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Home The Musical Two Unforgettable Nights The Origins Cats Video Documents Cats in Italy Downloads Fan Zone Links
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(by Swan - AKA Demeter)
1.
The report is veeery long. Sorry, I’m an incurable scribbler, but
at least I tried to make it as funny as I could. 2.
I was absolutely sincere describing all my feelings and my thoughts not only
about the show, but about the city and the people too (the good and the
bad things, the happy and the sad). If you think that some ideas are
superficial or banal, keep present that all is seen with the eyes of two
Italians (and this means, for example, that we are talking about people who
are terribly annoying about food) who were in the USA for the first
time in their life and for just two days… anyway, feel free to e-mail
me and tell me everything you think about the report. If you wish, you
can also write comments in my guestbook.
I would really appreciate it! 3. Karl (Swingah), I hope my comments won’t make you embarassed… I just thought I was enough older than you to take the liberty of joking about your good looks! (Warning for everyone: I regard Karl as he is a younger brother for me, so all the jokes you’ll read in the report are just jokes!) 4.
If someone is interested in downloading this report and publish it on his own site, he
can do it without problems. Just inform me, please, so I can feel excited. ;-) AND NOW… CURTAIN UP!
The
alarm clock rang at 7:30 AM, and then at 9:00 AM we were at the airport.
Check in, documents, security controls, luggage and so on. The plane left
the airport about one hour late, so we were a bit nervous, but then the
flight was okay. But… eight hours! It seemed to be eternal. When
they brought us the meal, we had a panic moment… At
a certain point, one of the flight assistant asked me to give him my MP3
Reader, because he had to ask to the captain if I could use it. I tried to
explain him that it was not an instrument that could be dangerous for the
plane, but he didn’t believe me and obliged me to give it to him. There
were all my Cats recording on it! After a couple of minutes he came back
and apologized, and gave it back to me! Pheeeew… Finally,
Logan Airport! The plane landed and we were ready to leave it, but then
they told us that we had to stay inside it for 40 minutes again, because
of security reasons. How frustrating! Our first time in USA and not being
able to touch that land with our feet! But in the end they let us go down
and we could take our luggage, show documents to the policemen and start
our visit of Boston. We
tried to understand where to take the subway, but we didn’t find it. We
asked for informations and we discovered that in that exact day
they had to begin some works on the subway, so we could not use it to go
from the airport to the city. We had to take a bus and reach the first
subway station that worked (Maverick), and we started to look here and
there to understand where we could buy tickets. We
had about three hours to have a walk in the city before coming back to the
hotel and dress for the theatre. First of all, we wanted to check where
the theatre was, so later we could have reached it without problems. We
knew it was very close to the hotel, so we went straight on and started to
walk in a street that should have brought us to the theatre. After ten
minutes walking… we realized that we were in the middle of Chinatown! We
had chosen the wrong way… yes, we had a map… we were just
reading it wrong side up. Before
going back to the hotel, we had to eat something. We entered in a haunt
called “Subway”, where we had a couple of sandwiches. We were a bit
surprised because we could not recognise about half of the things they use
to put in the sandwiches… vegetables and sauces that really meant
nothing to us and that we immediately avoided (they seemed real
poisons to our eyes), asking just for some salad and tomatoes.
By the way, the woman who gave us food in that haunt told us that our
accent was similar to the accent of Indian people… Indian?!? How
can it be?!? Finally
we went back to the hotel, where we changed our dresses and I put on my
sweater a silver brooch with the shape of a swan, that was my
“identification sign” to meet up with Karl (Swingah). We reached the
theatre and we were very disappointed to see on the substitution board
that Karl was not on stage that night. There were three substitutions:
Demeter, Mistoffelees and Tugger.
