Here's a few other things that you will notice throughout the video, some interesting points on the actors, plus some ruminations from me.
*Munkustrap is wearing a knee pad on his left leg, which is why that leg warmer is pulled up farther.
*Michael Gruber (Munkustrap) affects a British accent for most of his solos, presumably so he won't stick out like a sore thumb with his American accent. Nice touch.
*Susan Jane Tanner is reprising the role of Jellylorum as she was the first one in London lo these many years ago. Her dancing skills seem to have gone down since then, but I suppose we can't hold that against her.
*I find it interesting that RUG felt the need to have an Asparagus on stage at all times and so hired Tony Timberlake, but didn't bother to try and find a good dancer. Not that I am faulting Tony for that; he's such a good singer and is so good looking that I can forgive him almost anything. But I can't help but notice that Asparagus and Jellylorum make themselves scarce whenever there's any serious dancing to be done.
*In the same vein, I would like to point out that John Partridge (RTT) and Drew Varley (Mungojerrie) don't appear to be trained dancers, either, though they are very athletic. John dances like a very agile rock singer, while Drew dances like a gymnast.
*I have heard that Drew Varley and Jo Gibb (Rumpelteazer) are brother and sister, Gibb being Jo's married name. I don't know if this is true or not; can someone confirm it?
*While we're on the subject, due to a blunder in the credits, the voices of M&R are believed to be dubbed in by persons other than Drew and Jo. I have it on good authority that this is, in fact, not the case, though it is true for Skimble and Jemima. On the whole, I'm inclined to believe that the Mungojerrie we hear is actually Drew. If RUG was going to dub someone in over him, don't you think they could have picked someone with a stronger voice? Mungojerrie is easily overpowered by his partner even though she is singing the harmony. But I wouldn't have anyone else in the role. The team of Varley and Gibb are perfect as M&R.
*I think Bryn Walters (Plato) must have broken a finger during the taping. In a few of the shots where you can see his right hand, nothing is wrong. But in most shots his forefinger and middle finger on that hand are taped together. Thankfully, they were apparently able to film The Lift before this happened, because his fingers are taped right before the move, then they aren't as he runs his hands down her back. The tape is visible again as he is holding her out for Skimble to sniff.
*Femi Taylor, the elusive Exotica, was the original London Tantomile, and at the same time was playing the part of the hapless Oola in Return of the Jedi.
*You all know, of course, that Ken Page was the original Broadway Deuteronomy, but did you also know that he did the voice of the Oogy Boogy Man (the bad guy) in Nightmare Before Christmas? I was shocked when I found this out, but he did a great job, much different from the kind, placid Jellicle leader. I have heard that he was also the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz on Broadway recently. A more appropriate role, I think.
*We all know that Bryn Walters played Macavity and Frank Thompson played the Rumpus Cat. Many of us also know that they played chorus cats, Plato and Admetus respectively, when they weren't in their main roles. We would never know from the credits, though, which I think is lowdown and dirty. Bryn and Frank should get full credit for their participation. Also the rats and the false Macavity should be credited in the interest of fairness.
*Collars: Some of the cats have them and others don't. Here is the list.
Old Deuteronomy does not.
Grizabella has that black feather boa around her neck, but I don't think that's meant to be a collar.
Gus does not.
Bombalurina wears a spiked collar with red gems between the spikes.
Munkustrap wears a collar with diamond-shaped silver studs and a ring at the front. Do they actually think this stately cat would allow himself to be kept on a leash?
The Rum Tum Tugger has a spiked collar.
Demeter has a collar that is virtually identical to Bomb's.
Skimbleshanks doesn't wear a collar of any kind until he dons his vest, then he wears a little bell around his neck.
Bustopher Jones has a neckcloth, but no collar.
Rumpelteazer, when she isn't wearing her Woolworth pearls, has a collar with diamond and star silver studs.
Mungojerrie wears a collar just like his sweetie's.
Jennyanydots, when in full regalia, has a string of orange beads around her neck, but at any other time, nothing.
Mistoffelees has no collar, unless you count his black bow tie.
Jellylorum has a braided collar.
Victoria wears a diamond collar.
Macavity doesn't wear a collar and neither does Plato.
Jemima has a spiked collar.
Coricopat doesn't wear a collar, nor does his twin, Tantomile.
Pouncival, Electra, and Etcetera don't wear collars.
Tumblebrutus has a collar with round silver studs.
Asparagus, Alonzo, and Exotica don't have collars.
