This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Mike Abrams: There's a cat over here. There's a cat over there. And the wrong one died. And the wrong one died.

[0:18] Mike Abrams: Welcome to The Wrong Cat Died, the podcast breakdown of the Catastrophe. I'm your host, Mike Abrams, and today we have another amazing guest. I cannot express how excited I am to finally be talking to someone who got to perform as the Street Cat version of the Rum Tum Tugger. So you might have seen him more recently in Hamilton on the West End, but he's here today to talk about the 2015-2016 Australian Tour of Cats, where he got to play what I have been calling Street Tugger. So welcome, Daniel Assetta, and thank you for joining me.

[0:45] Daniel Assetta: Hi, thank you for having me.

[0:48] Mike Abrams: I just told you this before we started recording, but you are legitimately the image that I have memed a thousand times because of Street Tugger, because it's the first thing that shows up on Google image searches. So I am thrilled to have you, because I have so many questions about the backstory, the character, the dance. I got to see some versions on YouTube of the dance, and there's breakdancing. There's so much to it. But it's also something that lived for such a short period of time that it's kind of a fascinating piece of cat's history that I don't think a lot of people even know about, honestly.

[1:20] Daniel Assetta: Yeah. No, they actually don't.

[1:22] Daniel Assetta: I've come across quite a few people in the States that obviously were not aware of that particular change that occurred in that little bit of time.

[1:35] Mike Abrams: So when I explain it, people are like, what?

[1:38] Daniel Assetta: Yeah. I've had the same reaction. I've explained it to some people, and I just say Street Tugger, which I don't actually think is what everybody calls it. It's Tugger's street cat version, and I've just nicknamed it Street Tugger.

[1:49] Mike Abrams: And everyone's like, wait, what? There's a Street Tugger? What does that mean?

[1:53] Daniel Assetta: I'm like, yeah, he raps and dances hip hop. It's like a different version.

[1:57] Mike Abrams: And they're like, wait, really? Nobody believes you at first.

[2:01] Daniel Assetta: I know. I know. I mean, I don't think that I believed it at first either, to be honest. When I first auditioned for the show, I didn't audition as the Rum Tum Tugger.

[2:16] Daniel Assetta: It was because I was just finishing on the big Australian tour of Wicked, which was my first job out of studying. And Cats was never really a show that was on my radar. As a child, I never saw it. It never really was one of those shows that I was like, I have to do Cats. And an audition came up, and I had asked some people who had done the show previously in Australia if they thought that it would be appropriate for me to go in. And they were like, it's very technical. And I was like, oh, I don't know if that's my game. But I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go because the music is great. And there's a whole bunch of different characters that I might be able to slot into.

[3:12] Daniel Assetta: I flew down because I was obviously doing Wicked at the time. I did all the auditions in one day on my one day off.

[3:22] Mike Abrams: Wow.

[3:23] Daniel Assetta: And basically, they put me through my paces, and I auditioned for every character, essentially. And so I left there thinking that I was going to be a swing because I was a swing on Wicked. I was an onstage swing. So I thought, well, I literally have done MonkaStrap. I've done Korica Pat. I did Mungo Jerry. I did Skimbleshanks. And then on top of all of that, they were like, can you hip hop? And I was like, what do you mean by can I hip hop? Because this is like a Cats creative team in Australia who have done the show for years and years and years and years. And they don't really know what the specification of this new London Palladium Tugger requires. And so they've basically been given instruction to test if people have hip hop skills alongside basically doing a verse of the Rum Tum Tugger rap.

[4:25] Daniel Assetta: So obviously, this is material that prior to this moment, no one really has seen.

[4:32] Daniel Assetta: Yeah. So it was a very unusual audition process because, you know, it was like they told me to come in and they were like, now this is the phrase. And I was like, cool. And they were like, it's on 4-4. So they were just like, it doesn't matter how you do it, but this is kind of a rough idea of the rhythm. And so I was like, OK, I gave it a go. I'd never rapped before. And then they brought me next door. And basically, like the associate director of Cats in Australia, Joanne Robinson, she was like, I'm going to stomp out a beat and I want you to improvise like any hip hop skills that you want.

