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[0:00] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Ariana Grande. Hi, I'm Cynthia Erivo, and you're listening to the Broadway Podcast Network, visit vpn.fm, to discover more.

[0:13] Speaker 2: There's a cat over here, there's a cat over there. I'm the wrong one died. I'm the wrong one died.

[0:28] Mike Abrams: Welcome to the wrong cat died. The podcast breakdown the cat's atrophy. I'm your host, Mike averns, and today we have another amazing guest. She performed as Jenny Andy dots on the US national tour five, as well as the Royal Caribbean cruise Oasis of the Seas, and a couple other productions as well. And I know that she is a avid listener of the show, so I'm excited for her theories. Welcome Erica Lee Hanson, and thank you for joining me.

[0:51] Speaker 3: Thanks, Mike. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited

[0:55] Mike Abrams: because I I'll usually have to start these, uh, these episodes by saying, hey, just FYI, here's what we're going to talk about today. But you know, so you know that you know the story. Let's start at the beginning of your cat's history. I always love to hear your introduction to the show, whether it was before you did it as a kid, what was that first taste of cats? Oh,

[1:14] Speaker 4: I loved it from childhood. Um, so I didn't grow up with a theater background when I was real little, but a friend of mine had the like vinyl album. Okay, so when she was at her grandmother's house, we would blast that and swim in the pool and live all of our cats fantasy to mccavity and gimbal shank. We were really cool kids. So then I found out there was a video, and watched that as many times as I could. Loved it, and just kind of fell in love from there. I didn't think it was ever going to be a show I did, though, just because, you know, I grew up in the in the big time of the Broadway body, and I did not have that, nor will I ever have that it's just not my shape. So when I booked it, I was like, oh, no, spandex for a year. But it was, it was great. It was, it was a much different experience for my body personality than I thought it was going to be. So I can't wait to

[2:15] Mike Abrams: talk about that. I love the that you started by swimming in a pool like cats don't like water, and you're, you're listening to this as a vinyl record, you know, or probably a CD, it would be my guess. Blasting it out at the pool is a great way. I actually really love that you got the music part of it first before you got the actual visual and the dance. So you got to experience it lyrically and musically versus everything else, yeah. Okay, so you, I want to fast forward a little bit to actually booking it then. So you did, I know you did two regional productions. You did it on tour. You did it on the boat. What was the order of of this? What was that first booking?

[2:53] Speaker 4: So the tour came first, and I went to SCTC, and joy doing casting was there, and she called me back, and she was like, hey, I want to invite you to the cats call. And I happened to be up there for spring break and our showcase and all that, and I look like, cool. So I went to that, and I was terrified, but also stupid, because I didn't know anything about it. It wasn't that time when you put, like, all your eggs in one basket. So I walked in the room and they had taped up pictures of cat in just real life, and they would put like, like the one for Jenny. Any thoughts was the big fat orange cat laying over it like an arm of a sofa. And I was like, I can do that. I got that. But I walked in the room and it was Richard Stafford Kristen, Blodgett, like that wonderful team, and I sang for them first, and they were like, What are you gonna sing? And I was like, here's what I brought. And they were like, Oh, okay. And by the time I got done singing, they asked me to sing all three things that I brought. And I walked out, and I called my mom, and I was like, Well, I either got it or they think I'm bat bonkers, like the looks from behind that table, but I got to come back and dance. They had me sing some more. And then I got a call a couple of weeks later, and I was just over the moon, yeah. So

[4:17] Mike Abrams: now I really You mentioned something. I wanted to dig into it, because this is a show that I have heard in casting. Everything else is that there's a lot it's probably changed over time, but in the beginning, it's a you're too tall, you're too short, you've got to be you got to look like this in that so you mentioned body positivity and in general, you are in spandex. You are on stage. There's nothing to hide. It's it's, you're all out there at all times. What was that journey like for you, going, especially about to go on tour?

