the other cats are with him as they look on to Demeter and Alonzo.
Today we saw Jacob dance like we've never seen him before, he did the normal turns as usual except after he finished he did these spins ( I don't know what you call them, but it remind me of a spinning top. LOL.) like the kind you'd see an ice skater do on ice, except he did it on the tip of his toe's. He than came out of that spin and than went to the front of the stage and did these spins again. WOW! we were in total awe, (if you could have seen our mouths you would have laughed) we thought he was going to spin right off stage because he was so close to the edge or at least it looked like he was, but he knew what he was doing and came out of that and went right on with the rest of the dance. Also during this song after Mistoffelees chooses Cassandra, she trys to run away but is stopped by Skimbleshanks and Tumblebrutus. From where we were sitting we could see Deuteronomy under the red cloth because the cloth isn't as big as the one on the video and in the back it doesn't cover Deuteronomy all the way up.
After Deuteronomy sends Grizabella to the Heaviside Layer the big tire comes down about half way and the cast gathers around it on all sides except the back. When Deuteronomy sings the part of the song where he mentions food all the cats are reacting to him, like slicking there lips, Tumblebrutus ( Patrick Mullaney) does some really good ones. Than we look over at Misto (Jacob) and he curls the one side of his lip up, like saying yuck. The show ended and as the cast took their last bowls Joel Briel (Old Deuteronomy) again did a cartwheel onto stage and got a big cheer from the audience.
We again waited for the cast after the show and got some really great pictures of the female cast members and some male. among them were Tesha Buss (Rumpleteazer), Billy Johnstone (Coricopat but Mungojerrie today), Missy Lay Zimmer (Victoria), Jonathan Stahl (Alonzo), Sharon Wheatley (Jennyanydots), Celina Carvajal (Demeter), Linda Balgord (Grizabella), John Dewar (Bustopher/Asparagus/Growltiger), Jean Arbeiter (Jellylorum/Griddlebone) with Patrick Mullaney (Tumblebrutus) and a picture of Jacob Brent (Mistoffelees) all by himself for Kyra cause she couldn't make it to this show. We stayed around and talked to Keith Wilson (Macavity/Rumpuscat/Plato) and Tesha Buss for a while, we didn't stop to talk to Jacob cause we heard him tell a fan he was really tired so we just waved goodby to him and said see you next time. Then Cat Morgan walked us back to our hotel and that's the end of another great weekend.
Thanks to everyone who helped with this story. Mary, Cat Morgan, the cast of CATS the ushers and Denise who is the program sales lady in the theatre lobby, who after being with CATS for so long very time (I know it's been longer than five years) will be leaving the end of October to go work at the Radio City Music hall. We'll miss you Denise.
Our next report will be in November, See ya than.
