#cats40

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Hello yes this is beautiful and I love it.

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A Q&A celebrating the 40th Birthday of the musical CATS joined by Cats cast alumini:

Jacqui Scott (Grizabella, London and UK tour, 1991–95)

Jeff Leyton (Deuteronomy, London 1995)

Barbara King (Rumpleteazer, Demeter, Jennyanydots, Grizabella, London production and various UK tours from 1989 to 2008)

Paul McCready (Carbuckety and Mungojerrie, UK tour 1995)

Jacob Brent (Mistoffelees, 1998 film, Broadway 1994–99, London 2001)

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Next in this little series of earlier productions for the 40th anniversary: Buenos Aires! 'Bustopher Jones' - and also the end of 'Grizabella the Glamour Cat', because those ladies are beautiful.

This production followed on from the Mexico tour of 1991, with only a little adjustment to design and cast. (Eg, swing Admetus has vanished, but Quaxo is still there.)

When they arrange themselves around Bustopher on his seat, Munkustrap and Alonzo are behind Mistoffelees, and Plato and Coricopat are behind Skimbleshanks. (Plato looks almost like a black and white Alonzo, with a very stark contrast between his dark patches and white body.) Pounce and Tumble of course are on the ground in front of Bustopher (Pounce on Mistoffelees' side and Tumble on Skimble's), and I think Quaxo is with the girls.

The 'inspection' line-up, left to right, is Pouncival, Tumble, Alonzo, Quaxo, Plato, Coricopat, Misto, Munkustrap. And delightfully, at the end, Jenny swoons into Jelly's arms!

The gentlemen: Martín O'Connor (Bustopher), ?Miguel Angel Elías (Mistoffelees), Darío Petruzio (Skimbleshanks), Robertino Loras (Munkustrap), Reginaldo Pereira (Alonzo), Diego Jaraz (Plato), Luis del Valle (Coricopat), ?Ariel Stollier (Pouncival), Oscar Machado (Tumblebrutus), Diego Funes (Quaxo).

The ladies: Diana María (Grizabella), Conie Marino (Jellylorum), Patricia Clark (Jennyanydots), Silvia Aruj (Bombalurina), Inés Dubini (Demeter).

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Today's production for my 40th anniversary series: Mexico, 1991.

The Mexico and Buenos Aires productions of the early 1990s are a curious little outlier in terms of production history: theoretically Broadway-based, but with amazingly voluminous wigs reminiscent of Amsterdam and Paris, with their own visual style which it takes some time to work out (at least if you're looking at 30-year-old bootlegs!).

One interesting note is the presence of swings like Etcetera, Quaxo, Jemima, and Admetus (Sillabub and Plato are first cast characters) - where Etcetera's design is based on the Broadway/London swing NBQ/Greycat (greyish brown, sleek with no floofies like Cassandra's, but with a full wig) and Jemima's is based on AJ (like the traditional Jemima/Sillabub costume but with large white patches making her strikingly asymmetrical).

When it came to the (technically non-replica) Mexico revival in 2013, the influence of these designs can still be seen: the colours are now bolder and more beautifully fantastical, but (e.g.) Etcetera's design at least has the same distinctive patterning. ​

Featuring Armando Moreno as Skimbleshanks; also Manuel Landeta (Munkustrap), Enrique del Olmo (Deuteronomy), Lenny Zundel (Mungojerrie), Maru Dueñas (Sillabub), ?Guillermo Téllez (Pouncival), ?Guillermo de Uslar (Tumblebrutus), ?Claudia Meyer (Victoria).

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Zurich is the next in my series of original productions for the 40th anniversary week!

Zurich and the subsequent European tour is the last of the major productions derived from the original Vienna production, though it merges with the London tradition - especially as regards costume design, though it adds its own particular twist there too.

So far as I can tell, Paul Hadobas is Munkustrap here, with that magnificent Munkustance. Rory Campbell is Gus, Brian Carmack is Tugger, Lindsay Chambers is Mistoffelees, and Tina Decker is Jemima.

For the rest, the first cast is: Alonzo / Rumpus Cat: David Kent Bombalurina: Andie Mellom Cassandra: Laura Quinn Coricopat: Adam Richard Jones Demeter: Danielle Brunner Deuteronomy: Jan Polak Jellylorum: Niki Romijn Jennyanydots: Jasna Ivir Mungojerrie: Michael Fritzke Plato: Alexander Riff Pouncival: T J Hee Rumpleteazer: Kristi Sperling Skimbleshanks: Rod Roberts Tantomile: Niki Ankenbrand Tumblebrutus: Ton Voogt Victoria: Angela Savage (PS, Tumblebrutus forgot his shoes! 🥺)

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Number 8 in this 40th anniversary series: 'Macavity', Paris 1990.

Ladies, those wigs..!

Leslie Ariam as Bombalurina and Laure Balon as Demeter; 1990, in the final week of the production.

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DEMETER & BOMBALURINA | CATS @ 40 #cats #demeter #bombalurina #cats40 #catsmusical #catsfan #digitalart #kitten #jelliclecats #catsfanart #digitalillustration #digitalartist #characterart #doodle #andrewlloydwebber #cats1998 #drawing #digitaldrawing #characterdrawing #cats40thanniversary #characterillustration #illustration #illustrationartists #colour #fanart #photoshop #art #artistsoninstagram #artist #doodle #burtonsdoodles https://www.instagram.com/p/CO6QRIIH7Jo/?igshid=1s4cx0u06iwua

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Sixth in my 40th anniversary CATS celebration: the Hamburg production, beginning in 1986!

Since I've posted a lot from this production (especially the 1999 bootleg, but also from 1995) I'm doing something a little different for today: looking at the process of 'becoming', rather the final performance.

This is an abridged version of a 1991 documentary of Frank Tiedemann joining the company and rehearsing for the role of Mungojerrie. I've cut out all the bits of long talking and reflection in German (if anybody wants them I can upload the complete version), to focus on just the cats. So we see them messing around behind the scene, we see him being fitted for his wig and learning his makeup and rehearsing with Rumpelteazer, and finally some snippets of performance.

(Incidentally, near the start, there's a cute moment where Rumpelteazer hops up on Alonzo's back, the Plato pretends he's about to piggyback on her at the same time!)

Rumpelteazer should be Annie Yarbrough; and the first cast for the other roles that we see are Warren Carlyle (Alonzo), Carolanne Wright (Jenny), Thomas Weigel (Mistoffelees), Alton Spencer (Deuteronomy), Hans Kriefall (Plato), Jimmy Jillebo (Pounce), and Stewart Crowley (Tumble).