[4:48] Speaker 4: Well, it was interesting. So doing the show, I've done it with Richard, which is the American version, and then I've done it with Chrissy Cartwright, which is the British version. And those are not the same. Out. No one told me that they're very different, but tour was a little different that the costume helped a lot, because when you put on your costume and your stripes and your patches and your fur really contour the body. So, like, it's not like I was Victoria in pretty much clean white spandex, prompting around. But it helped a lot that, you know, Spanx were a thing I wore, like a full Spanx leotard, and then you had a full leotard underneath it anyway for sweat, you just didn't feel as exposed. And I actually started to like myself better after not trying to hide in clothing. This also being, I was not a big girl. I was maybe a side 10. So it was just that thing where you're like, You're not fat, you're not saying, what do we do with you? But not being able to hide behind anything and just learning to be comfortable in that skin was was big for my, you know, next 15 years of career, yeah,

[5:59] Mike Abrams: it's got to be too, like you're the idea is you have to just get into this kind of cat mindset, and they don't care about anything. They don't care about you at all. And you have to kind of embrace that. And I'm sure, like, it's almost a little therapeutic, probably, for insecurities that we all have, of being able to just force yourself out there eight times a week to not have those insecurities because you can't, yeah, and

[6:22] Speaker 4: again, cat. Cats come in every shape and size. So it's silly to think that everyone doing the musical has to be the teeny, tiny, stick thin dancer. They don't

[6:32] Mike Abrams: know you have to physically be able to do it, which is a workout, I'm sure. But yeah, you don't have to. Yeah, I love that, and I think that's such an important thing, and it's kind of a unique part of the show that you can embrace that, and probably one that's not as thought as much about, because most of the time when I've talked to people about casting those things, it's been, you're not tall enough. You're Not You know, we were looking for more of like this dance style or the other kind of pieces of it, yeah. So that has been a unique piece, where, I think it's also probably healthy, over the years that that's evolved to where it's like, okay, you can be slightly shorter and still do this role. Like, if you're talented, you can do the role, and that's, I'm sure, great, yeah, okay, I want to talk a little bit about you go on tour. This is the fifth tour that was going on, I think, started around 2000 at that point, and it's still, you know, this is the tour, and you're going on in 2010 and you're doing it for two years, two and a half years. So you did two full contracts, yep, on tour. And then was it regional or the boat next

[7:37] Speaker 4: regional? So I did a regional between the two years on tour, and that was when I met Jacob Brent. That was a friend, our friend, Chaz, who would a replacement misto Phillies on my first tour, was only there for the first piece, and then the other misto police came back from his injury. But Chaz went and auditioned for Jacob for a little regional theater and called a couple of us on tour, and was like, Hey, we didn't find these. Would you be interested? And we were all like, Absolutely, um. And again, watched the video growing up, star struck by Jacob Brent. And so this, this man comes towards me, and I'm like, and

[8:18] Speaker 3: he gives me a big hug. And I was like, let's bracket be here, good to see you again. But

[8:24] Speaker 4: then I worked with him. He's the best. Is he not just the most delightful human being? I love him. Oh, it's insane. Even listening to his his episode on the podcast, I was like, Huh? I didn't know Deuteronomy didn't come every year probably would have changed the way I did something.

[8:43] Mike Abrams: We talked for an hour, ish, a little over an hour, and I had to stop, because when we were recording, I was actually on vacation, and my internet was terrible, and like it was, we were, we were working through, trying to make it work, like we could have went for three hours and I had more questions. I still might have been back for a

[9:03] Mike Abrams: there's a lot of unanswered questions that he's like, Oh, I can, yeah. I mean, it's this, it's that. I'm like, it's almost he's answered every potential theory that I was wondering, which is amazing to have, as you know, again, somebody with such knowledge. And I love that he goes back frequently, because he'll pop in, even if he's not fully doing the show or helping with the show. I've heard he's gone and just like, did a day with people, or, like, a regional productions and, yeah, just brings such a wealth of knowledge to to all these productions to make it, you know, just that much better for everybody that gets to go see the show. Yeah. So, okay, so you do it regionally, Jacob, and then you go back on tour. I want to hear about the boat because you were in the first group on the boat. You were in the very first cast. I heard they built that boat around the theater so that you could go to the heavy side layer, like it was. It was built specifically for that.