The Rumpus Cat wears a collar with spikes bigger than Tugger's even. Admetus, however, does not have one.
Cassandra has a pearl collar.
Bear in mind that the absence of a collar doesn't mean the cat isn't owned. We own eight cats at the moment and none of them wear collars.
*Breeds: Only a few of the cats appear to be a distinguishable breed. Most of their costumes are a mix of white, black, and brown or orange, the like of which you rarely see in the real world, and certainly not on males. However, I think I can safely say that Victoria is a purebred Turkish Angora. Munkustrap is a silver tabby and Skimble is a marmalade tabby. Jennyanydots is probably also meant to be some kind of orange tabby. Macavity is supposed to be a ginger tabby, and Cassandra is supposed to be a chocolate point Siamese. Tugger's breed is up for debate; I've heard him called a Maine coon cat and a Norwegian forest cat. Finally, I think Admetus might be meant to look like an Abyssinian, since he has similar markings and his costume seems to be trying to achieve the effect of ticking.
*You must have noticed that the license plate on the car says TSE 1 and is meant to honour TS Eliot, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
*I have heard that Rosemarie Ford (Bomb) prefers to concentrate on her singing and only dances for fun. She seems to be having an awful lot of fun, doesn't she?
*I may not have my facts straight on this next rumination, so feel free to correct me (nicely). In looking at pictures on other people's pages, I have noticed that the Admetus makeup used in the video is virtually the same as the George makeup in the London production. This makes sense, as George is the chorus cat who turns into Rumpus Cat. In London he was played by Steven Wayne, who had been with the production ever since it first started. Mr. Wayne has recently left the show and the role of George has been retired; Alonzo is now the London Cat who turns into the GRC. So I think they re-named the part for the video with the idea that no one else should be George. I'm not sure why they chose Admetus, though, because there is also an Admetus in the London show and he wears the same makeup as Plato from the video. Perhaps they had already decided to name the Macavity chorus cat Plato since that is who turns into him in the Broadway production. This is all conjecture, mind you, and not a little confusing, so please don't stone me if I'm wrong.
*Let me gripe about the makeup now. For the most part I like it, but there are a few things that irk me. For instance only a couple of cats (Victoria and Skimble) have pink noses even though most of them have white on the bridges of their noses. And why on earth do the girls have full lips? Female cats do not. I can see where it might be necessary to emphasize the ladies' lips on stage, but they should have done away with it for the video. And they certainly shouldn't have put a pinkish lipstick on Jenny or Teazer, who have orange on their faces.
*Finally, those of you who like to turn on the captions will notice that on the Polygram video, they are pretty pathetic, often changing the meaning of the sentence they mangle. However, if you use the captions from the PBS production, they are practically perfect. Interesting. I won't detail every little mistake because it would take too long, but I will tell you the worst ones, giving the correct line first.
(Jenny to the beetles)
"Up!"
"Aaahh!"
(in Grizabella)
"light of the door which opens on her"
"light of the dawn which opens on her"
(in P&P)
Poms become Pums and Rumpus Cat becomes Rumplescat, I ask you!
"Is no British dog but a heathen Chinese"
"Is no British dog but even Chinese"
"The poodle, the pom, the Alsatian, and the mastiff who walks on a chain"
"The poodle, the balmy Alsatian, and the basset who growls on the train"
(where on earth did they get that?)
"my name it is little Tom Pollicle"
"my name it is simply symbolical"
"And his braw Scottish cousins"
"And his brusque Scottish cousins"
(Munkustrap yelling)
"Now!"
"No!"
Jellylorum says "but his grandest creation" while the captions have her saying greatest creation. This is interesting because in every production I've heard aside from the original London one (performed, of course, by Susan Jane Tanner), Jellylorum does say greatest.
(Tugger speaking of Mistoffelees)
"He holds all the patent monopolies"
"He holds all the paint and monopolies"
(good grief!)
"Oh, well, I never"
"Oh, well, ah-never"
And finally, on the final chords of the musical, the captions have them holding out the "a" in "a cat" a lot longer than they actually are. So now we know that RUG hired lousy caption writers as well as lousy editors.
Well, that's all. Please let me know if I have missed anything. Oh, I should probably say that I don't hold any of these mistakes against the actors. Most of the fault, I think, lies with RUG. But without them we wouldn't even have a Cats video to begin with, so I suppose we should be grudgingly grateful. (grumble grumble grumble)