#cats augustus

[sevenkittensinatrenchcoat]

Cats 101: WTF Is Going On: The Naming of Cats

Just like in the previous number, we’re outside of linear time. After seeing the stupid humans being confused, the cats from a sort of “pyramid” and do this sort of chant about cats having a normal name and a silly name, which raises more questions than it answers. I don’t have that much story stuff to explain here, so a lot of this is gonna be screenshots I drew a bunch of circles on and some trivia.

When the cats form their pyramid, it’s the best time to “take attendance” and make sure you know who everyone is. A few cats were missing from the tire choir, and that’s not uncommon in stage productions, but this pyramid usually has everyone there.

As a quick recap of who everyone is:

From Left to Right

Top Row: Plato, Alonzo, Munkustrap (a bit hidden), Old Deuteronomy, Coricopat, Tugger, George

Second Row: Tumblebrutus, Cassandra, Bombalurina, Asparagus, Skimbleshanks, Exotica

Third Row: Jellylorum, Mistoffelees, Jennyanydots, Grizabella, Tantomile, Mungojerrie

Bottom Row: Electra, Rumpleteazer, Demeter, Pouncival, Jemima, Etcetera, Victoria

The Naming of Cats lists the names of several characters, but because those characters are never directly addressed by name, you wouldn’t know it. Out of every name listed in the number, James is the only one that has never been used for a character in a production of cats.

You’ll notice that Asparagus has been circled. That’s because newer American (2016-) productions have a character with this costume only in the opening, played by whoever plays Bustopher/Gus, who is credited as Peter.

One South Korean production named an extra Augustus. I haven’t been able to find a picture of him.

And Alonzo is circled, because Alonzo is Alonzo.

Okay, more circles, more trivia.

Once again with American productions after 2016, they gave separate names and characterizations to the costumes the actors playing Old Deuteronomy and Tugger wear in the opening. Old Deuteronomy is called Victor and Tugger is called Bill Bailey.

Out of these opening characters, the only one I know anything about is Bill Bailey, because the most recent American tour cast has filled in some of the gaps. Zach Bravo, currently touring America as Tugger, decided that Bill Bailey was a previous Jellicle Choice who was reborn as Tugger. We can see both because of the whole “linear time” thing I’ve already explained.

Victor is also the name of a character in the original London production, the only character from said production not to be included in the VHS.

A South African production that eventually became a world tour had an extra named Jonathan, who looked pretty much the same as George.

George is circled because George.

Bill Bailey is the London version of Tumblebrutus, so I circled Tumblebrutus as well.

Plato, Electra, and Demeter are all characters in this production. George has also been circled because he’s sometimes credited as Admetus.

Munkustrap and Coricopat are circled because that’s who they are. Mistoffelees is circled because London productions credit him as Quaxo outside of his number. The credits of the VHS don’t do this, so I don’t think 1998 Misto counts as Quaxo, but I circled him anyway.

In productions that use the name, Quaxo and Mistoffelees are usually alter egos of sorts. They’re still the same character, in the same way Clark Kent and Superman are the same character. However, Clark Kent Quaxo can use magic and doesn’t really try to hide it, so the alter ego thing might be a little bit pointless. This is really confusing, which is why this naming convention just doesn’t happen outside the UK.

Two more names, two more circles. Nothing complicated here.

Bonus Fun Fact: TS Eliot’s cat was named Jellylorum, which he included in the poem that became this number. I have no idea where he got the name from, but he was something of an expert in Weird Cat Names.

Other Cats That Appear in Some Productions That TS Eliot Named (but not in any official poem, so you otherwise wouldn’t know): Tantomile, Carbucketty, Pouncival, Sillabub, Noilly Prat, Murad, and probably a few others. Only two of those names are relevant to this production though. Apparently, Tantomile is a name for a witch’s cat and Pouncival is a combination of “pounce” and the name Percival, which is just cute.

Now we get to the part that really only fully works when there’s an audience to interact with. In the video, the cats crawl around the stage a bit and form groups. In a stage production, they crawl around the audience. It’s like the yellow/green eyes during the Overture.

Well, wherever most of the cats go, Victoria wanders off in her own direction. You might notice that as this scene goes on, Victoria starts acting a bit strange.

The Strangeness inspires her to do this:

After that, everyone but Victoria leaves. Technically, Misto doesn’t leave, he just hides while waiting for his cue, but just pretend everyone leaves.

[acefeather2002]

Here's a link no one asked for:

CATS Fandom, you'll really appreciate this!😉

[sevenkittensinatrenchcoat]

Personalities of Named Swings

So, I spent way too much time on a little project yesterday.