[9:53] Speaker 4: They had to. There were some tweet but they did kind of gut that whole stage area to fit. A hour show in and we were the first full length musical at sea. So the three times that I did it, it was still the full two and a half hour shebang. And it was interesting, because when people go see cats, it is usually because they bought a ticket to see cat, not on the boat. They would get up and walk out in the middle of a number being like, this is weird, and I'd rather go eat all you can eat pizza. So it was a very different thing. Sometimes, like, we'd start with a full theater and a big theater, it's like over 17, but it we would get done with Jellicle cat, and then we would get to memory at the end of the show, and it would maybe be half full

[10:43] Mike Abrams: well, the intermission is crazy. Like, why would you do an intermission in a show? Thinking at it now, it's like, Oh yeah, that all makes sense. I'm sure. Back then, it's like, this is a well known musical, and people are gonna like it, and you've got way more than 1700 people on that boat to come fill the seats. It

[11:00] Speaker 4: was, they wanted the 90 minute show originally and really useful. Would not give them the right they wanted to put the full show on the boat. And there was also, you know, they wanted the orchestra to be live. And this was crazy. We got on the boat, the orchestra, I mean, they are still working while trying to rehearse to do our show, and it was very quick to learn that this was not going to happen. They didn't have the time. And you can't really base the musicians you hire off of this ability set. So, like, we had really great jazz musicians, but they were like, What? What is this? So Graham Herman went to Prague and recorded the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra in their playing of it, and that is what we use on the boat, and it's all to a click track, so you can never complain that the ball was faster tonight. You were just tired that ball or same. But it was very interesting. I know it was Prague. It might not be the Philharmonic. That's the track I used Ellen Stardust diner to sing memory that frog Philharmonic recorded. Okay,

[12:19] Mike Abrams: so you're, wow. Okay, I got more questions about that. Come back now, because I one of my first Broadway beat stories ever was about Alan's, which is, which was fun. So okay, so you're, you do the boat. You This is the very first so what was the crowd reaction? Because, like I've heard over the years, I think it was a little bit different as it progressed before the 90 minute, but you're on the very first one, very first falling musical. Was it? I mean, I know you said it trickled through, but was the reception still pretty good, or was it much more of the like, Why is this here?

[12:54] Speaker 4: People who loved it, loved it, the people who didn't love it just left and moved on with their vacation. And it's not the worst thing to do. We would have people come in and out for act two, like some of them would come watch act one one night, and then they come see Act Two another night. It's a really bizarre way to do it, but if there was something else you really wanted to do, because there was so much to do on that boat, can't miss trivia. But like you had the Aqua shows, the ice skating shows, the guest headliners, such random stuff was happening. Like, I don't even know what happened when I was doing cats, which was, yeah,

[13:31] Mike Abrams: so one thing that I thought I did not know about until Darden, actually, who's on the boat right now, told me that it's very common that they don't let you do two years in a row, but it's very common to go back every other year, and you did three years

[13:46] Speaker 4: so well, I did two new full and then I was at emergency replacement in cast five for like, the last two months. But it is because you can't ever have a time where the shows aren't happening. So the way that you do a crossover is that they rehearse a full cast in Miami, and then they come onto the boat and they take over the cruise ship show first, and then as they are running the cruise ship show, they're rehearsing cats in the theater during the day, and then we sign off as a cat, and they jump right into the show. So there's never downtime between your your production. And then maritime law says you can't be at sea for more than 15 months, right? And we are on that boat for 10 to 11 months based on which variation you're on. I

[14:38] Mike Abrams: never thought about that and but it is such a unique piece of that. And then it's also really interesting that it's like, oh, it's such a good contract. Like, come back if you can, every other year. Yeah, super. But

[14:50] Speaker 4: it's interesting just because you only do cap three times a week, and then you do all the other stuff that you're contracted to do on the boat. But it. Fascinating, how you fill your time. So, like my first contract was, was interesting. I was one of three American and everyone else was from the UK, and we had one lovely guy from Argentina, but it was most of the dancers came from the same graduating class of the same dance school. They all already knew each other so and then everyone else was in their 40s, so the Plato mccavity and I were the only one in our like, upper 20s, and we were like, We got to go make friends somewhere else. 40 year old don't want to hang out with us, and neither did the teenager. So we it was, it was a really interesting time. And then my second year was a lot more age range, but like, more, like young adult versus such a big age gap.