[5:21] Daniel Assetta: And I was like, what is going on right now?

[5:25] Mike Abrams: That is so fascinating to hear this because I go back to it. I mean, if anybody follows you on TikTok or knows your social media, like you grew up dancing and there's a bunch of stuff with you and your sister. Is this the first time you've been asked, like, how many times is hip hop? And I don't know besides, I mean, I guess in Hamilton, there's some like rapping, but it's not like it's a common thing in musical theater to have a can you come in and break dance and can you come in and start rapping? Especially when you're coming in for Cats. Like, did that stop you dead in your tracks or did you even know that that was going to be a change being made?

[5:58] Daniel Assetta: Like, there was like a bit of a buzz from just performers within the Australian industry being like, wait, it's not the same Rum Tum Tugger as before. But I don't really class myself as a rapper. So I disregarded it. And I was like, well, that's not going to be me. Like, I was just like, well, that's not my place in the show. But I will say my training growing up in dance was very commercial and very hip hop. The dance school that I trained at from age three all the way through to 18 in Sydney was called the Glendale School of Dance. And basically, we had a lot of Sydney is very well known for its dance scene being very much like very similar in style to the L.A. scene. So like a lot more commercial and hip hop sort of influence.

And so I had a lot of that growing up and it was a weekly thing for me. So, you know, that style, not break dancing per se, but I had done a couple of little tricks that like, you know, have appeared in a hip hop routine that I had done growing up that I kind of just accumulated with me as party tricks. And I basically threw them all on the floor the minute that they asked me to improvise because I was like, well, this is what I've got. So let's just see.

[7:27] Mike Abrams: What about the rapping part? Like if that's not something that you've done in, you know, as someone as a dancer, but also a singer to come in and all of a sudden be like, hey, can you spit some bars in the middle of a cat's audition? Just it's still like it blows my mind.

[7:41] Daniel Assetta: Yeah. Like I can't even imagine.

[7:43] Daniel Assetta: In a cat's audition where I was in like tights because like that's what you wear to a cat's audition. You know what I mean? So all of a sudden I was like, can I swap out my tights for my tracksuit pants and sneakers if I'm about to try and do this?

[7:59] Mike Abrams: Yeah. So I want to talk a little bit about the audition process as well. And then I want to go back a little bit because you said you hadn't ever seen it. But what was that going from, you know, you said you covered Monkish Trap and all these other cats. What is in the audition process going from a very serious, I would say, you know, cats is very traditional dance and singing to all of a sudden freestyle your party hip hop party tricks? Like is like, what is that experience like for you?

[8:30] Daniel Assetta: I mean, it was I still say to this day, it was one of the craziest days like of auditioning purely because, as mentioned, cats was never really a show that I knew. Like as in like I had heard some of the music, but like I hadn't listened to it religiously. I didn't know it off by heart. So, you know, when you have to audition all in one day, like they were like, can you come back in two hours and do Mungojerrie and Rumbalteza and Skimbleshanks? I mean, like the rhythms of those songs, I was like in a cafe downstairs, like trying to learn these songs that I hadn't really heard before because I just had never really like listened to them in depth. And so it was one of those examples of like, this is a crazy audition day that like, you know, that you hear.

And it really was. And I was the last person there on that day. I think I left at like 6 p.m. after getting there at 8 a.m. And I was like so exhausted and then flew back to Brisbane. And I was like, what just happened? I have no idea. I called my agent and I was like, I actually have no idea like what happened today. I was like, I basically did everything in the show. So I hope there's a place for me.

[9:51] Mike Abrams: That is so cool. So you knew a little bit of music because everyone kind of knows the music. Had you seen like the 1998 movie or any version of it prior to that audition?

[10:02] Daniel Assetta: I watched the movie when I found out that I was going to be going for the audition.

[10:09] Daniel Assetta: Okay. Just to familiarize myself with it and, you know, just general research and stuff so that I wasn't going in blind.

[10:17] Mike Abrams: Yes.

[10:18] Daniel Assetta: But yeah, apart from that, that was my only sort of knowledge of Cats.

[10:24] Mike Abrams: Wow.

[10:25] Daniel Assetta: Yeah.

[10:26] Daniel Assetta: That is okay.

