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Mr. Mistoffelees • German Tent Tour • Hamburg, March 2011
Dominik Hees as Rum Tum Tugger and Drew McOnie as Mistoffelees
Drew was Pouncival and understudy Mistoffelees in the 2004 German production in Düsseldorf. When Mark John Richardson was injured in early 2011, Drew came back for a few weeks to stand in as Misto.
An unexpected debut today in the Vienna production: Carbuckety was played by… Jo Lucy Rackham! (1 February 2022)
And she wore the Babygriz outfit to do it (though with Electra’s double-dot freckles). Top photo is her with Carin Filipčić as actually!Babygriz (Jo’s on the right), and the bottom includes Aaron Hunt as Bill Bailey, Anneke Brunekreeft as Tantomile, and Jan-Eike Majert as Coricopat (X).
I’m going to need everyone’s ‘Grizabella and Carbuckety are siblings / Carbuckety is Grizabella reborn’ headcanons stat.
Fun fact: this means she was essentially reprising her character from the German Tent Tour in 2011, when she played Electra sometimes in the classic costume and sometimes as 'Babygriz Electra’:
Matthew Levick also had a debut today—as Alonzo!
Stephen Martin Allan (Mistoffelees) was off with an injury, Johnny Randall (Carbuckety) was covering Misto, George Maniadis (Alonzo) was off, Nathan Luke (swing) was covering Bill Bailey, Riccardo Sinisi (swing who can cover all of the above) has finally been caught by COVID, and Tommie Luyben (also a superswing who can cover Carbuckety) seems not to have been on tonight. So Matt got Alonzo, and Jo covered the last 'male’ track!
Jo Lucy Rackham never wore the Chorus Grizabella costume for playing Electra on the German tent tour. Pictured here with Dane Quixall is not Jo Lucy but Emma Hunter (my first ever Electra) who was a swing on the tour and, for the first months, wore the Grizabella unitard when she went on as Electra. All the swings had to wear this costume for Electra during the tour's first season. After the first summer break in 2011, all the swings finally got to wear the right Electra costume. Jo Lucy always had the right costume though as first cast Electra.
CATS - New London Theatre, 1981 Sharon Lee-Hill as Demeter, Paul Nicholas as Rum Tum Tugger
Vienna Cassandra
Laura Edmunds, 1988
CATS - London, 1996
Character Portraits
So assuming they’re all first covers,
Rebecca Parker as Bombalurina
Katie Knight-Adams or Louise Fribo as Jemima
Zoe Smith or Joe Gibb (probably Zoe Smith) as Rumpleteazer
Samantha Biddulph as Tantomile
No, not at all.
Vanessa Leagh-Hicks as Bombalurina
Charlotte Peck as Rumpleteazer
Helen Anker as Jemima
Tee-Soo Chan as Tantomile
Great. I'm confused. Did you mean 1995, then? Not arguing, just looking for clarification. Thanks!
London cast change was usually in April so this cast was on from October 1995 to April 1996. The pics were taken in the first months of 1996 so it's still the cast before.
Alright then. I was just looking at the wiki, but if you know more, then I’ll take your word on it. Thanks for the corrections!
We have to be a bit careful with the wiki as it is - like most Cats sites - a fan project and in this case a project where everyone can write, edit, change, replace things. Sometimes people even replace correct information to wrong information. Don't ask why. So some details are not accurate on there whenever people are filling things in that they are only assuming.
I got those pictures with the actual names in the credits (tagged by the photographer), plus Vanessa Leagh-Hicks has a very distinct face. (She went on to be Ute Lemper's understudy in the London production of Chicago and stayed with that show for years as ensemble dancer and dance captain) - I would always recognise her :)
CATS - London, 1996
Character Portraits
So assuming they’re all first covers,
Rebecca Parker as Bombalurina
Katie Knight-Adams or Louise Fribo as Jemima
Zoe Smith or Joe Gibb (probably Zoe Smith) as Rumpleteazer
Samantha Biddulph as Tantomile
No, not at all.