[15:48] Mike Abrams: One thing I So, I didn't, I've only talked to people kind of in the middle years of the show and then of the end of the, not the end the current of the Royal Caribbean. Here, in the beginning, there seemed to be some hierarchy in and some, in some cases, not, not animosity, but the contracts are different. So it's like, if you're Grizabella, you get to do this, but if you're Plato, you might only get to do this, and you don't have access to this. Was that? How was that on the boat? Was there a feel of that, of like, since you're sitting in contract, you can go and do all these things in a dancing you can't and how did that impact your ship? It's

[16:24] Speaker 4: wild. So in rehearsals, because you all meet in rehearsals, you're all on the same playing field. And so I think everyone came in thinking that we were, oh, we were cat, we were the first full length musical. We were going to kind of be like the coolest ones in town. It was very quickly realized that, No, we weren't, but they got on the boat expecting to be like that. Oh, we're the cat. Nobody cared. Nobody cared. They all actually, like all the other casts, hated us because our show was so long and they had to come be dresser, and it messed the show schedule for every other show. So we only had dressers for Act One, wow. They left for act two because they had to go do their own, their own show. But it took the good, like, three or four months of being on the boat for everyone to kind of cool their jet. So interesting and, and. But I mean, you had like, Broadway people West End people like these were not fresh out of Sally Dingle dance studio. Dancer like they, they were expecting to be treated like you would on a national tour or like on a West End stage. That's just kind of what their anticipation was. And

[17:43] Mike Abrams: it's so so interesting, though, because it is such a different version and vibe and and then also being first, it's like, it is new, whereas now it's like a fairly, yeah, well, you're a guinea pig. They know what they're doing. They've got it figured out. There's they've cycled through many years. But you like first full length. You know, how do you handle intermission? Who goes? Where? What do you do? Like it is a different experience. I love someone for that. We're gonna take a quick break, and then we'll be back for more of the wrong cat died I want to hear and I'll let you pick which one we want to do first, either fun stories that you remember from your various experiences, or what theories do you want to talk about that I have never asked or brought up on this show? Let's

[18:25] Speaker 4: go fun stories, because you've dealt with a lot of you. So my favorite tour memory, we were in Spokane, Washington, and there is a playground right by the big performing arts center that has a gigantic Radio Flyer wagon. And we looked at that, we were like, We need to take a picture. Yeah, at admission in facade, we're just gonna, we're gonna break all the rules. We're gonna go out there. So this playground is full of children, and my favorite memory is watching our Mungo Jerry Wilbur just traumatize the kid by running full speed at that radio wagon, liar thing in full cats regalia, and these children were terrified. So we all like, climb up there and we're taking this picture, and our Old Deuteronomy is still sitting on stage at the theater completely alone. All the tech came with a stage manager came with us, like we just abandoned Nathan, and took this picture and it would it was great.

[19:29] Mike Abrams: I so there's, it's very likely I'm doing an episode with will here soon. So I'm gonna ask him about terrifying children at the wagon, not just on stage, because I've always said green eyes is terrifying for children too, but, but now you're doing it outside the theater, running around during intermission. Yeah, they're just out there playing on the playground, enjoying their nice day outside. And

[19:58] Mike Abrams: Yeah? So you. That's a memory for you that is therapy for Yeah, they're all of those kids like they're talking about this traumatic childhood memory of just playing on the playground and human sized cats running at them. Oh so good.

[20:15] Speaker 4: What other, um, a few fun little like boat nugget, when you have, like a it called an alpha call, and that's like a medical emergency. So what that does is, if it's not run correctly, it will turn all of your music off during the show, and you will just hear alpha, alpha, alpha, and then wherever the emergency is. So the first time they forgot to to take the theater sound system out of that rooting system so it cut off. This is the middle of Tugger. We are all just crawling around going, what do we do? What do we do? We learned very quickly that the music in time code does not stop playing, so it immediately picked back up, and we had to figure out where we were in the song. And we were like, cool, cool, cool community theater cats. Here we are. So now we know you just keep going when the out fall go. But that was fun. And then I think my favorite thing I've always been very jealous of mango, Jerry and rumble teaser. I just what, what a joyous, exhausting number. But on boat, we had a literal captive audience. So our Mungo and rump would go into the audience and actually deal from the patrons, like they would come back with like, HAT AND SUNGLASSES every once in a while, like a full purse, and I'm like, where did you and they would just get taken back to service. And so, like, if someone had their their stuff stolen at cat they had to go get it at guest services after the show.

[21:51] Mike Abrams: I so they, like, it's instead of just being on stage the whole time, they went into the crowd, kind of like what Tugger occasionally does, and just grab stuff and then brought it back on stage all at

[21:59] Speaker 4: the very end. So, like, there was when Grizabella was coming down from the heavy side layer and the tire was coming down the stage, pretty much gets cleared for safety reasons. So we can, like, move thing, but everyone else would go out into the audience and interact as your cat. So as Jenny, I knew I'd literally just sit in a chair next to a patron and like, clap my paws. I'm like, point, um, some lady rubbed my tummy one night, and I was like, Wow, I'm I'm your size. I'm not an actual cat. Don't touch my belly.