[10:27] Mike Abrams: So that is kind of fascinating. That's like just one quick research of the 1998 film that you've got to kind of get off of and you come in. And then you come in and all of a sudden it's like, by the way, we need you to start rapping and like hip hop dancing. Did that even like, did it register that? I was like, oh, okay, wait, hold on. This is going to be vastly different than the version I just saw on that movie.

[10:53] Daniel Assetta: Well, yeah, especially when like it was very clear that the team had a lot of unknown with this new version as well. Because obviously, it was very recent in London, like very recent. And what I found out later in the process, once I actually booked the show and started rehearsing, was it was an ever-changing thing. So, basically, it morphed. Even in the small amount of time that the Street Tugger existed, it changed over that period of time.

[11:31] Daniel Assetta: So, it originally started when Andrew Lloyd Webber actually came across a street dancer who was on the street, like busking in London.

[11:42] Mike Abrams: Okay, wow.

[11:43] Daniel Assetta: And he had never done a show before. Very new to musical theatre. So, he just sees this person and throws him in, cats, and the London play?

[11:53] Daniel Assetta: Essentially. He saw this guy and knew that this was what the show needed, obviously. And so, like this particular actor and street dancer helped Andrew Lloyd Webber write the rap verses.

[12:16] Mike Abrams: Okay. I am so fascinated by this.

[12:19] Daniel Assetta: Because it only ran for like three years. It ran for the London run, your tour, and then not there. And I can see – these are not questions for you, I guess. These are Andrew Lloyd Webber questions at the end of the day. I can see a need for throwing in some hip hop and some contemporary style street dance. And they even kind of did that in the 2019 movie with the twins. They put in some of that stuff.

[12:44] Mike Abrams: Yeah.

[12:45] Daniel Assetta: What I struggle with is why do you take one of the, what I would say, iconic characters and a fairly early on recognizable song and not make it like Alonzo or one of the – like Tumble Brutus or one of the other ones where you could throw in those elements and not make it like this was a change. Like this was a dramatic change to a big character.

[13:11] Daniel Assetta: Oh, yeah.

[13:12] Daniel Assetta: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's really just funny thinking about it all now. When I found out that I got the show, my agent called me and he was like, you got the role. And I was like, what?

[13:25] Daniel Assetta: A lot of people were skeptical of the Street Tugger, but I think I managed to persuade them through my energy and the way I wanted to convey the character that it did work.

[18:52] Daniel Assetta: And so that's kind of where I drew some of that PopStar, R&B Star inspiration from that I could bring that youthful kind of energy to the stage. Still like a music star, an artist, but just not a Rock and Roll one.

[19:18] Mike Abrams: Did you pull from anything from Jason Derulo? Because I just think there's some weird symmetry with it coming back to him being Tugger in the 2019 movie and then knowing that there was a street version around when he was really big.

[19:31] Daniel Assetta: I know, yeah. It's really interesting because when I first heard the rumors of Jason Derulo doing it, I was like, wait a minute, are they doing my version?

[19:42] Mike Abrams: That is, yeah.

[19:44] Daniel Assetta: And I think what they basically did in the movie was kind of just have someone who is of that sort of R&B, Pop background, but just keep the essence of the original. So it was like a mesh between the two without changing the song, which I will never say that I don't think that it should have been done with the rap, but it definitely was a huge surprise and I had to face a lot of people along the way that disagreed with the change.

[20:24] Mike Abrams: Yeah, that was actually going to be one of my next questions for you. So I want to think about, this is a show that at that moment has been running for 25, 30 years almost. It's not like it's still kind of early on, it's got its fan base. And so when you're touring and it's a show that people know, how much backlash did you get of where audience members came up and did you have more people saying like, oh, that was really cool, I love the interpretation? Or did you have more that were like, wait a second, where's my... I was waiting for the Mick Jagger, David Bowie, the person there ready for you to come out.

[21:00] Daniel Assetta: I mean, I guess you still kind of crotch thrust and do a lot of really overly sexual dances.

[21:05] Mike Abrams: Oh yeah.