Then
the show began. It was so exciting to see the cats coming from the bottom
of the stalls and jumping on the stage! At the beginning I heard there was
a problem with Cassandra’s microphone (it had been difficult to hear
“Were you there when the Pharaos commissioned the Sphinx”), but then
it was all right. I
don’t know who was the man in the first row who felt on himself all the
eyes of the cats at the beginning of
“The naming of cats”… they were saying “What’s a Jellicle
Cat?” looking at him as they were really deadly upset with him. How much
I would like to have seen his face! The
Old Gumbie Cat was funny as usual, and Jennyanydots had really a loud
voice when she shouted “Uuuup!” to the cockroaches. At first I
was surprised to see that Bombalurina was not particulary taller than
Demeter (hmmm, video-influence!), but then I often looked at them, as they
are two of my favourite characters (Demeter above all), and they were
really good in acting their roles. Demeter behaved as she was very shy and
not always sure to be really part of the Tribe. And it was nice to see
Bombalurina’s expressions changing so suddenly, from the sexy-queen (she
was wonderful while rotating her tail!) to the concerned friend. She had perfect
facial feline expressions, and she really seemed to prove a sort of
mystical ecstasy when contemplating “the third name”, maybe also
because she had quite big eyes. Victoria was amazing too. She almost
didn’t trembled at all when she danced the Invitation to the Jellicle
Ball! Unfortunately,
Electra, Coricopat and Tantomile were missing. The mystical roles were all
supported by Cassandra (she took Sillabub’s hand during The Moments of
Happiness, and she suddenly woke up after the nap, feeling Grizabella’s
presence) and Misto. The
Rum Tum Tugger and Mungojerrie & Rumpleteazer were very cheered by the
audience. At the end of the line “from a vase which was commonly said to
be Ming”, Rumpleteazer said a “uh-oh!” that was really funny,
and people laughed very much. As they laughed when they saw Bustopher
coming on the stage! That was the moment when I understood that most of
people didn’t know “Cats” at all, so they were discovering
the characters and their lyrics in those moments. Moreover, the actor who
played Bustopher (and Gus, and Growltiger) was really very good. Of course
he had the chance to play “character parts” that could be played in
extreme ways, and maybe this was not too difficult to do (just a
hypothesis!), but he was very good indeed. The
first entrance of Grizabella was phenomenal. The kittens tried
several times to touch her, but the grown-up cats were doing everything to
stop them. If I saw well, Bombalurina even gave a soft slap on the back to
Jemima, and then she caressed her, as to say she was sorry but she could
not avoid it. Demeter’s voice was a bit too high and soft if compared to
my taste, so at first I was a bit disappointed, but I had to change my
idea when she went on singing. Line after line, her voice became more
profound and with a deep tone, as if she was taking courage, so this way
of singing was consistent with the character. Then
Skimbleshanks went away for a few minutes (passing very close to us!) and
came back with Old Deuteronomy, while Munkustrap, Tugger and the other
cats were singing his song. I’m always moved when all the Tribe
celebrates the Jellicle Leader with so much joy! The
Jellicle Ball was (of course) exciting. The only thing that seemed to be
not normal to my ear was the music, first of all because it was very slow,
compared to the recording I had heard, and then because from my position I
sometimes heard the drums too loud, covering the other instruments. But it
was wonderful anyway! Second
entrance of Grizabella, and then interval. Old Deuteronomy (Jarret)
remained on the stage all the time, motionless as a bronze statue! I
really can’t imagine how he could stay like that, without moving a
single muscle! (well, probably the large Deuteronomy coat helped him
to hide little movements). The
Moments of Happiness was the scene I was more waiting for. I love that
mystical moment when, after Old Deuteronomy and Jemima sang, the cats look
up in the air and suddenly stand up all together. It’s so intense! Their
glances were fascinating, they really seemed cats. I would have liked my
two queens to be there with us! Gus
and Growltiger’s scenes were amazing! Jellylorum/Griddlebone had a great
voice… she was THE voice! I liked very much her interpretation of
“Gus: the Theatre Cat”, so different from Susan Jane Tanner’s. Not
that I don’t like that one, but in this case it sounded… how can I say
it… more sweet and more full of tenderness. Gus too was very different
from the Video one. That is a very sad cat; this one seemed more a
cantankerous old cat… and the lines about kittens who think to be
“smart just to jump through a hoop” were so amusing! When he was
showing his attraction for Griddlebone they were irresistible! Of
course, I’m not able to say if Skimble had a good Scottish accent, but
anyway his scene was funny as usual. The train is very different from the
London one. It’s not made of cloth, but of metal. Its front light was
blinding and several people in the audience had to close their eyes when
the light passed through them, while the cats were looking for Macavity. Aaaaah,
Macavity… he was tall and big as a four-door-wardrobe! And his song was
well-performed by Demeter and Bombalurina: the first one seemed really
uncertain between fear and attraction for the mistery cat, while
Bombalurina… well, no need to say that she seemed to be not uncertain.
