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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 vpm.fm to discover more.

[0:29] Speaker 2: Welcome to the wrong cat died. The podcast breakdown the cat sashay. I'm your host, Mike Abrams, and today we have another very fun episode. I promised you, the listeners, to bring you a wide variety of cats related content, and today I continue down that path as we welcome a Broadway performer who has a very unique connection to cats. You may have seen her on Broadway in hair or Sideshow or even on your TV in an episode of Law and Order SVU, but her unique connection to cats is why she is here today. So welcome Lauren elder to the wrong had died, and thank you for joining me.

[1:01] Speaker 3: Hello, thanks for having me. So I want to actually

[1:05] Speaker 2: kick us off now, because I know we'll get to your unique connection. But you said that you saw the show first as a seven year old. Yeah, and I have spent a lot of time arguing that children should not see this show. What was your experience as a seven year old, and how did it change your life?

[1:24] Speaker 3: Well, my parents knew that I loved singing and dancing, and, you know, watching musicals on TV like, you know, the Wizard of Oz. And they also knew that I loved cats, the animal. And when the national tour of cats was coming through Los Angeles, they bought tickets, and the seats were in the second row on the aisle, and they let me have the aisle seat. And so the show started. It was the very first musical I ever saw live. And the show started, the lights went down, and all of a sudden, you know, the green cat eyes come out, and they're moving to the audience. And

[2:07] Speaker 2: scared the life out of me as an adult. You know, I'm sure

[2:12] Speaker 3: I probably was a little bit scared at first, but then they started coming up to me, and like rubbing up against me, like real cats. And then I felt very at ease and very into it, like I was ready to just jump up and join the show. At that moment, I remember when the Rum Tum Tugger came down into the audience. I in my heart, I was just like, please, please, please, pick me out of the audience. I want to dance with you. I think he'd I already pulled a woman out and was like twirling her in the aisle, and I thought maybe I'll be next, but I wasn't. He ran back on the stage. It wouldn't have been appropriate for Ramsay to pull a seven year old out of the audience, but it was incredible just seeing these dancing and singing cats, doing their thing, living their lives on stage like that, coming into the audience and involving us as well. It just it completely changed my life. And then realizing that that was actually a career path made me, you know, never look back again. I already knew I wanted to be a singer, performer of some sort, but this, I think, is what really made me realize that it had to be in the theater. So as

[3:29] Speaker 2: a seven year old, how much of the storyline Did you truly understand? I mean,

[3:34] Speaker 3: I guess first I'll ask, what storyline are you talking about? Because there's, there's not much of one there

[3:45] Speaker 3: I mean, basically all of it that that you can I understood that they, these were these cats that gathered together for some sort of an event. They all introduced themselves and told us about themselves, and one got chosen to move on, and I've always interpreted it as being, you know, reincarnated, brought into their next life, because cats have nine lives. So going to the heavy side layer in my mind was always that that cat got to then live again. Now, I've had a lot of arguments with people over this in my life, because some people think that just means the cat died. And then I wonder, well, then why are they all fighting for this chance, especially like the younger, hipper ones like Rum Tum Tugger or Mr. Mistoffelees, who are like at the peak of their career. Why would they want to then die? I mean, I get why Grizabella would want to die because, like, her life changed, and everyone hates her. Now, I don't really understand that either, but I've always interpreted it as they are being reborn, and that's. What I got when I was child, and that's what I've carried with me to this day. Yeah, so

[5:04] Speaker 2: I don't disagree with you. I think that they are being reborn. I do think that there's a lot of aggressive sexual context into this show that I noticed as an adult, that I was like, why are their children? Children sitting around me watching this and, like, mesmerized, and it's like, maybe it went over their head, but I there's just definitely a lot to it. And then when you really dig into the loose plot line, you get into some sex work, into some some drugs, into some gentlemen's clubs, into potential domestic abuse. It gets it gets a lot, yeah, and so I think I clearly that doesn't come off to the seven year old eyes, and that's why there are children there, because they just think it's cats. But the more I've researched the show, the more I've I'm mad at my mom for bringing my sister as a kid.

