#skimbledots

Cats with jobs!

And little outfits!!!!

This might be my magnum opus..

aahh sorry it's late, but here's the plot for my non-replica concept!!!

so I've been tossing up on the set, but I think I've kinda decided on a broken-down old coney island-esque amusement park turned tip. the backdrop would be dynamic so you can see the moon rise and fall during the show. set would bleed out into the foyer, too.

during the overture, we see silhouettes of characters turning on the screen as the sun sets. towards the climax of the overture, a young ballerina is taking a shortcut home from class/rehearsal when she gets chased onto the stage by a group of vicious monsters... Macavity and his henchcats. we watch helplessly as she's attacked and bitten. there's a crash as the the piece ends, causing Macavity and the henchcats to flee. as the audience applauds, Victoria drags herself offstage, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. as the Jellicle Moon takes over the sky, we hear her scream in agony as she transforms for the first time.

the scream causes Munkustrap to poke his head out, starting Jellicle Songs. Jenny is one of the first to enter as well, and immediately starts cleaning the blood - can't have that slip hazard when there's kittens at the ball! the choreography in the first couple of choruses is stiff and rigid, as the Jellicles are still sort of shifting/getting comfortable/stretching out any kinks. in the section of Jellicle Songs where the boot usually drops, Vicky stumbles into the celebration, fully transformed, fresh scars showing red in her white fur. the tribe a advances around her, sussing her out, then they form the pyramid with their hands touching eachother's shoulders, channelling their energy to the mystical cats (Misto, Cori, Tanti, Jemima), who gift Vicky with the Jellicle knowledge as they prey to the Everlasting Cat. (see the crappy placement diagram with the visual inspo/consepts I edited on Canva for more of a reference - the base cats I picked out were basically just for colour reference, some for pattern reference too - the base costumes would be in the style of Il Sistina with fur rather than warmers, since they'll have street clothes over top)

Naming of Cats is much of the same, but the White Cat Solo is Victoria seeing her reflection in a shard of broken mirror and getting terrified by her new form. she ends the piece curled up crying before Misto comes to comfort her.

the next kinda plot difference (unless you count line distribution, but I'm not bothered to do a breakdown of every minor change in line distribution lol) is in Gumbie Cat - the mice are little weremice played by kids aged around, like, 10-13 or so that Jenny takes care of from time to time.

during Tugger there's a few specific blocking ideas I have - my favourites are Olivia singing the terrible bore line, because unlike her peers, she's too cool to fangirl over Tugger (and she definitely doesn't take secret selfies with him - don't go through her camera roll), after dropping Bomba on "I only like what I find for myself... no!" Misto coaxes Tugger over and they do a little dip in the music beats after "larder shelf". Tugger then kinda has to shake himself back into his stage persona on "doesn't care for a cuddle" only to get drawn back in by Misto on "I'll leap on your lap in the middle of your sewing". my boy is down BAD. also, at the end of the song, Misto acts as, like, a bouncer, and when Etcetera gets hyper and won't shut up, Tugger kinda gives Misto a look, and Misto sparks Cetty with magic, making her straight up freeze in place.

there's definitely mother-son tension between Munk, Tugger and Griz. Alonzo, being one of the last take-ins before Griz got exhiled, and the person who really helped Munkus deal with the trauma of having the memories of Griz turning him resurface, pulls Munk away from Griz after she tries to guilt him. while Lonzo is comforting Munk, Demeter steps in to taunt Griz.

Bustopher Jones is largely the same - though I'd have Bustopher and Deut as double-up roles, cause imo they're more vocally compatible than Bustopher and Gus (also I believe they were written to be the same track anyways?). also, Bustopher, being a socialite and owning a bunch of clubs, he only ever makes a small appearance each year. he's Jenny's kind of, like, celeb crush, which Skimble (her husband, I don't think I mentioned before, but they're married - Silly's their bio daughter, and they adopted Mungo and Rumple, but I'll get into that in a bit) fully endorses, he thinks it's cute when Jenny gets flustered by Bustopher hehe.

Mungo and Rumple time, let's goooo!!!! so! my concept for them is they're twins who got turned in maybe the 90s or so, and were in the foster system for years, being passed from family to family, and the longer they spent in the system, the more they acted up, and the stories they talk about in their number is largely the things they got kicked out of homes for. during the Sunday dinner verse, they're at the back of the stage, and the two oldest mice kids portray younger versions of them (in human form) and the swings/booth singers would play the family, cook and social worker - on "then the family'll say, it's that horrible cat", the foster parents turn to young Mungo and Rumple, on "was it Mungojerrie, or Rumpleteazer", they get given their bags on their names, and on "and most of the time, they leave it at that" the social worker takes them while current-day Mungo and Rumple look on, upset, before shaking it off to pretend everything's fine. young Mungo and Rumple stay on, maybe doing the same/similar chorey to their current-day counterparts as they're taken from family to family, and on the line about the ming, young Mungo and Rumple scamper off, scared of the consequences, while current M+R look at eachother panicked. they then blame eachother on the "IT WAS MUNGOJERRIE! AND RUMPLETEAZER!" (so they'd swap lines there), then roughhouse/tussle, before going into play-fighting, then into their secret handshake and then the duo cartwheel. Jenny and Skimble are the first to enter in the play-off, since they took them in after realising the system was failing them again and again.