Macavity’s fight was very realistic and I almost really felt fear for
Demeter’s destiny… as I said before, he seemed so much big and strong!
But Alonzo fighted bravely and saved her. By the way, Alonzo was in my
opinion the one with the most beautiful physique… sluuuurp! Then
it was Mistoffelees’ turn… unfortunately I don’t understand very
much about dancing (something more about singing and acting), so I’m
sure that I can never thoroughly enjoy all his dancing scenes. I just stay
there, with my mouth opened, and I think “ooooooh… aaaaaah... uuuuuuh...”
What an intense expression I must have in those moments. The audience was
really excited when Misto and Cassandra made Deuteronomy came back! “Memory”
was moving. It’s not one of my favourite songs in the show, but I liked
veeeeery much Grizabella’s voice, and she also had an original way of
singing the song: not similar to Elaine Paige, nor to Betty Buckley… it
was her own way. And her voice was loud but without shouting, which
I think is always a risk when it's time to sing the last refrain. Sillabub’s voice was very thin but right for the role. The
Journey and the Ad-dressing… as all the chorus songs, they are always
very touching for me. I think I had a couple of tears hidden under my eyes.
It was also a bit sad because I couldn’t avoid to think that I had spent
more than a month waiting for that moment (booking theatre tickets, plane
tickets, etc), and now it was ending… *sniff*… A
little surprise I didn’t expect was the final gag between
Tugger and Bombalurina. At first she acted like she wanted to seduce him,
and this time he seemed to be veeery interested (not as during his song),
but when he approached to her, she roughly avoided him and made a sign to
the audience to cheer her vengeance! So Tugger showed to be offended and
angry: she escaped and he run and followed her behind the scenes! After
the show, we literally assaulted the merchandising shop and bought magnets,
posters, CDs, sweaters, etc etc. Then we walked to reach the stage door
and at half-way we met Karl who was coming to look for us. And I thought
again: “Aaaargh, if I only was a bit younger!!!” We reached the
stage-door with him and here we met Jarrett and Dave too, and other
performers who were leaving the theatre. (I discovered that Jarrett had
been in Italy, in a city very close to mine!) The boy who played Macavity
was even more impressive, so near to us… I showed to be afraid of him
and grabbed Karl’s arm (hehehehe…)! It
was really a big surprise to find Adas there too. There was a large group
of people chattering or asking for autographs, and they all seemed to be
happy and glad to meet each other (we had our moment of glory when some
performers knew that we had come from Italy expressly to see the show, and
we felt a little embarassed…). We absolutely loved this friendly
way of acting, that we think it’s tipically American. All Italians who
go in USA, then come back saying how Americans are nice and cheerful, and
I think they are right! Maybe the atmosphere was so pleasant also because
we were all Cats fan (or Cats performers), but anyway when
Jarrett-sweet-Jarrett suddenly hugged me, I thought “How I would like to
live in this country”! BTW:
a bad moment was when we realized that we had left our camera in the hotel
(the pictures of the playbill and of the theatre were taken the morning
after), so we could not take photos with all those friends. At first we
were very angry with ourselves, but then we changed our feelings thinking:
“This means that our destiny is to come back again one day, and this
time we’ll have the camera”! The
morning after, we woke up at about 8:00 AM and we left the hotel with our
bags. We had breakfast in a place named “Dunkin’ Donuts”, where we
had donuts (obviously) and an enormous glass of hot chocolate. We
immediately burned our tongues, and then we saw the words on the
glass, that warned about how hot was the chocolate. I think the donut is
still wandering here and there in my stomach… it was good, but so heavy!
We
also saw the sea lions show, that was amusing, but the most funny thing
for us was to see people singing and clapping hands (there was some
country music) before the show began. In Italy people are not always so
ready to behave like children… hey, I’m not trying to upset anyone, I
just can’t find the right words to explain it, but I think you
understood. Finally
we had lunch in a fast food, so we could complete our itinerary in popular
American food, with hamburgers, hot-dogs, coke and French fries (and they
immediately started to fight with the morning donut in the stomach). And
then it was already time to run at the airport (the flight had to take off
at 6:30 PM, but we had to be there three hour before).