[5:59] Speaker 3: Wow. Well, I guess I'm gonna have to learn more about these things that you've learned, because I haven't even dug that far into it. I think I let my seven year old interpretation of it move on with me throughout life, and I always felt that because I've met so many people in my adult life that hate cats and think it's the worst musical and should never have been made. And I would always say to them, Well, if you had seen it when you were seven, I think you would feel differently, interesting,

[6:28] Speaker 2: so different than I'm their version. I'm like, You need to see them as adults so you can really, like, appreciate all of it, appreciate what's happening. And you probably need some type of enhancement, whether it's drugs or alcohol, to really appreciate it. But the reason I really want to talk to you is because you left that show and you told me that you created a one woman version in your garage of cats, the musical where you were every character. So this is what I want to hear. Tell me all about this one woman show of cats.

[7:04] Speaker 3: I was, it was, it was common for me to put on shows in my garage, sometimes with my sister, sometimes with the neighbor kids, and sometimes all by myself, if I couldn't find anyone else, and no

[7:16] Speaker 2: neighbor kid wanted to be Tugger or Mr. Eventually

[7:21] Speaker 3: some of the other kids got on board, and then it was always like this weird fight over who would be the white cat. Everybody wanted to be the pretty white, fluffy cat. I don't even know her name, Victoria. Thank you. I guess I should know that. How. How horrible. What a cat's fan. But, but, but, you know, for some reason we thought she was the prettiest and the most special, and so, you know, we would fight over that. But before that happened, I had to do it by myself. And at this point in my life, I'd never had singing voice lessons or dance classes or anything like that. So it was all just what I thought it was. I would put on my cassette tape. It was a double cassette tape, so I would have to stop three times to flip tapes and change tapes.

[8:15] Speaker 3: as you know, maybe, maybe you need, yeah, actually, there were three, because sides, flip side, Feeny, change the tape, flip again, all of that. And, you know, I'm not sure if I even wore costumes, trying to remember all this, but basically it was like I forced my parents to sit in the garage and watch me just dance around to the cats. Cast recording. I wish that I had taken it on further. Well, honestly, I did do this in a friend's living room a few years ago. I redid the entire performance. And, you know, maybe I'll, maybe I'll bring it to the masses. At some point, I have been working on a one woman version of rent, which is very different from cats. Maybe once I've figured that one out, we'll move on to my one woman cats again. So

[9:08] Speaker 2: did you have Did you differentiate between the cats, or did you just dance your way through

[9:15] Speaker 3: the whole every cat is different and unique and special with their own energy, their own personality and their own music style. You know, every song is is almost a different style of music, and so you have to have different interpretations, different energies, different dances. I should have had different costumes, but, you know, it was just,

[9:42] Speaker 2: So I want to give you a character, and I want to hear the seven year old interpretation of like, what you what, how you played that character during your your performance. All right, all right, okay, let's start with Old Deuteronomy,

[9:59] Speaker 4: who. Toronto. Me, lived a long time.

[10:04] Speaker 3: I mean, he doesn't sing that song himself, but I'm, I'm, you know, just interpreting it as him. He was very low and very slow and very thoughtful. This

[10:18] Speaker 2: is, this is gonna be great. I want to keep going. Thank you. Thank you. Jenny Annie dots.

[10:22] Speaker 3: Oh, Jenny Annie dots, I mean, she's, she's very, she's very, she's very, up and bubbly, I think, you know, dancing around a lot like this, and maybe with, like, this kind of a voice. I don't really remember how much I did with Jenny Annie dots. I mean, just, you know, that giant dress that she had with all the kittens? I just wished that that had been in my possession at that time.

[10:49] Speaker 3: Okay, absolutely, okay, good. Oh, God. I thought I was such a great tap dancer back then, before I begin any tap dance, I remember like tapping for my friends at school and being like, look what I can do, just moving my feet. They Nope, didn't know what I was doing. Okay,

[11:11] Speaker 3: is like, well, first of all, the Rum Tum Tugger was my favorite character when I was a child, and I really think that the reason was he reminded me of David Bowie in Labyrinth. I don't know who inspired who there, but basically they are the same. For anyone that knows both characters. I feel that Gareth, Jareth, Jareth in Labyrinth. I think that's his name in Labyrinth is Jareth, the king of the goblins and and Rum Tum Tugger they, I mean, they've got their hair, they've got that, that that rock and roll vibe, and the tights that that so tightly held these parts that I didn't know about at that time in my life, but I knew were Doing something to me. So it was, it was like this pure sex that I didn't know was sex at seven. So he was very, had the swagger and like that voice, you know, because he's the Rum Tum Tugger. So he definitely, I mean, I would sing all the songs as the characters, even though other cats normally saying about them, right? You know, there is a curious cat, and the reason for you to shout it,

