Cats!

[lamortefille]

ddvm wrote:

Cats was the very first broadway play I ever saw. Since I live in NJ my HS’s senior trip is to see a show and we picked Cats! Plus we got to see it with Betty Buckley! Talk about completely amazing.

And I love Cirque du Soleil too. Just went to see Wintertuk. It was good but not their best show. The second half was a lot better than the first.

Since we are from roughly the same neighborhood, this is where/when I saw Cats, too. I took my daughter to see it years later when it did a short run at (then) TropWorld in Atlantic City. I bought her the vhs and she wore it out. lol

I love Cirque, too. I’ve seen Mystère three times (my fav – I was front row the second time and got pulled out of my seat as part of the show lol), “O”, which I wasn’t thrilled with, Zumanity and “KÁ”.

Has anyone seen the new one in Vegas: The Beatles – LOVE? Just wondering if it’s any good or if you have to be a Beatles fan to really enjoy it.

[Akeyla]

hardcore fan here.
*cough*seen it 49 times live, know quite a few actors personally, danced with John Patridge, sold sculptures to the very New London Theatre, gave 30 sculptures to the actors, was invited to the CATS Gala SHow by stage entertainment to exhibit sculptures, was gifted with an authentic costume by the very New London Theatre, made interviews with actors, found my best friend through Cats and my boys nickname is Mungo. sorry bragging 😉

because I am a hardcore I must hardcore you with my treasures.. me with Davviiiddddd!
http://www.geocities.com/alonstrap/munkme.jpg
my best friend with Sebastian:
http://www.geocities.com/alonstrap/lonzonic.jpg ( I have a pic with him too but not online)
the Cats sculpture SPam in 2002
http://fc05.deviantart.com/images/i/2003/46/e/d/CATS_NLT_2002.jpg

greets

Aky

[lamortefille]

Wow, Akeyla! How cool is that!? 😯

[Akeyla]

if you allow the expression: its pure spandex seeexxx!

please, you are poking the tip of a fantard nutty iceberg, once I get started I’ll be talking CATS all night… don tell I didnt warn you.

[lamortefille]

Talk away, but please use BIG letters… 😆

[Akeyla]

I do not quite know where to start… perhaps that I used to sing Memory on a table at the age of 6 in a restaurant where my Mum played piano?

or ask a question 🙂

[lamortefille]

Start at the beginning…that’s always best: -) Since this is an all ages forum, you can PM us about the “pure spandex seeexxx!” hahaha! just kidding. 😉

[Akeyla]

I knew of Memory the song at age 5, and I sang it every second friday almost for over six years at the hotel restaurant where my mum was piano entertainer. At age 10 my Dad brought me, a sceptical little kid, to my first CATS show in Zurich. I got a brochure and was instantly hooked to this guy:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/searchbrowse?q=Munkustrap&uname=carbucketty&psc=S#17
I overall saw the show sis or seven times in Switzerland, Zurich and Basel back then. This included two freebie tickets, once over a Cats contest (where I got a full costume shoot with Demeter, aka Kati Farkas) and an interview with famous Eynar Grabowski, known to have brought the two Webber shows to Switzerland, Matthew Jesser (now Cirque Soleil?) and another actor. I made my first Cats Sculptures which consisted of clay and earth from a field.
AT the same time I also started to write a fan novel based on the Munkustrap charactere. This novel is now my novel I am writing on, although names, characteres and the whole jellicles are gone and replaced by maneating cathumans… eh, but observant people can still see the CATS touch in the physical face appearance of the figures.
in 1996 Eynar killed himself and the “kittens” were lost. Everything kind of got forgotten. WHen the video came out I of course bought it. in 1998 I requested to see the original in London. Munkustrap was played by the wonderful David Ashley, portrayed as a much more loving friendly leader of the kittens, not to mention the awesome voice and that David is almost two meters tall.
Short after that I decided to go… online. I found CATS communities of which I still have some awesome friends internationally. On a Munkustrap homepage I found the first CATS swiss fan (99). SHe is my best friend until this day. We both love the show and in 2000 we both went to see the show in London, in costume (no pictures as much as you beg!). We gave sculptures to our favourit actors and got into contact with education officer, who gave us some personal backstage views and tea in his catsstuff covered office. Saw Cats my eleventh time…

and more tomorrow ….

the Munich kittens from the CATS Gala show 2006. had more pics but lost them in THE FRIGGIN COMP CRASH!

[Jasmine]

emerald212 wrote:

I went to see “Cats.” It wasn’t what I expected, since there’s no real story or in-depth plot line. It’s more like a cat audition. Of course, I could see the ending coming from the start, so there was no real mystery or surprise at the end. Needless to say, I didn’t really like it. It was very disappointing too, since I had wanted to see it for most of my life. Sorry, that’s just my opinion.

I felt exactly the same way. I was expecting so much more. But I’ve been to several other shows that blew me away. I’ve seen Phantom 3 times (last was with Paul Stanley from Kiss, not the best preformance, he had some problems hitting the high notes) saw the Lion King (that was amazing) and several others that I can’t think of right now…did see the Lord of the Rings on stage, I wouldn’t recommend it. We sat in the front row, but what they don’t bother telling you when you purchase your tickets is that with the stage moving up and down in sections, the climax has all the stages raised and we couldn’t see anything of the ending. I was furious, I paid premium prices for front row (bf’s birthday) and we didn’t even get to see the ending!

[lamortefille]

I am a big KISS fan from way back, but when I heard Paul Stanley trying to sing Phantom, I cringed. It was terrible.