Vanessa Leagh-Hicks as Bombalurina
Charlotte Peck as Rumpleteazer
Helen Anker as Jemima
Tee-Soo Chan as Tantomile
Great. I'm confused. Did you mean 1995, then? Not arguing, just looking for clarification. Thanks!
London cast change was usually in April so this cast was on from October 1995 to April 1996. The pics were taken in the first months of 1996 so it's still the cast before.
CATS - London, 1996
Character Portraits
So assuming they’re all first covers,
Rebecca Parker as Bombalurina
Katie Knight-Adams or Louise Fribo as Jemima
Zoe Smith or Joe Gibb (probably Zoe Smith) as Rumpleteazer
Samantha Biddulph as Tantomile
No, not at all.
Vanessa Leagh-Hicks as Bombalurina
Charlotte Peck as Rumpleteazer
Helen Anker as Jemima
Tee-Soo Chan as Tantomile
CATS - London, 1996
Character Portraits
Backstage report from the London days, featuring Karen Dawson (the show's make up designer) applying the Bombalurina make up and wig to a reporter. Notice that the rest of the costume she's wearing is actually Jemima's. Sorry for the weird cat sounds that were edited in to replace the "Lovecats" tune - wasn't me!
Whenever they say they can't tour a production with a huge set, just look at this clip from the 1990 UK tour of CATS. It's so huge. So detailed. You can guess that audiences would really get the same feeling as when seeing the show in New York, Vienna, Sydney, Hamburg or elsewhere (not counting in London as they had different design with the round stage).
Then compare it to these days touring sets - the international tour with the single components being sticked together to easily apply them. Or, even worse, the US tour with the inflatable set pieces. Not even solid in-house productions have such a big and detailed scenery anymore.... it's all about the money...
The Rum Tum Tugger
played by the Vienna production's 27 piece orchestra.
Aaaah two other pictures of me as Mungojerrie that I finally found again.
It was my first and yet only cosplaying experience and I wasn't sure if I was the right person for it. But, it was my chance to wear this authentic London 2002 Mungojerrie costume, originally worn by Adrian Edmeades and now owned by a friend of mine. ☺️
This is 6 years ago when I was still young 😂
This might be an unpopular opinion, but: I just finished binge watching "Love Victor" season 2 - and - am I the only one who really really dislikes Benji? I can't understand all the shipping of these two because he is behaving like a total dickhead every time Victor is having troubles with the people around him and with trying to be himself. As a gay man in my mid-20s now and often looking back to when I was still at school, I don't think I would have wanted such a boyfriend when I was 16 or 17.
Someone uploaded a snippet of Ruthie Henshall singing Memory in 1987.
the Rum Tum Tugger is beef
He sure is!
(Nico Kirschstein Smith, Physio Therapist for the UK International Tour 2018, as half way between Chorus Tugger and full Tugger, with a very starstruck Dane Quixall out of costume.)
But then the question becomes, what kind of beef do you prefer?
Maybe a nice Italian Steak (my personal favourite)?
(Riccardo Sinisi, cover in Vienna 2019)
How about some Waygu?
(Tokyo 2018)
Or just the classic striploin?
(John Partridge, CATS 1998)
There are no wrong choices!
I remember being totally mesmerised when one of the cast members once had a picture or a clip with that physiotherapist Nico in their Instagram story because isn't he just hawt? :D Never saw this picture of him in costume though^^
---
Back to topic:
The sexiest Tugger I ever saw on stage was Nathan Johnson on the international tour in 2017 or 2018, I think. A very attractive and talented man who was clever enough to not even try to be a bad copy of John Partridge.
Throwback to when my friend let me wear her authentic Mungojerrie costume (originally worn by Adrian Edmeades in the London production, around 2001 or 2002). I had never cosplayed before and after as I am bad at it.
I will probably never forget that day in 2015. :D
CATS International Tour, March 2017 (Zagreb, Croatia)
Old Deuteronomy: John Ellis Rum Tum Tugger: Nathan Johnson Admetus: Jak-Allen Anderson Bill Bailey: Aaron Hunt Mungojerrie: Joe Henry Rumpleteazer: Meg Astin Jemima: Grace Swaby