[12:33] Speaker 2: I wish. I wish your parents filmed this at seven. Oh, my

[12:36] Speaker 3: God, if they had it, would be lost. We lost all of our home videos from like when I was, gosh, probably age five to like age 10. They all got lost in a move that we made. And I cannot tell you, I mean, it probably was filmed, and maybe someone found it. So all of you out there listening, if you found a beta tape with my home videos of my version of cats on it, please call me and we'll get it converted somehow.

[13:06] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we, I hope it still exists out. Okay, bus for Jones. Oh, Buster

[13:14] Speaker 5: for Jones. He's he talks like this, and he's very fat, as we know, kind of like that tonight. I think he kind of waddled a bit.

[13:26] Speaker 2: He had a he had a spoon, like it was like his cane.

[13:30] Speaker 3: Oh, my God, really. I don't think I ever even noticed his cane with a spoon. Yeah, bats all the time that it was just, it was all about those Spats. Okay,

[13:45] Speaker 3: my god. Well, you know, she was a beautiful ballerina, and I felt, I felt the most amazing when I was playing Victoria. But you know who I will say, and I didn't realize this, because, you know, as a little girl, you want to be the princess, you want to be the pretty one, but I know for a fact the cat that I loved the most and wanted to be the most and still long to play, though I won't, because I'm not a dancer, not I take that back. I am a dancer. I am a great dancer. I have an incredible dancer inside of me, but she doesn't quite dance the way that they would want you to. And cats on Broadway, but my favorite cat is the the one that sings about Grizabella. She is my favorite one. So that is, I don't know her name.

[14:39] Speaker 2: I believe it's Demeter that

[14:43] Speaker 3: sounds right. In the revival, they turned it into two. Oh, no, wait a minute, there were two cats in the revival. They made Grizabella sing that song about herself, which I just didn't think made anything.

[14:57] Speaker 2: There's a couple choice of it could have been there was three. Sisters. Every production does it differently. And that's the other part that's made it very difficult. That's frustrating because my I've only seen the revival, the 2016 revival and the 1998 movie, and no other versions of this whatsoever. Well,

[15:14] Speaker 3: I think the 98 movie has the version that I'm speaking about, which, yes, there are two cats that sing about Grizabella. They do the remark the cat who hesitates toward you.

[15:29] Speaker 2: So it could be Jemima. It could be who else? Let me think I'm thinking. I'm just thinking out loud. It could be um, but in that could be Electra. Could be Electra.

[15:52] Speaker 2: I'm running out of cat names that I remember that aren't the main characters, because that's I still don't know that much track

[15:57] Speaker 3: of them. I have loved this show my entire life. And I don't know their names, you know, but, but I just, I remember, I remember that, that, I mean, my whole life. That has been my favorite song in the show. It has been my favorite thing to sing in the show. It's just, it's just, I don't know. I love it, and I was, I was very confused by the choice they made in the most recent revival of having Grizabella sing that about herself. Yes, that. Maybe I

[16:31] Speaker 2: do want two more, two more impressions, because there's two more, like, really, main characters, I think you got to cover, okay, Mr. Mr.

[16:42] Speaker 3: I wish he could all see me right now, because it's also so movement based, you know, I mean, he's just maybe my second favorite cat is Mr. Mistoffelees, because he's just so magical, and he's so exciting. And I always felt really, really positive.

[17:02] Speaker 2: And then the last one. Now we're gonna change paces, which is Grizabella. Oh crispel.

[17:09] Speaker 3: Oh, God, Grizabella, she's just so torn down, she's so sad and she's so tired. Did you belt out memory? No, you know that's actually like never been my thing is belting memory isn't that weird, like, I'm not that into that song again. I want to do the you'll see, twist that's that's my part, not, not memory.

[17:41] Speaker 3: is a great song. That is a great song. Well, you know what other song I like is, is Mungo Jerry and rumble teaser? Yes, that is one of my very favorites.