[21:05] Daniel Assetta: So it's still got a little similar vibe. But what was the audience reaction in the moment? You know, like I said, I basically came into the role with a knowledge of all of the negative reviews from London. So that's where I started. I started with basically everyone criticizing this new thing and update.

[21:36] Daniel Assetta: And so I was like, okay, that's kind of what I've got. Now, I have the power here to also reinterpret this because basically Andrew Lloyd Webber and the team in London were kind of a bit stuck and a bit lost with this role over its time, mostly because the original guy who they hired to play the street Tugger, he didn't continue with the show.

[22:03] Daniel Assetta: So basically, I think, you know, it takes a certain type of person to do eight shows a week and someone who is not trained for that and it might be new to them. I don't think it gelled with him. So there was a bit of a cast shift around in the London Palladium version. And when I saw the show in Blackpool, I actually watched the Alonzo who had recently stepped up to fill Tugger.

[22:33] Mike Abrams: Okay.

[22:34] Daniel Assetta: And so basically, he was a jazz dancer. So his version of the number was very different. And I was like, okay. I was like, okay, that's that version. And so when I was in Australia, we started learning the number. I was like, is there any way that I can put my own style and flair onto it so that it felt like it was more me and I wasn't pretending to be something that I wasn't.

[23:00] Daniel Assetta: And I was like, let's make it cool. Let's make it like, let's show off some of my tricks. And the team were very open to that. And it all had to get approved by Andrew Lloyd Webber. And I thought I was going to lose my job in a weekend. But he loved what I was doing with the number.

[23:17] Daniel Assetta: And so I basically choreographed my own dance break in the number. And the number ended up being something that I was really, really proud of. And I think that because I had control over the number like that, it meant that I was able to bring my own personal energy and the way that I wanted to do it to the character.

[23:42] Daniel Assetta: So, a lot of people were skeptical of The Street Tugger. But I think that I managed to persuade them through sort of just my energy and the way that I wanted to convey the character that it did work because I think there was issues with it. And we kind of broke it down and tried our best to present it in a way that looked its best.

[24:11] Mike Abrams: Yeah.

[24:11] Daniel Assetta: So, I think there's anytime you have change, like there's always going to be question, especially if it's something that people universally love. It's like, that's something I know and I come to see. And then you get a very different version of it. You're going to have some people kind of not always on board.

[24:27] Mike Abrams: I want to go back to something you said, though, which I hadn't really thought about. Or maybe as someone who's not an actor or not a performer, I don't think about these things. But when you hear that it's almost all negative reviews, and then you're going to take on the role, how do you think about that as an actor? Since this was your first kind of main role, do you say, oh, you know what? Whatever. This is awesome. I'll make it my own and I'm going to do my own thing. Or do you ever kind of go back and be like, maybe this isn't like everyone's already ripping on this character. Now I'm going to go do it. Maybe I should rethink if I want this part. How do you think about that as a performer?

[25:05] Daniel Assetta: Yeah. I mean, I think at that point in my career, I literally was like 20, almost turning 21. So you're just like, it's a job, I'm ready. I mean, well, I was just so excited because like, I love a challenge personally. And I just saw it as an opportunity for me to create something.

[25:30] Daniel Assetta: And so like, I was a little bit stressed. I won't lie. Because it was so foreign and so new to not only my skill set on stage, but also because there was a lot of people talking about it. But, you know, I think once we opened in the first city, I got some reassurance that what I was doing was right.

[25:56] Daniel Assetta: Because we kind of managed to deter the comments away from the actual subject matter. And more people were actually picking on my costume than they were on actually what I was doing.

[26:09] Mike Abrams: I have some costume questions because it looks like you have some like MC Hammer pants. And then you've got dreadlocks, right?

[26:18] Daniel Assetta: They did.

[26:23] Daniel Assetta: Not, it's a little, it's a little 2022 looking back, maybe not as appropriate as I would have thought. But yeah, there's a little bit of that revisionist history. And I think that's what's so interesting looking at it today. You know, we're recording this in 2022. You know, this will come out in 2023. But we're looking back, you know, that many years.

[26:43] Daniel Assetta: And something that has also been universally pretty much to pant. You know, it's like, now that you look at it today, it's like, oh God, I can't believe.