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Are you ready for this story? Main characters: me (Swan, AKA Demeter) and
my Mate (Pan), travelling from Italy to Boston (and back) in three days. A
few notices before we begin…
As
we live in Rimini, that’s a city on the Italian East Coast, first of all
we had to reach Milan, where we should have taken the plane. Our flight
was scheduled to take off on Saturday at 10:50 AM, so we decided to go to
Milan on Friday evening, just to be sure to be there in time! We left our
home at 8:00 PM and reached Milan at about 11:30 PM, where we visited a
couple of friends who were waiting for us and gave us a room to sleep that
night. Well, not only a room… but a whole house! The old house of
a relative of theirs, all for us! They also had prepared all that we could
have needed for breakfast on saturday morning… so kind of them!
Pan said: “I think this must be pollicle”.
Finally we
reached the theatre district and we had a walk nearby. We spent about half
an hour in front of a piano shop (Stainway), because Pan plays piano and
he was mesmerized in front of all the pianos that were in that
shop-window. Then it was my turn, because after a few meters there was a
shop where they selled ancient books, and I passed a lot of time reading
all the titles and exploring covers and pages with gold decorations and so
on!
A
few minutes before the show began, I saw a boy who was coming up and
looking to us. My first thought was: “Ooohhooohhwowowowoooow,
typical very good-looking American boy!” Then I understood he was
Karl! Do you know his picture on 
He was
kissing and kissing her whole arm, from the hand to the shoulder, while
she was smiling and also retracting herself a bit… they reminded me the
Warner-Bros cartoon of Pepé Le Pew!!!! Another think I
liked very much is that they both were able to articulate clearly the
Italian words of “In una tiepida notte”. I could understand them all,
that hadn’t happened when I had seen the show in London.
We
reached the subway, bought our tokens (finally we knew how to do!) and
reached the New England Aquarium. Pan likes very much fishes and water-life in general, so we had
to visit it. I literally fell in love with the little penguins, but I think all
people do the same, and I looked for a while at the shark, naming him “Jabber Jaw”
(does anyone remember that old funny cartoon?). I think he would have
gladly killed me. We also bought three little penguin-toys for our nephews.
As
we had wandered all day with bags on our shoulders, we were very tired
again, and the airport is definitely not an amusing place, so I collapsed
on a chair. That sort of dead body under a coat that you see in the
picture is me. But the worst thing were the security measures. I
was completely checked (and when I say “completely”, I mean it!) twice,
and it was not a good feeling for anyone. For me, for the policemen, for
the woman who had to check me. I even had to give them for a moment my
hair slide (because a part of it was made with iron) and a silver chain,
with two pendants that I always have at my neck and that mean a lot
to me, so it was so unnatural for me to take them off… It seemed like we
all were feeling forced to do something we didn’t want to, but we
had to, and we were sad for this. It was so a heavy atmosphere. The day
before I was laughing and smiling with my new friends, and now I felt like
I was about to cry for that wonderful country who had been hurt in such a
painful way. And, of course, I wanted to stay there again, even if I knew
that next summer I’ll be in the USA for two weeks. In that circumstance
I remembered the moment when my friends and I had planned that holiday. It
was during the week after September 11th, not only because we
had always wished to go to the USA, but most of all because we wanted to
demonstrate that we were ready to take planes and go there, where
some horrible people wanted us to be afraid to go. Well, in that moment,
at the airport, I think that for the first real time I was aware of how
much I want to spend those two weeks there.
T
Finally
at home. Morgana and Ginevra, our queens, gave us an unforgettable welcome:
they started to rub against us and purred so loudly! And Morgana, who is
the sweetest one, went on for hours! How will I be able to leave them for
two weeks, this summer? I really can’t imagine it!
In
the evening we had dinner with Filippo, a friend that now we always call
“the guilty”, because he is the one who some months ago told us
“What about going to London and see Cats?” And that was the
beginning of our Cats obsession… We were sorry because we were no
more in the USA, but we were also happy to be at home (most of all after
the queens welcome), so we decided to have dinner in a restaurant where we
often go, and where we could eat veeery good Italian food… so I
think this picture is the best end for this trip report!