[17:54] Speaker 2: So when I saw the play the very first time, the only song I remembered, besides memory, because I was only something I knew going in was Mongo, Jerry rebel teaser. I couldn't get it out of my head. It just stuck with me for like a week.

[18:09] Speaker 3: It's so good. It's so good. You might say notorious. I mean, they are just they are the best, the very first a good song, yeah. In the movie they,

[18:24] Speaker 2: well, they went back to the original, is what I was told. It is a British version. It's a different interpretation from a different production.

[18:33] Speaker 3: Wow, I don't like that one.

[18:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, I wasn't as big of a fan. I was really not a fan of how they did Mr. Mustafa police

[18:45] Speaker 2: And then I have lots of other gripes about it, but I guess, tell me what, when did you see it? How did you see the movie? Like, what was your take? Yeah,

[18:53] Speaker 3: you know, I didn't get to see it right away. I was home for the holidays in California, at my mom's house, where I am now again. But I, my mom didn't really have any desire to go see the movie, and I wanted to be able to see it with a group of friends that I knew were going to enjoy it in the same way as me, which I, you know, I knew it was going to be a train wreck. I knew that it was going to be weird. I also knew that I was going to love it in my own way. And so I waited until I got back to New York and I saw it, gosh, I think the first week of January, and I went with a bunch of friends, and, you know, we ate some special treats, and I took a bottle of wine with me in my bag, and because I knew that was the only way to do it. And and the moment the music started at the very beginning, it was. Like magic was filling my body. I was so happy. I was so excited. And it came and went from there on. But I will tell you when Mungo Jerry and Rumpel teaser happened, I was filled with rage. I could not like I blacked out for a moment during that part of the movie because I was so upset, my blood was boiling. I literally wanted to hurl my popcorn at the screen, but I didn't, because I really wanted to eat my popcorn. Um, but, but that was that was very upsetting for me, and took me out of the movie for a little

[20:47] Speaker 6: bit. What was it? A busy theater? Oh, no, no. It was

[20:52] Speaker 3: friends. Gosh. So I went with, I think there were six of us that went together, and then there were probably six other people in the theater, sprinkled throughout, like in couples and everyone there was there to have a good time and have fun and yell things out and sing along, except for two ladies in the back, and they were not happy. They kept trying to shush people and yell at us for laughing, but there was no stopping us. And I mean, honestly, it was, it was the whole theater against them. 10 of us against them. Well, that

[21:30] Speaker 2: was what I asked, because I saw it early as a press screening, and it was filled because it was, you know, part of the thing. And it was, but everybody I talked to after who went to see it was like, yeah, it was me and like, three other people. And it was like there was just never even remotely close to a full theater

[21:45] Speaker 3: see. I would have loved to have seen it in a full theater, as long as everyone was up for singing along and laughing at parts that were not necessarily meant to be laughed at. So

[21:56] Speaker 2: that was where it got very interesting, because it was, it was not, it was pre opening. And so I think there were some people that were there for much more serious reasons, whether covering it for, you know, for reviews or what that was. And then there was a about 10% that was there for your reason. And I personally loved it when they started laughing, you know, and, like, they kind of really got into it because it made it a much more interesting experience, yeah, but yeah, it's, it was, it was quite, it was an it was an experience. More than anything.

[22:31] Speaker 3: It was absolutely an experience. I mean, those cockroaches, the Jenny Annie dots was, was tap dancing with that was weird. The like the fur coat that Judy Dench cat was wearing that

[22:50] Speaker 2: guy, Scott to see it when it was fully edited, apparently,

[22:54] Speaker 3: I mean, they still had hands, so I don't know who made that choice to give them human hands, the I mean, and the perspective was so off. It was just it didn't make any sense.

[23:07] Speaker 2: Yeah. Andrew Weber has now come out and said that it was not his fault. He's basically stepped away from the movie owned it. Jason Derulo said that he thought recently that it was gonna change the world. Yeah. So I thought that was I thought that was a parody site. When I saw the link. No,

[23:24] Speaker 3: I think he was serious. I think he had a lot of high hopes for this. And why wouldn't you? You are the Rum Tum Tugger. You've got to have that where everything's gonna fail.