That sux about the LOTR seats…I would have been furious, too!

[Akeyla]

there is no real plot in cats. or let me put it that way, it is way to loose. Unless you know the show more you cannot really combine the characters too. It also depends on the cast. Late London had a noticeable plot that based on the actors past experience, or so I could say: they portrayed certain accents of a plot more, making it alive and real. There’s good casts on good days too. So basically if the costumes and the cat portrayal dont grab you the plot wont make it better. Unless you get a really stunning singer or dancer. Or you just like the music. And the band plays good.

I’m surprised noone asked me yet “WTF 50 times didnt you get bored?”
I did see many shows in a row… like monday to friday every day one week straight. Mostly same actors, or atleast partially.
Every show is different. In my opinion CATS is one of the musicals which leaves so much place for interpretation on a playfull side, and if the actors are not (forced) strongly focused on all rules of every step (or its a shy new cast) the show can truly be a feast.

there are indeed casts(in various productions) I can stand up for, certain characters played by certain actors making the show worth, and to which I would also bring newbies (my parents, friends, etc). Others I would not, even feel ashame in a weird way.

[keschete]

Akeyla wrote:

I’m surprised noone asked me yet “WTF 50 times didnt you get bored?”

We are all addicted to something. I am addicted to Windstones and fast cars, so I can understand why you could want to see the production so many times.

I had a blast. I really enjoyed the acrobatics and the singing and just the fun of it all! I was on the first row and in the middle, so I think that made it much better. I enjoyed interacting with the cast 🙂

[Maebnus]

Akeyla wrote:

I’m surprised noone asked me yet “WTF 50 times didnt you get bored?”

Actually, my thought was more along the lines of “holy crap, how many Windstones would that have bought?” 😆 I could do it for Phantom, if I had the moolah, though there are too many others I need to see before I duplicate any too many times.
I’ve seen Cats, Phantom (3x), Starlight Express (2x), Mama Mia, Lion King, and Cirque’s Delirium. I need to not be in the Midwest (or Japan) to see more.

[Akeyla]

Maebnus3 wrote:

Akeyla wrote:

I’m surprised noone asked me yet “WTF 50 times didnt you get bored?”

Actually, my thought was more along the lines of “holy crap, how many Windstones would that have bought?” 😆 I could do it for Phantom, if I had the moolah, though there are too many others I need to see before I duplicate any too many times.
I’ve seen Cats, Phantom (3x), Starlight Express (2x), Mama Mia, Lion King, and Cirque’s Delirium. I need to not be in the Midwest (or Japan) to see more.

hehe, many. even if you include the freebies and discounts I did go to London 5x, 2x Munich, 1x Stuttgart and 1x Berlin, so food, travel and the few hotels add a nice amount.

gonna continue my ridiculous report 😉
Half a year later my best friend and I went to London again, this time with the aim to get closer to our favs, she liked Alonzo, me Munkustrap. We told them we wanted to interview them for school, and through the backstage door (who by now knew us well) I called them up. David (Munk) agreed, Sebastian (ALonzo) had ripped his groins and was not doing the show that fall. I got my pic and interview with David, but my friend didnt. Another half a year later we went to London again, and behind her back I went and asked until I got hold of Sebastian and we got our interview, and cossy shots 😉 Sebastian brought us right backstage into his dressing room, total eye candy for us. Back then they had those magical subway posters we desperately wanted to own (we were considering scraping em off) and the theatre remembered us whining about them and gave us two. We tried to get them signed by our fav actors and one of them told us he’d bring the posterts to the green room (where the cats are during intermission) and have all actors sign it. The very theatre bought 3 sculptures from me for their workers … only later would I realize that… that was illegal, for both me and them 😉 (eh… RUG)
The same year I found my boyfriend on a Cats chat, on the 11th of May (this date means something). May 2002 we (my boy could not come along) went to London again and because the show closed I brought each actor one sculpture. Thats 28 pieces (London has more actors on stage, they have 3 nameless kittens). The story on that one is above in one of the links. I saw the show another 12 times in German after that, but London stays London. I kept up my tradition of gifting the actors with figures, got backstage a few times. Then 3 years ago it was like a dream come true: Cats came to Switzerland, but since it was a tour they left for the next cities half a year later ( show count: 47). Before they left I gave them another set of sulptures with a small letter telling them I really appreciated what they did and that this was my way of saying thankyou. I gave it to the actors during intermission (old D stays on stage) and what I did not know was that the sculpture was handed on to the organizers of Europe musicals, Stage Entertainment. Half a year later those called me up and asked me if they could borrow my sculptures for the 20th Cats Europe Celebration. I never said WHAT? more on a phone. And suddenly she said that … why would I not come along? she’d reserve me 2 tickets and a place in the after show party backstage only… So my boy and I (the Cats couple *ggg*) went there. It was a blast but I swear I never wanna be red-carpet-prominent-close ever again. Saw the closing show after that and had a few chats with the actors, some are still on show, others got married and have kids now. Which is so sweet because somehow I always imagine little fuzzy tabby kittens when one Munkustrap actor told be he is gonna be Daddy.
and thats it, i plan going to UK again since I found out some of my favourit actors are in the tour there.
And my boy and I always said we’d marry on the CATs stage.
And thats it. CATS is the beginning of my very art and sculpting history, which is why it also means a lot to me.

PS: I dislike the DVD/Video.
of course I watch it here and then, but I am basically allergic to it 😉

[lamortefille]

Very, very cool! Thanks for sharing Akeyla! 😀

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