15 May 2020, 10:15
Mistoffelees is a featured dancer in the musical Cats. Known as 'The Original Conjuring Cat', he is an enigmatic magician whose feats often astound the other cats and leave them in awe. 1 Personality 2 Role 3 Etymology 3.1 International Names 4 Powers 5 Quaxo 6 Appearance 7 Gallery 8 Fandom 9 Trivia 10 References In the song 'Magical Mister Mistoffelees', he is described as being a rather. Track 19 - Macavity: The Mystery Cat From the 1998 film version Cats the Musical. All credits to Andrew Lloyd Webber.
As the world’s theatres remain closed, Andrew Lloyd Webber has been serving up a free musical stream on YouTube every week. Tonight, it’s the 1998 stage production of ‘Cats’ starring Elaine Paige...
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats is the latest musical to stream on YouTube for free, tonight on Friday 15 May.
Cats became an instant hit with audiences following its premiere at the New London Theatre in 1981. Running for a spectacular 21 years, it’s the sixth-longest running West End show in musical theatre history.
Alongside tonight’s live stream, Lloyd Webber will be providing a free live commentary, inviting fans to submit questions which he will be answering throughout. Find out below how to watch the musical on YouTube tonight!
How can I watch Cats online for free?
Cats will be streamed on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s YouTube channel, The Shows Must Go On, tonight at 7pm BST.
It will be available to watch for 24 hours in the UK and 48 hours elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the successful series, which has so far seen millions of weekly viewers, is expected to continue every Friday.
What is Cats about – and who is in the cast?
Cats is a mysterious tale following the Jellicles, a tribe of kooky cats who must decide which feline in the group will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life.
The iconic 1999 cast includes English singer and actress Elaine Paige (Evita, Chess, Sunset Boulevard) who plays the ‘Memory’-singing glamour cat, Grizabella.
She’s joined by actor and TV presenter John Partridge, who stars as Rum Tum Tugger; veteran Broadway performer, Jacob Brent, as Mr. Mistoffelees; Jason Gardiner as Alonzo; and Sir John Mills as Gus – along with the show’s mighty eighty-piece orchestra.
What are the songs from Cats?
The most famous song in Cats is undoubtedly the power ballad ‘Memory’, which is sung in Act I by Grizabella.
Other hits in Lloyd Webber’s soundtrack include ‘The Jellicle Ball’ and ‘Old Deuteronomy’, while upbeat tune ‘Mr. Mistoffelees’ (written for the black-and-white tuxedo tom of the same name) appears in Act II.
In 2019, many of the songs featured in Tom Hooper’s twisted 2019 movie adaptation of Cats, along with pop icon Taylor Swift’s ‘Beautiful Ghosts’, which received a nomination for Best Original Song at the 77th Golden Globe Awards.
Watch Cats tonight via YouTube channel The Shows Must Go On at 7pm BST.
The film adaptation of Cats is finally here, for better or worse, and there's many questions to be answered. After seeing the movie, audiences familiar with Andrew Lloyd Webber's iconic musical and those experiencing the surreal nature of this feline world for the first time will both leave the theater a little confused. That's partly due to the nature of the musical itself (Cats definitely raises a lot of questions). But it's the differences between Cats the movie and the original musical that will have many fans leaving the theater a bit perplexed.
Cats 1998 Full
There aren't too many differences between the show and the Cats movie. After all, the musical has existed for almost 40 years, and therefore has a solid fanbase that might be disappointed to see their beloved musical take on a whole different tone. In keeping with fans' expectations, the plot and most characters, like Jennifer Hudson's Grizabella, James Corden's Bustopher Jones, and Ian McKellan's Gus the Theatre Cat remain the same. However, other characters, like Taylor Swift's Bombalurina and Judi Dench's Old Deuteronomy, have been tweaked for the big screen. Not to mention the biggest change of all, the star of the show, Victoria (newcomer Francesca Hayward).
Victoria
Viewers see the world of Cats through the eyes of Victoria, a new feline in town. But in the original musical, Victoria is basically akin to a background ensemble dancer, though she does have a show-stopping ballet solo. In the film, however, Victoria has her own backstory and a full-on journey as she bonds with the Jellicle cats and forms an emotional connection to Grizabella. In fact, Victoria's arc is the closest the film comes to a proper storyline. So while not true to the musical, her expansion was necessary to turn the stage show into a motion picture.
Cats 1998 Film Soundtrack
Bombalurina
Not only does Swift's character have more limited screen time in the film (her musical number is fabulous, but it's her only scene), but her outlook on life is a little different. On stage, Bombalurina is as sultry and confident as Swift portrays her, but — spoiler alert — she's not aligned with Macavity (Idris Elba) at all. In fact, she despises him, and her musical number aboutMacavity is more of a warning, rather than a tribute to his greatness. Also in the original musical, Bombalurina takes part in multiple musical numbers and is inseparable from her BFF Demeter, who is nowhere to be seen in the film.
'Beautiful Ghosts'
Given that Victoria's role in the stage production is not nearly as big as in the new movie, you may have already guessed that her big musical moment in the movie, 'Beautiful Ghosts,' wasn't actually in the show either. The song was written by Swift and Webber specifically so that Victoria could have an emotional breakthrough moment in the film. The show-stopping track was so effective that it landed the songwriters a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.
Old Deuteronomy
Dench's Old Deuteronomy is the wisest and most gracious cat seen in the film, making her the natural leader of the Jellicle cats. But in the stage production, Old Deuteronomy is actually a male feline. Hooper decided to change the gender of the most senior cat because he only wanted Dench in the role. 'It’s the same spirit, the same old cat,' Dench told USA Today in April 2019. 'Different gender.'
London Streets
Doing a film adaptation of Cats allows for a lot more flexibility than a stage production would, and Hooper takes full advantage of that. While the musical is basically entirely set in one room, the film takes advantage of creating multiple locations in 1930s London. Far from taking place just in one room, Cats is full of extravagant sets with storefronts and theaters straight out of T.S. Eliot's wild imagination. Frankly, it's a cats' paradise, and it's dazzling to see.
Cats The Movie Online 1998
They might not seem like major changes, but the differences between Cats the movie and Cats the original musical are enough to take the story from stage to screen.