[23:36] Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, how many times have you seen besides seven year old? You've seen the touring production. How many times have you seen the play? Besides that, I've

[23:43] Speaker 3: seen it three times live. I saw it that first time when I was seven. I saw it again when I was 10 or 11, I think

[23:52] Speaker 2: so that'd be the original Broadway cast. Like during that run the original, I didn't see it again, okay,

[23:58] Speaker 3: touring, because at one point we were living in Pittsburgh. It's another tour, a lot, another tour. And then then I saw it live on Broadway in the revival, revival, yeah, I won a lottery ticket and went and sat by myself, and the cats came up to me again. I wasn't, but there weren't many seats sold in the mezzanine where I was so, um, so, and I was worried, because I thought, I'm all the way up here. I might not have the experience that I want. No, they come up there. Don't worry. All the way up, I got to touch their heads. It was just so great. I loved it. I loved and then

[24:46] Speaker 2: you said you got to sing or dance with that revival cast. Oh,

[24:50] Speaker 3: my God, yes, one of the most amazing moments of my life. I am one of the regular performers at club coming Alan come. Kings nightclub in the East Village in New York. And the very first week that club coming was open. I'm part of a Monday night show there called Mondays in the club with Lance, led by Lance horn, who's an amazing composer, music director, and he had invited the cast of cats to come down to the very first Mondays in the club show. And they did. They finished their show, and they came straight down to the East Village. And it was, I will see if I can find a video of this to send to you, because I think I have a video of them doing the Jellicle Ball and like I'm in the middle of it, like holding a holding a disco ball. For some reason it wasn't hanging. We were just holding it and passing it around, and they're all dancing around me. And I just remember just thinking, This is it. It's like my life is complete. I am in cats now. It doesn't matter that I don't know the moves. I'm doing it with them. It was, it was really magical.

[26:05] Speaker 2: You were an ensemble character, just living your own cat life. Was, I hope you can find the like, if you can find the video, we'll

[26:14] Speaker 3: link it. I will find it. I will find it and send it to

[26:17] Speaker 2: see that that's, that's amazing. Okay, so do you have any besides? We'll get to my last question about Grizabella and the her choice. But do you have any other plot opinions? Is there anything else that you I mean, you clearly are a fan. You had your own interpretation of of everything we got to we got to hear your interpretation of most of the cats. But, but is there anything that you now as an adult, looking back, being like, I would have written that differently?

[26:44] Speaker 3: Oh, that's a good question. I have lots. So that's why I imagine that you do. I don't, I mean, I don't know that. I think I may have, like, expanded on some of the stories a little more. I really my biggest question is like, what happened to Grizabella? Because apparently, she was beloved by everyone, and something changed along the way to make these cats hate her. They're so mean to her. They are so mean to her. And I just don't understand that part of the show, because I feel like so much of the show is them lifting each other up these look at this cat. Look how amazing they are, and look at this cat. Everybody loves this cat, but then Grizabella comes along and they're like, Oh, get away from her. She's the worst. And I just think that, I think that's really sad, even though, even though my favorite song is the song, it's just, oh god, it's just got the best you know, it's like those blue tones and those belty notes, but they're not too high and they're not too low. It's, it's just the musicality of that song, not really what it's about.

[27:59] Speaker 2: You're the only person that's picked that song as their favorite, and I've talked to that

[28:08] Speaker 2: there are a couple interpretations of why they're mean to her. Oh, I would love to hear that. So one is that she was the star and fell off for drugs, sex work, whatever you want to take. She went down a very dark path and left the tribe, or got or got banned from the tribe because of her decisions. There's also very loose rumors that she might be many of the cats as mother and also left the tribe. And so there could be some animosity because of an abandoned mother. Wow. It just depends on how, how deep you dig into the room. Alan, which, which lines you want to connect. Because there are some things where, you know, it's like, well, she's either this mother or that could be the mother. That could be mother, and there's no way that they all could be the mother. So it's like, if you pick and choose, there are a lot of ways to interpret this well.

[29:02] Speaker 3: And cats, when they have babies, they have a lot of babies at one time, so I think that's very and they can start making babies at like, six months old. So like, you know, like, it's totally possible, and that's maybe why she's so ragged and tired and, oh man, you know, you you said tribe. And it reminded me of when I started working on the musical hair. I didn't know that musical before I was cast in it. And I remember, in the middle of rehearsal one day, we were staging Aquarius, and Diane Paulus said something about how, you know, it's almost like you're all being drawn to this place on this one night for this beautiful celebration, and then everyone will get to know all of you. And I remember, out loud, I said it's cats, because it is those two shows are insanely similar.