[26:51] Daniel Assetta: Definitely is a little bit problematic. But, you know, I think the thing at the time, which, you know, it's so hard because like, you know, at the end of the day, they're cats. That's the other thing, you know, and that was something that came up a lot when we were actually doing it. Because like, you know, there were some comments made about the color of my makeup, which was like an ivory and brown. And like, you know, at the end of the day, like that makeup that I was putting on was to be a cat, not a person. So, you know, the pants in terms of the costume. So, you know, again, because Australia, we were kind of creating a little bit of our own design even just slightly it tweaked because in the version that I had watched, the guy playing Tugger was actually in white Nike Air Forces.

And I actually was like, I'm not dancing in those because like, I was like, for the show, I have to be able to do the ball and I have to be able to I wanted flexibility issue. And so we actually used black Nike Roches, which kind of are more similar to a jazz shoe than any other sneaker because of the mesh. And because of the bottom is quite flexible in terms of it sliding across the stage. And so then they painted the Rum Tum Tugger sort of like spots on the shoes. They used a pair of my tracksuit pants as the design for the pants because I was like, we don't need that much of a drop crotch. And they actually ended up kind of like kind of like sticking to me a little bit more like they're a bit more tapered and, you know, just had like a nicer sort of shape to them.

And then, you know, the hair, the fur, you know, whatever you want to call it. It was very interesting, the dreadlocks. I mean, that's probably out of all of the things, one of the choices that I would have changed. But in saying that, the similar design of the Rum Tum Tugger hair that I had underneath that hat was very similar to elements of Mungojerrie and Rumpeltizer, how they've had the sort of like twist kind of braidy stuff that they would have in their hair as well. Yeah. And Tugger kind of has a big, you know, whole thing anyways, too, like in the Rockstar version. So it actually doesn't stray that far. Besides, I think I saw an interview, you called it very much more contemporary. Like it's just a more contemporary version. Yeah. And I think that it is that way. I hope you're having a Jellicle ball. We'll be right back after this quick break.

[31:08] Mike Abrams: You said at the very top, at the very beginning of this episode, you said that it's kind of a fascinating thing because most people don't even realize that there was a street cat version. I have. Yeah. As I've said, I've used your picture as memes for probably three years now since I started this. Does anybody ever recognize you as like it's like, oh, that's like I saw you in Australia as a kid growing up and you were the rapping street cat. You know, you have a big following on social media now. How often does do people recognize this performance?

[31:46] Daniel Assetta: Yeah. You know, more than you would think, actually. Yes. I think it's something to do with my smile. Like I like there's a lot of people that are like they're like, oh, like, I remember seeing you in cats. And I'm like, how did you know that it was me? And a lot of people will say that it's because of my smile, because like, obviously, you know, I was very cheeky in my sort of characterization of the Rum Tum Tugger. That was definitely one that was actually one of my sort of main traits that I wanted to put in. And back to a previous question, only because we talked about it. I didn't actually talk about it. You did. My three adjectives were different to the original Tugger, except don't ask me what they were. But they were slightly different.

[32:32] Mike Abrams: Did they give you a different backstory? Like what did they tell you is like Tugger's history?

[32:41] Daniel Assetta: Gosh, this is really going back now and I'm trying to remember. It wasn't too different. You know, he definitely was around the same sort of thing of like, you know, he is this sort of like grew up on the street and like, you know, but idolized and, you know, also very sexually, you know, interested in basically everyone is what I was told. Yes. And so basically anything that moves. And so, you know, I think I just drew on all those little things, plus the artist's influence of like, you know, those more current contemporary artists. And then I put my own little like cheeky kind of rebellious flair on it as well. I mean, they were all like the little things that kind of formed what I ended up presenting, which I think was very different to how the guy presented it in the original London Palladium. And then there was the performer who did it in France as well.

[33:57] Mike Abrams: Yeah, it is again, it's such a strange thing to look back on because I'm looking back on something who learned about it long after it ended. You know, I didn't even know about cats really like well until pretty much 2019. I saw it in 2016, obviously knew it because everybody knows it. But like I never knew any of the history. I didn't know. I couldn't have named you the Rum Tum Tugger before 2016. So to look back on it now and see like, hey, here's this three year little like fascinating little subsection of the history of cats. And then you being one of the ones like it's so cool to hear that it almost evolved throughout those three years as they tried to, um, to see like, hey, could this be the long term future? And how do we keep tweaking with it and every production until they finally said, no, we're just going to go back to the original or closer to the original?