Old Deut's song is same-same... so's the Song of the Jellicles... only main difference in Jellicle Ball is the Pas du Deux being between Tugger and Misto - Tugger's checking himself out/neatening himself up after the first section of the ball, and Misto does that thing where he taps him on the shoulder and sneaks over to his other side before they start dancing together. in the background, the others are napping or quietly socialising, mayhaps a few other couples are snuggling - Deme and Munk are snuggling, and Munk sees Lonzo preening, Deme smiles and tells him to go to his boyfriend, before heading to Bomba to snuggle with her. then the rest of the ball is basically same-same again.

I was tempted to put Memory part 1 in the intermission, since when I was in Cats Abridged, it was cut entirely (same as Moments of Happiness) and I felt Jellicle Ball was a far cleaner Act 1 closer, but seeing the show in Sydney last month, I realised that the Memory (or, as it's referred to in the programme, Grizabella the Glamour Cat) closer works well, so everyone clears out, but Deut stays back, hiding in the set to listen in.

Moments of Happiness would be acoustic in intermission. just Deut on stage accompanied by a single piano, maybe one or two strings. (also it'd just be the song itself, the intro instrumental will be reutilized at the top of Act 2!)

at the top of Act 2, Victoria gets her "true White Cat Solo", before Jemima comes in with Moonlight.

Gus's song is pretty same-same too - I'd love to have an actor of age as Gus, honestly. they'd only need to be on for Gus, Pekes and Pollicles and the bows. Jellylorum is Gus's hospice nurse, and wheels him on in a chair (he's an ambulatory user).

for those who aren't aware - Pekes and Pollicles has officially taken the place of Growltiger (like, I borrowed the perusal script, and Pekes and Pollicles is after Gus in it). I really like the idea of after Gus says "I once played The Rumpus Cat..." Old Deut wheels over a box of Gus's old costumes from the production he was in when he says "so do it again, come do it again", and Gus organises the kittens into the costumes to play the Pekes, Pollicles, Pugs and Poms.

Skimble's number is also much in the same - maybe they pull an old coaster cart out of the set for the train?

Macavity is where it gets interesting!!! so! Old Deut gets kidnapped, everyone scatters, and Deme starts the number. now she has a very negative history with Macavity. he turned both her and Bomba around the same time, but Bomba was able to escape earlier than Deme, since she fell into a toxic/abusive relationship with Mac. when she fell pregnant with Jemima, it... was not by her own volition, but it was the kick she needed to escape. Bomba helped her out and to the Jellicles. she was potentially already dating Bomba, but her relationship with her and her relationship with Munkus really bloomed while she was carrying Jemima. Munk became Jemima's adoptive father, and the only father she knows, and Demeter is deathly overprotective of her.

anyways, back to the show - so Deme starts the song (I have very specific blocking ideas! - in the music after her verse and before the first chorus, she's self-soothing, patting herself down, etc, and on "he's broken *every* human law" her arms slide into a self-hug, and on the "breaks" of "he breaks the law of gravity", she tugs at her shirt). Bomba comes in to help soothe her girlfriend. Griddlebone, being an agent of Macavity, takes the line "he's outwardly respectable" and then also the "I might mention Mungojerrie" line, to which, Jenny overhears her talking shit about her boy, and delivers the "I might mention Griddlebone".

during the Macavity fight, Mac tries to kidnap Deme, but ends up getting the henchcats to kidnap Jemima while Deme and Munk are distracted.

I really wanna do the version of Mr Mistoffelees that was in the Broadway revival (cause I think that version of the Deut rescue is way cooler)... either way, on the first "...this phenomenal cat produced 7 kittens right out of a hat" Misto brings Jemima back.

okay, Memory is Memory, not much to change up there BUT JOURNEY TO THE HEAVISIDE LAYER?!? OOH BOY I AM EXCITED TO SHARE MY CONCEPT, I LOVE IT SO MUCH FRFR

so! Griz gets accepted by everyone again, and during the instrumental, they've circled her and turn in to sacrificially... unalive... her - they turn back to the audience on "the mystical divinity..." with blood on their hands and faces. on "vivat" her body (a dummy) gets lifted by Peter, Jono, Quaxo and James, who then carry her out through the audience.

yippee, finale and bows and everyone can go home!!! I really want to, like, draw the audience in, make them feel safe with the Jellicles, only to have the uncomfortable cult-like sacrifice of Grizabella at the very end - a sacrifice that they've been told the whole Jellicle Ball is leading up to, not that they'd know the implications of.

anyway... I really love my horror-esque, lore heavy spoopy silly Cats... I would literally give anything to be able to get it to happen for real...

International Tour (2018)

Part of the family <3