[22:30] Mike Abrams: So this is after the address, like the very end of the show, and it's, you know, the music that's playing, and it's as people are leaving, or is it still like part of the show? And then it's like, don't, don't go yet.

[22:43] Speaker 4: So it is like, we finish a dressing cap. We do all of that. You run out into the audience. Grisel comes back down. Dancers are dancing, and then you all come up, and you do like a final swirl and a final pounce, and then then you run for

[23:00] Mike Abrams: about, okay, I've never seen that

[23:03] Speaker 4: the gap where you have to fill the tire moving back and then Isabella coming back down.

[23:09] Mike Abrams: Yeah? I so I'm trying to think of, like, how they've done it, I guess, on Broadway and in the tour, they just can get her out quickly and back down, and don't actually have to put the tire back down. Yeah, so you have to, you basically have to kill time. And it's just like, just improvise however you want in character. Run

[23:28] Speaker 4: out on the stage with everyone else. We all jumped. I mean, usually we'd go out and find, like, little kids we play. I just would find a chair on the side, wave it, and he could jump. Was Tugger was tired. Yeah? Was Tugger like, No, I went from away. I never he was on the other side of the stage. So I never really paid attention to what anyone else was doing in the audience. We were crawling. I think we're grabbing mylar ribbon from mistopolies and playing with those. Our breathing, he was one of the dancers. There were like four male dancers on stage, so I think it was Plato Alan though, Monk and someone else that stayed on stage to actually cover the tire. Jet. No more. There it goes. Magic on and to help Old Deuteronomy back.

[24:25] Mike Abrams: Got it okay. I thought he was gonna be stealing with, you know, with the Mungo and rump,

[24:31] Speaker 4: he would probably have loved that our tuggers, our tuggers on the boat, were always hysterical,

[24:39] Mike Abrams: yeah, you kind of have to be, to do that role. That's, that is a fun nugget. I did not know that that was the thing. And I kind of love the idea of just like, No, just go do your thing. I don't. They don't do that on tour. They don't do that in a lot of other places, right? I

[24:51] Speaker 4: think we went out in the audience on tour. I can't remember. It's been a long time. Yeah,

[24:58] Mike Abrams: I've never heard that. Yeah, I don't think so, because there were a lot

[25:04] Mike Abrams: Yeah, be hard to get down. Yeah, it's like a you had your green eyes where you worked your way back up. But a lot of times that took, like, running around, and it was always an adventure chaos,

[25:14] Speaker 4: like we would have to walk the green tracks. And we had babysitters in some venues because it was just mild miles away. Yeah,

[25:25] Mike Abrams: I this is that would be that that's a fun that's a fun little nugget to be able to do, just like go out, you have a few minutes at most to kill, oh yeah, and do whatever you want, and then be back to do your bows. And

[25:38] Speaker 4: then when towards the end of contracts, we would start to see who could stay the audience the longest, and they'll make it back to their spawn time for whirligig and I mean just cat gliding across the front of that stage. We should never, we're children. We should never be left unattended. Yeah,

[25:56] Mike Abrams: you're cats. You're in character. Okay, I want to hear a couple theories before we go to rapid fire. I fire. What are your biggest hot takes on I want to think about like relationships, personality, pieces of the cast, characters, having done it, you know, many times,

[26:12] Speaker 4: I always think, at least for Jenny, she was kind of like everyone's crazy aunt who might take her wig off at the Christmas party if she drinks a little too much, but it was fun seeing like, between each contract, which kittens I felt like I needed to protect, and it would just change based on on who was there, and every month in a while, who put in front of me, and I looked up, but I think he always liked The body kitten the best he was like, oh so bad, yeah, but, um, but that was always really, really fun. I think I always originally thought that Grizz, Bella was like jelly, Lorem and Jenny any dot age, and she's not she, I'm in Demeter age. She just hard life and look kind of rough, um, but she, I feel like she was the favorite, like she was the best at everything. She just had the most potential. And I think that's why I was always so harsh when she would come back as that cut was deep, like she was so promising, she was my favorite, and then she just decided she was better than us and left.