[29:56] Speaker 2: And somebody else said that it is, course. Line, cats is chorus line.

[30:05] Speaker 2: Yeah, there's, there are other, other ties. I don't know musicals well enough to tie any of them together, because I don't know, I know Aquarius, I know the song, I know that one song, but I don't know much else about hair well.

[30:18] Speaker 3: And then it's a very loose storyline. All of the characters come out and sing about who they are and why they're there, and then one ends up being chosen to go to his death.

[30:34] Speaker 3: the war. You know, they're protesting the war, but, and in our revival version, we all went out into the audience and rubbed up against the audience members. So

[30:49] Speaker 2: I, I'm now, I feel like I need to devote an episode to trying to talk to people to figure out what other musicals are just cats without cats. I think so now chorus line and hair, yeah. So I, if anybody else has opinions I don't know, not like the I've just only seen a handful of shows, and mostly recently, because I, you know, when I'm in New York, having been in New York near Broadway, been able to kind of go, Yeah, but yeah, I would love to try to net. Now I'm curious, what else? What else out there? Which one came first? Who wrote? Who wrote? What first? I

[31:22] Speaker 3: would believe that hair came before cats because hair was written in 1967

[31:33] Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, however, however, a small caveat here, the TS Eliot old possums Book of Practical Cats came out long, yeah, before hair was written. So I don't know how you how you decide there, that book

[31:54] Speaker 2: doesn't tell the story. That book is just explaining each cat, each cat, you're fair, so it's not someone else tied it together and added a song that wasn't even in the book, because, and this is why this helps my argument of why children shouldn't see it, but TS Eliot thought that the Grizabella poem was too dark for the book for children to read, so that's why it's not in The book, but it's the center of the musical

[32:25] Speaker 2: I've made my case fairly well in some of my my cases. I get it. I'm aware of my my pitfalls and some of my arguments, but I do. I've done some research. I have I've went dark into the cat's web and learned a lot of stuff I just never thought I would ever learn in my life. Okay, so a couple other just quick character questions about the play. So you already said your favorite song. You already said she would want to play. Who would you want to quarantine with which cat? Mr. Mistoffelees, that's my answer to Mr. Misto police. He would keep entertained

[33:04] Speaker 3: the entire time. He can make anything happen. And then

[33:09] Speaker 2: my other one, before we talk about who we think should die at the end, is there is a thing. I'll just explain it, because I can ask you, but I have a feeling you're gonna say, I have no idea what you're talking about, because I didn't, and I know, feel like I know a lot about cats now, there is a thing called Cats tumbler, where different people around the globe basically interact with each other as if they were that character in situations. So they could be like riding the subway together, or they could be much other things that we're not going to talk about. But which character would you want to write for if you were going to be like, I'm going to own a cat's tumbler and I'm going to be that character in a scenario of going to buy groceries and I'm going to run into the other characters. Which cat would you want

[34:01] Speaker 3: Oh gosh, this is such a good question. And I'm just like going it might be, you know what I think it would have to be Mungo Jerry or rumpletes, or one of them, because the again, the options are endless. There. They can get into any trouble. The trouble can just keep building and getting more and more fun and then trying to figure out how they escape the trouble.

[34:23] Speaker 2: I love it. So we're the same page. I said I like Macavity because you'd be able to write the it'd be you could write villain over and over again, which would be kind of fun. It'd be different. Yeah, okay, so we're totally aligned there. Okay, so let's see if we're on the same page here. Then I have argued for multiple, multiple, multiple, multiple episodes that Grizabella should not have died at the end of the show. Who do you think should have died, and if it is Grizabella, why? Tell me why I'm wrong.

[34:54] Speaker 3: The you know, I think Grizabella is a solid choice, though I have always. Felt that it should have been Gus, the theater cat.

[35:02] Speaker 2: Yep, that's the biggest online support is for Team Gus, Team Gus.