Some Cats productions, especially those from Asia and Australia, have what are called named swings. These are characters in the show who have names, but don’t have much of a real role to play. They’re played by actors who step in to play more important characters when needed. When they do this, the swing character isn’t there for that show.

Example: George is often a named swing. In China, he was a cover for Munkustrap. So, if they actor playing George covered Munkustrap for a show, George wouldn’t appear in that show.

Characters who were in the original London production, but often cut from smaller casts, such as Electra, Etcetera, George, and Victor become named swings. In productions with full characters named Plato, Pouncival, Sillabub, and Tumblebrutus, there might be named swings named Admetus, Carbucketty, Jemima, and Bill Bailey. Quaxo is a common named swing, unrelated to Mistoffelees. There are also a handful of characters who’ve only ever been named swings: Murad, Noilly Prat, and Olivia.

This is the usual crowd of named swings, though a few others have shown up over the years. Since these characters normally just fill up space onstage, they don’t normally have established personalities, but occasionally a production will create little character bios and include them.

One production to do this was South Korea 2008. It was the first official Korean language production of the show. There had been at least one South Korean Tour before, but it was performed in English. There had also been an unapproved production in Seoul in 2001, but it got shut down. 

Outside of Japan, which has its own traditions, Asian productions tend to be influenced by Australian productions, which tend to include tours of Asian countries. So, like the Australasian tours of the time, South Korea included named swings. The Cats wiki has what appears to be a list of short character bios:

The last two pages contain named swings: Victor, Olivia, Admetus, Quaxo, Electra, George, Jemima, and Etcetera. This production also had a swing named Augustus, but absolutely nothing is known about him. 

So, I got curious about what these little character bios said and Google Translate exists. I was originally going to translate all the bios, but just doing the swings was still frustrating and exhausting.

I couldn’t find a source from which I could just copy and paste the Korean text into Google Translate, which means I had to type everything out myself. But, my computer doesn’t have an option for typing Korean on it and before I started this project, I didn’t even know how the Korean alphabet worked. So, I found a website with a Korean keyboard that I could use to copy the letters on the screenshots, and then copy and paste that into Google Translate. There were several letters that I’m guessing aren’t very common, since the keyboard simply would not imitate them. Sometimes Google Translate was able to fill in the blanks, but sometimes it wasn’t. So, because of how much work it was, I decided that I already know the personalities of the official characters and I should just do the named swings. 

Electra, Etcetera, and George have established personalities from the 1998 film, but I translated those as well. But, now I’ve got some info on what one production says about an Admetus that isn’t Plato, a Jemima that isn’t Sillabub, a Quaxo that isn’t Mistoffelees, Victor, who wasn’t in the 1998 film, and Olivia, who’s only ever a named swing.

Of course, these translations are probably full of holes, considered the method they were translated through. If anyone reading this actually knows Korean, I would love to hear a better translation than my weak attempt.

“Strong on the inside, a generous, gentle cat with a manly look”

I think he’s sort of a “generic tall boy swing”, one of the Jellicle protectors, much like Plato usually is, which would make sense for an Admetus.

“Interfering here and there. Busy and always distracted”

This is one of the ones where I’m pretty sure the translation broke down a bit. I would interpret this as an energetic, daring kitten who always wants to get involved in the action and join the adults.

“She’s a cat who gets along well with everyone and feels before she thinks”

I’m guessing she would often be played as on of the kittens determined to befriend Grizabella.

Okay, this went so badly that I actually kind of gave up. From what I could gather, he has a tendency to show off. This would be great characterization for a Rumpus Cat, but named swings don’t get that sort of role. Though, the headscarf he’s wearing looks like a piece of a Raffish Crew costume, so he might’ve joined in there.

“Is attentive in everything and acts responsibly”

I think the Chinese Jemima swing was basically described as identical to Sillabub. This ones a bit different. I’m not really sure what’s up with her. Also, I’ve just noticed that Jemima and Olivia look like twins in this.

“She is thoughtful and has a strong personality”

I shall now refer to Swing Jemima and Victoria as The Vague Twins.

“A solitary cat with a strong sense of pride, who does not get along well with others most of the time.”

This is one of the more detailed descriptions I managed to get. Quaxo’s manner is vague and aloof, basically. 

“He is more stubborn than any other cat and has a hot-blooded personality.”

I don’t have much commentary for this one. I’m just gonna say that Swing Victor has a really weird design...

So, that’s it, really. Once again, if anyone reading this can do better, please do so.