[27:23] Mike Abrams: That's interesting, because I've always put her in that same like jelly Jenny, age range, and that's kind of where the theories of like, the potential love triangles and stuff of like, that's where the potential animosity comes, not that she was a kitten that you were protecting at points and now went to the dark side and you're mad at her because she didn't listen. Yeah.

[27:45] Speaker 4: And again, there's big, big differences in theories between the American version and the British version. You in that show with me? Cartwright, I was like,

[27:56] Mike Abrams: so can you talk about that a little bit? Because there is, it's, there's obviously different choreographies, because when Andy came on and took that, but then this is, it's still, they had some minor tweaks, I know, to the story. But you're saying, what are the other big things between the American and British versions that you, you know, you would call

[28:13] Speaker 4: out? Oh, I gotta think about that. Um, just personality things too, like jelly Loram, and the American version is like, Gus is sweet caretaker. She's very, like, protective of him. And in the in the British version, she's still very protective, um, but she's think, like costume lady and someone she's been dressing forever. So they have this, like, it's not as sweet a relationship. There's a little bit more. But for lack of a better word, itchiness to it physical top, like, what? What are you doing? And it's just it little tweaks like that. The choreography differences were wild, yeah. Like, we got to biky ballet, and it's a very specific little set of cats in the American version, and they're the kitten. And then we got to the cruise ship and old cat, and I was in it, and I was like, she gets to dance this bike. That's exciting and weird. But it was just like, it was totally different depth. It wasn't just for people. And I was like, this is a mind trip, and I'm here for it. Yeah, interesting.

[29:28] Mike Abrams: I I've never really thought about, I've thought about the differences between the revival. Oh, massively,

[29:36] Speaker 4: those dancers were incredible. It's

[29:39] Mike Abrams: similar and different, but there's not a lot of like, theory wise, it's not dramatically changed, except for there's some different staging, and with some different staging, you get some different potential relationships that come out of that. But I had never thought as much about the American versus British version of the same, same thing, because that is less. I would I would have thought less changes. It sounds like it really isn't, because there's still more to it, which is, again, this show's been around for so long. It's why I can have my show, because there's so many theories that can come from this that, yeah, that could exist that don't exist if those changes don't happen, because otherwise, it's just Nope. This is the relationship, and that's it. And there's no changes ever.

[30:21] Speaker 4: I will say, when I did the show at merry go round. Now the rib during the the white cat live, and the Jellicle Ball, everyone kind of paired off into couples, and there's that big sensual moment that's always in the dark. So it's really hard to see. But usually I'm with Gus and we have our little our set moment, but at the merry go round now, the red version, my friend Josh Walton was playing monkey strap, and he was like, I want Jenny. And I was like, we have shaken the cat's world to its core to make Jenny any dot and monk a strap lover in this version. Never again.

[31:08] Mike Abrams: Yeah, one time only. Yeah. And that's, that's how these theories end up, is because someone saw your production and was like, Wait a second, I noticed the two of them together, and now I think they're there, and I'm gonna write fan fiction about it. And we have way too much about this now and then, there's your Jenny and monk story, a

[31:28] Speaker 4: love that'll last a lifetime. Jenny trap, that's what we'll call it.

[31:33] Mike Abrams: Okay, let's do some rapid fire. So you played Jenny, and I know you understudied, I think grizzly and Joey Lorem, but if you can go on one night, any cat doesn't matter. Who would you want to do one night as teaser, rumple, teaser, go steal whatever you want in the audience. What's the first thing you're going to steal? What are you looking for? Oh,

[31:52] Speaker 4: designer handbag. Go pick Okay, get

[31:57] Mike Abrams: that, yeah, get that fancy handbag. Make them have to go. Make them sweat it out on the boat. Shouldn't have brought it on a cruise ship to begin with, and they have to go figure out how to get that back. Favorite and least favorite cat.

[32:12] Speaker 4: This is always so hard. I think my lead favorite is Alonzo. Okay, he just he gets ready for his big moment, and he wimps out. Very bad. My favorite cat is skimble Shank

[32:24] Mike Abrams: Love it. Love it. Favorite song in the show, it's memory.

[32:29] Speaker 4: I won't lie. Close, close. Second is skimble shanks.