[35:07] Speaker 3: And, you know, I don't know that I had really ever thought about this that much until the movie

[35:16] Speaker 2: interesting. So the movie is what kind of sparked this again, okay, Ian

[35:20] Speaker 3: McKellen performance, just he feels like, you know your grandpa or your favorite great uncle, doesn't everyone have a favorite great uncle. And he's so sweet and, and he has worked so hard and and I think that I never realized, I guess, why the movie made such an impact on me. With this particular characters, I never realized just how old and frail he is

[35:58] Speaker 3: Yes, I have seen the 98 movie. It's been a while, and actually, I've been wanting to watch it again with my niece and nephew, because now that I'm in California again with my family for this pandemic, however long it lasts, I've been exposing my my niece and nephew to great movies and musicals that I love, and I've been trying to get them to watch cats. They're on the fence. I don't know who got to them first and told them they shouldn't watch cats, but it seems like someone may have Yeah, but I really do need to watch the 98 film again, because I remember feeling like that was a really, really decent representation of what happens on stage?

[36:41] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm, well, it was, yeah, I was shot on stage. There's a little bit of, there were some, some added effects that maybe you won't get, like, there's some lightning bolts and some stuff that was just like, Oh, great. Macavities. That's way more fun. But yeah, the the movie The Gus, and I'm drawing a blank on his name, but he was a, you know, superstar Actor at the time, and he was blind and old and frail, and like they, like, walked him out just to sing the song, basically. And so there was no dancing, no number. And so he in, like he and in McKinney, like that. It was that version for me, it was very representative versus, depending on who you see in the show and how you see it. So it's the same thing like I do think there's a very, very strong team Gus argument.

[37:30] Speaker 3: It was John mills. I just had to look it up, because I had sir, John mills. John Mills, I was, had no idea that that's what they were doing. That is really cool. And he was blind,

[37:42] Speaker 2: or could barely see. So if you like, watch that, they walk him out and like someone's holding on to him, and it's like, it's, you know, it's cat. So they kind of like make it feel like it's just part of it, but there's no dancing, no nothing. He goes up there and just belts out his song and gets off stage.

[37:58] Speaker 3: That's amazing. I'm making the kids watch that tonight, just when you're watching cats tonight.

[38:04] Speaker 2: And, you know, I guess the movie version in 98 it's a little less aggressive, because there's not as much, like, I don't know, the whole green eyes scared me for kids. And then just in general, and if you, I don't think you'll see tuggers, his dances as a little sexual for any child.

[38:22] Speaker 3: I've always remembered that from my very first experience from Tum Tugger. I knew I didn't even like realize what sex was when I was seven, and yet I knew that was sex.

[38:44] Speaker 3: do. It doesn't have anything to do with cats, unfortunately, one will. But yeah, it's an album of my original music. I write my own music and perform fairly regularly, even online these days. And it's just called Lauren elder, and you can find it on Spotify and iTunes and Apple Music and any of those places where you can find music online. It's there amazing. And how can we find you on social media, at Lauren underscore elder on Instagram or La La bird Lauren and Twitter and just Lauren elder on Facebook.

[39:24] Speaker 2: Amazing. And when we find whoever bought your your beta tape at Goodwill somewhere across the country in a move that they got, that got sold, whenever we find that, if you have it, please let us know, because we would like to see the seven year old. It was three intermission, cats production from in LA, in the garage, in the garage, in LA, in the garage, every character you can imagine. We got a little taste of it today, but there is a full production somewhere. I hope it has like the lightning bolts to add

[39:59] Speaker 3: it in. If, I mean, someone must have done that, right? They found it, and they knew that they had to enhance that, and then eventually get it back to the world. It's, it's coming. I'm, I don't

[40:10] Speaker 2: think they're gonna, I don't think they're gonna call us, because it's gonna be, it's like, they know that's so valuable. It's gold. It's gold. Can't I can't give it away, no,

[40:17] Speaker 3: just release it. Put it in the theaters. You have my permission. Just put it online. Put it on the internet. Yeah, not the theaters. Nobody's going there yet. Well,

[40:26] Speaker 2: thank you so much for telling us about your cat's story, giving us amazing interpretations of these characters, and being a guest today, I really appreciate it. Thank

[40:42] Speaker 2: You thanks for listening to this bonus episode with Lauren elder on the wrong cat died, the podcast breakdown of the cat's atrophy. To follow along, you can subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts, follow us on Twitter and Instagram at the wrong cat died. Or check out our website, the wrong cat died.com. You so.