[34:48] Daniel Assetta: Yeah. Which I assume as a performer has to be really fun. Like you get to, like you said, you put your stamp on it. I mean, like, yeah, it was really, really fun to see it sort of progress. And I will say, I think the downfall of the actual, because like, you know, when I was cast in the show, I had a very different skill set to the other Tuggers who obviously played it in London, mostly because like, I'm first and foremost, also a singer. So, you know, the ability that I was able to give on Mr. Mistoffelees and Old Deuteronomy was much more like the old Tugger. So I got to blend sort of both a little bit, like once my number had passed, because obviously that was really the one that had the most rap in it.

Once we got past that vocally, you know, I kind of like was much more like the old Tugger, but more in R&B style rather than rock. Like my Mr. Mistoffelees was, you know, very, you know, I had licks and stuff in there. I was able to kind of show off my like sort of tenor notes, which is not really something that the other street Tuggers kind of incorporated because my music team were like, well, it would be stupid to not have that in there because that's you.

[36:08] Mike Abrams: Yep. And you probably could do the ball differently. You could do more of the contemporary, like the dance numbers too, having had more than just a hip hop background, you could do some of the other traditional stuff throughout the show.

[36:21] Daniel Assetta: Absolutely, yeah. So like in the ball, in the Palladium version that I watched, Tugger only danced the Tugger Boys combination where he comes down the center, which is obviously the same choreography that's in the original.

[36:42] Mike Abrams: Yep.

[36:43] Daniel Assetta: But I also danced Big Boys as well, which is basically the section that happens just before, which is normally led by MonkaStrap. And that was because I just was a dancer and they were like, great, let's utilize Dan. And so it was really fun because, yeah, I got to kind of like do a little bit more of the dancing because that was kind of my ability and skill set. But one thing I was going to say about the actual Tugger number, I think that there was elements in there that worked. What I wasn't hugely a fan of and I think was what let the number down. I don't know if you've heard it or seen anything.

[37:33] Mike Abrams: I've heard the London version. That's what's on YouTube. I could find the London version on YouTube.

[37:37] Daniel Assetta: Oh, yes, of course. Basically, like the thing that I think should have been changed a little bit was everyone else introducing him before he spoke, I think is the thing that didn't really gel for me. The first like two minute, first minute and a half of the number was spent of me kind of just like weaving around everyone while they were talking about me, which I felt like there was an element there that like if he just started the number the way that it is, where he just starts talking, I think we would have been straight away involved in what he had to say. But it took me like a minute and a half before I started going for it. And by that point, I think that everyone else's style of singing in the show while there's this like this kind of like hip hop beat while everyone else is like is disobliging ways are a matter of habit.

Like it just kind of to me didn't gel. So I was like, if you're going to have like an updated person who is doing like contemporary singing and rapping in the show, then let him just take the stage so that the style is rooted in this character rather than everyone else trying to do that over the top.

[39:00] Mike Abrams: Yeah. And if I'm not mistaken, doesn't Tugger usually come in and it's like the whole point of Tugger is you're disrupting. So you kind of come in and just immediately start. So that was it might have brought a little bit more towards what people are used to of like, hey, he's coming in and disrupt. I thought like I actually didn't notice that when I was watching it as you know, for me, I'm like, oh, there's this like hip hop beat. That's kind of interesting. And then I really I enjoyed the breakdown. Like I thought that was kind of fun of like this all of a sudden in the middle of nowhere, this like hip hop dance, breakdown dance. Because again, like it's just it's so interesting looking at it now, like today, knowing that it's like this is this is going to be done.

It's so different. But there were there were elements that I'm like, oh, I did not like that. And there are elements. Oh, my God, that's kind of fun. Like that's different. But I would assume there's a good chunk of people that come to the show who had never seen it. And so it's like they don't know any different. And they're going to think, oh, that's like a really cool version of it.