[32:32] Mike Abrams: Okay. What was your favorite song swimming to as a child? Oh, Macavity. Always

[32:38] Speaker 4: nice. It was really good tempo. I

[32:42] Mike Abrams: always ask a fun one, and this one's gonna center around the klepto cats here, out there, stealing. I want to hear what was if you could assign a couple cats what they should go do when they go into the audience to kill time, what would you tell different characters? Hey, you got to go do this when you're on the boat, you know, like the Mungo general dudes are stealing, what are some of the other people needing to do?

[33:06] Speaker 4: I really loved it when, when Kimball Shanks would go and, like, untie, pull shoes and untie them correctly, just creating, I like to find someone who looks like they do not want to be there in any way, shape or form, and just enter their personal base and make them unbelievably uncomfortable tying two laces together with something like our council would do a lot. You just harass people.

[33:33] Mike Abrams: I want your most awfulies to like, go and do, like, a pull a coin out of your ear type of thing.

[33:39] Speaker 4: Oh, that would be it must Oh, come on, if must stop. Worth came out and was like, I know some close up magic, yeah, that would be good. Just a whole misto magic

[33:47] Mike Abrams: show. I love it. That's I'm that I'm going to be thinking about what I would do if I was in the crowd all day. This is, this is why I love this show, because I learned these random, you know, weird, like, parts of the show that I'd never thought about, and now I'm like, Oh, that's fun. What if they get to do this? I retiring the shoes. I was like, You should skimble shakes. Should go, like, make sure to tell people their watch is off. It's like, hey, it's off. It's off by like, two seconds.

[34:11] Speaker 4: That funny. Like, compare it to his Yeah, and then maybe just take

[34:15] Mike Abrams: it off, twist it around, hand it back to them. Rewind, put it on. Just put it on, uh, the London train schedule time. All right, most important, most important question I've argued at length. I don't think it should be Isabella. You know what's coming. I want to hear what is your Jellico choice? Okay,

[34:35] Speaker 4: hear me out. It's a Bella only because I think Gus has another year in him, I moonlighted at a vet clinic, and I had seen old decrepid cat, and I think Gus can make it another year, but Grizz won't. So if she, if she died tonight, and not a Jellicle choice, like, that's it

[34:56] Mike Abrams: okay. So she won't make it another year, Gus will. Well,

[35:00] Speaker 4: no, no, she horrible drug addiction, yeah,

[35:04] Mike Abrams: but she's, she's back, she's back with her family. No

[35:07] Speaker 4: amount of rehab is exact damage done. Um, am I allowed to say rehab on this? Yeah?

[35:13] Mike Abrams: I mean, I think it's pretty, it's pretty well known that that's like, that's established. That's what she was, was left for drugs and bad, yeah, you know, bad things. But that's been my counter to this is that she's essentially had an intervention, being welcomed back by her family, and then it's like I've argued that I don't think she I think she has another year in her, so if you're arguing the reverse, that does make my argument not make sense that. But I think she has a year in her, and she should spend it with the family. Wouldn't

[35:42] Speaker 4: that be a lovely way to end the show, just give her a hug and then send Gus off on the tire? No, I think she's dying like I think everything she's got she gives in memory, and that fall to the ground is like the life just going but then

[35:59] Mike Abrams: she gets up and goes and hangs out on a tire and, you know, she's, she's got,

[36:03] Speaker 4: what if she just dies, and then we just put her lifeless bond on the tire and watch it.

[36:08] Mike Abrams: That That to me, I'd be like, All right, that would, that would help my, my argument, a little bit. Yes, yeah. I mean, I think that that's the crux point of, like, I think the redemption story makes sense, but I've always just felt, and I think a lot of it, too, is when was the last? Was last year you did this on on the boat, it would have been like, 1415,

[36:34] Mike Abrams: so in the last couple years, especially, they've had on tours and everything else. A younger Isabella, and not like, you know, super young, but they've been definitely in their 20s, and I think that has skewed some of the for me, the vision of Mike this, you know, there's much makeup and everything you do, and the performance is incredible. I'm like, they've got more time. Like, they're not, like,

[36:59] Speaker 4: ready in their prime, if they could just kick this cocaine habit.

[37:03] Mike Abrams: So I think that's clouded my judgment a little bit. No, I get that, but I do, I do understand that. If that, if that is the, yeah,

[37:14] Speaker 4: everybody's a baby on the boat, that's wild for me. I think that's like, he's not dumb around. He little shaky and memory is not great, but, yeah, it's true. As long as we keep him like kind of Doc, I think he's good, good playing a window so too high. Hello.

[37:36] Mike Abrams: Yeah, give him his meds. Make sure if someone's taking care of him, he's fine. Yeah, I love it. Well, I didn't convince you, but I do. I learned a lot today that I had not known, which is really fun, because that's to me, what the best part of this show is, is to get nuggets of this, this musical that's been around for so long that that most people, I guess a lot of the super fans, know all these different facts, but a lot of people don't, and I think that's what's fun to to get these out there. So how can people stay in touch with you on social media and things you're working on? Oh,

[38:07] Speaker 4: they didn't follow me at Erica Lee Hanson on Instagram. I think that's my only one. I don't really do a whole lot, and you're just gonna see a lot of pictures of

[38:16] Mike Abrams: my dogs. That's wrong, wrong animal for this show, but

[38:20] Speaker 4: I lesbian, won't let me have a cat. Now,

[38:24] Mike Abrams: what would you name your cat? Would you name after one of the characters?

[38:27] Speaker 4: No, I have a running track naming all of my fur animals after, uh, did the actors? So it would probably be something obscure, okay, from a Disney movie. So,

[38:41] Mike Abrams: all right, I like that. There's a lot of choices there. Yeah, I'm

[38:45] Speaker 4: video podcast. I'm re watching, like, the will and gray and doing their podcast. And I forget that he scares someone off by saying, what cat grcell and skimble Shank, yeah. Probably like, Oh, it's so neat. The

[39:00] Mike Abrams: amount of, like, really obscure pop culture references to the show that are in there. It's in a couple friends episodes. It's in a Family Guy episode. It's in a modern family. Modern Family. One is, like, it's a core part of that episode where he's dressed as Tugger, gets stuck in the tree he's supposed to be singing memory. There's a lot I didn't know the Will and Grace one. That's fun. I that's a very, very, very small reference. Yeah,

[39:23] Speaker 4: it's a little throw away, yeah, but it felt funny. That's great. We'll get together, probably not on your podcast, because I'm not going to take up all of your time, but I'll tell you all the stories of Taylor, Dane Grizabella at Merrill, and I'll just throw this in no short break. Um, some of her fans came to see show, and they were late and they were not going to be seated when they wanted to be seated, and they put the fire alarm, wow, raining out fights. So we all had to, like, put things. Move over our costume and, like, Go stand at a rain and it just the whole cast. And then, like, the whole audience is right there. And we're like, thanks. But I was, like, I was in the in the trunk, in all of my gummy gear, like, ready to get that number started. And they were, like, the fire alarms. Oh, so we're gonna pull, well, get that in breath.

[40:23] Mike Abrams: Don't lay in the trunk during the potential fire.

[40:25] Speaker 4: These don't die during fire. That is

[40:29] Mike Abrams: crazy. Oh, it was absolutely a trip. That is, i Wow, how's that not one of the core stories that memory stories and I earlier,

[40:39] Speaker 4: there's just many. There's so many floating around us. It's just,

[40:43] Mike Abrams: well, scaring children.

[40:46] Speaker 4: look on their faces. It'll just never leave me. Yeah,

[40:50] Mike Abrams: that's a fun that's a yeah, there's a lot of that, especially regionally, you get but it's crazy. That was the, like, very big fans that were mad that they showed up late, couldn't go in until after what the opening number and yeah, and

[41:03] Speaker 4: they didn't know she wasn't in that they weren't there to see cats. They don't see Taylor Dane, yeah, um, she until the to the middle of the first act. You're good. Yeah?

[41:12] Mike Abrams: Her 15 minutes, you'll see it

[41:16] Mike Abrams: is wild. Yeah? All, all your makeup on, full cat costume, cool, just bright orange wig. Yeah. And I also can imagine just standing there looking at all the audience members, just like them, looking at you, being like, yeah, we're here too.

[41:35] Mike Abrams: in character. That's fun. Well, this has been so fun. Great stories, new moments, always a good time, although it wasn't a Grizz or wasn't a non grizabell choice, still amazing episode. So thank you for coming on and sharing.

[41:51] Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. It was just absolutely in life. It was

[41:55] Mike Abrams: awesome. So thank you, and thanks everyone else for listening to this episode of The Ron cat died, the podcast breakdown, the castafe to follow along. You can subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, or any else's podcast, follow on Twitter, Instagram, tik, Tok and threads at the wrong cat died. Or check our website, the wrong cat