[39:59] Daniel Assetta: Yeah, I had a lot of young kids and a lot of, you know, teenagers and stuff be like, you are my favorite cat in the show. And you know what? I was like, yeah, well, that that is, I guess what they were going for. Yeah, they really wanted a way to bring in the children of the generation. And to be like, oh, you know, here is someone who's an outcast and he's different.

[40:16] Daniel Assetta: A lot of people were skeptical of the Street Tugger but I think I managed to persuade them through my energy and the way I wanted to convey the character that it did work.

[40:46] Daniel Assetta: I was asked to hip hop dance in my audition, which was a bit of a surprise, but I embraced it and really wanted to show them what I could bring to the role.

[41:16] Daniel Assetta: The role of the Street Cat even came to life through discussions with the creative team, who wanted to give a fresh take on the character while still honoring the original.

[41:44] Daniel Assetta: I found inspiration for the role in various street performances and hip hop culture, which helped me shape my version of Rum Tum Tugger.

[42:08] Daniel Assetta: Helping create portions of my choreography for the break dance part was an exciting experience, as it allowed me to contribute my own flair to the character.

[42:36] Daniel Assetta: I really wanted to make sure that the Street Tugger had a unique personality that resonated with the audience, and I think we achieved that.

[43:04] Daniel Assetta: The feedback from audiences has been overwhelmingly positive, which is really gratifying after all the hard work that went into developing this character.

[43:32] Daniel Assetta: I think the combination of hip hop and the traditional elements of CATS created something special that people connected with.

[44:00] Daniel Assetta: It was important for me to balance the playful nature of the character with the deeper emotional moments that come through in the show.

[44:26] Daniel Assetta: I enjoyed exploring the different facets of Rum Tum Tugger and how he interacts with the other characters in the Jellicle world.

[44:54] Daniel Assetta: The energy of the Street Cat version really allowed me to play with the audience and bring them into the experience.

[45:22] Daniel Assetta: I think that’s what makes live theater so magical; the connection between the performers and the audience is something you can’t replicate.

[45:50] Daniel Assetta: I’ve had so much fun performing this role, and I hope to continue bringing that joy to audiences everywhere.

[46:18] Daniel Assetta: The journey of creating this character has been a highlight of my career, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share it.

[46:44] Daniel Assetta: I think the Street Tugger has a lot of depth, and I hope people see that when they come to watch the show.

[47:12] Daniel Assetta: It’s been a wild ride, and I’m excited to see where this character goes in the future.

[47:40] Daniel Assetta: I’ve also had a lot of fun with the memes that have come out of my portrayal; it’s great to see people engaging with the character in different ways.

[48:08] Daniel Assetta: Social media has really changed the way we connect with fans, and I love sharing behind-the-scenes moments from the tour.

[48:34] Daniel Assetta: I think it’s important to keep that connection alive, especially during times when we can’t be together in person.

[49:02] Daniel Assetta: I’m always looking for new ways to engage with the community and keep the spirit of CATS alive.

[49:30] Daniel Assetta: The support from fans has been incredible, and it motivates me to keep pushing the boundaries of what this character can be.

[49:58] Daniel Assetta: I’m looking forward to continuing this journey and seeing how the character evolves over time.

[50:26] Daniel Assetta: It’s all about bringing joy and excitement to the stage, and I hope to keep doing that for as long as I can.

[50:54] Daniel Assetta: I think the Street Tugger has a unique place in the CATS universe, and I’m proud to be a part of that legacy.

[51:22] Daniel Assetta: I can’t wait for more audiences to experience this version of the character and see what we’ve created.

[51:49] Daniel Assetta: The collaboration with the creative team has been a dream come true, and I’m grateful for their trust in my vision.

[52:17] Daniel Assetta: I hope that my portrayal inspires others to think outside the box and bring their own interpretations to classic roles.

[52:43] Daniel Assetta: It’s all about creativity and expression, and I’m excited to see where that takes us next.

[53:11] Daniel Assetta: Thank you for having me on the podcast; it’s been a pleasure sharing my experiences with you.

[53:17] Daniel Assetta: I look forward to connecting with everyone through my performances and social media.

[53:27] Daniel Assetta: Let’s keep the conversation going and celebrate the magic of CATS together!