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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 bpm.fm, to discover more.

[0:12] Mike Abrams: Welcome to the wrong cat died the podcast breakdown of the cat's tastrophe. I'm your host, Mike Abrams, and today we're covering the theater cat asparagus, aka Gus Cue the intro music, there's

[0:24] Speaker 2: a cat over here. There's a cat over there. I'm the wrong one died. I'm the wrong one died.

[0:41] Mike Abrams: Welcome to the wrong cat died the podcast breakdown of the cat's tastrophe. Today, we're going to talk about asparagus, aka Gus, aka the theater cat he's already nicknamed. So that's one thing down for us today, before we jump too deep into Gus. I have to make a quick distinction between Gus, because he can get a little confusing. In general, I found out that asparagus is actually an ensemble character who usually plays Gus Buster and glow Tiger. But this gets tricky, because the first lines of song are Gus is the cat at the theater door. His name, as I ought to have told you before, is really asparagus, but that's such a fuss to pronounce that we usually call him just Gus. So me, as a cat's novice, always assumed that asparagus and Gus, the theater cat, were the same cat, but that's really not true. In the early productions, they were two different cats and treated as such, but really ain't. Nobody got time for that. So for this episode, Gus and asparagus, or whatever hell you want to call them, basically the old man that sings a song, that's who I'm talking about. So I want to make sure we're all on the same page, as in my world, we're treating them as one. So now that we got that out of the way, let's discuss Gus. Gus is the Old Man River and the theater cat. Gus is the first song coming off intermission and is one of the most emotional songs of the entire show. Honestly, this is going to be a little bit more of a serious episode than normal. He's old and frail, but super accomplished. He's admired by all the cats, so much so that the end of the song, Old Deuteronomy, remember he's our judge comes out to wish him well, I can make my case right at the top why Gus is the most worthy to die. His song lists an incredible resume. Let me just list off a few of the insane things Gus says in his song about what he can do in his youth, he's the smartest cat. He was the star of the highest degree. The gallery once gave him seven cat calls. He's played every possible part. He used to know 70 speeches by heart. And I want to pause here real quick, because I love this line. I feel like that's not that big of accomplishment, though. Like, just imagine if you're in one of Aaron Sorkin's plays, he probably has 70 monologs Just for you in the one play, but either way, 70 speeches by heart. He knew how to gag and let the cow the bag. He knows how to act with his back and his tail with just a short one hour rehearsal, he'll never fail. He has a voice that could soften the hardest of hearts, whether he takes the lead or the character parts take a quick break. This is one of the few times Andrew Louis Weber rhymes fairly well in the song, he once understudied dick whittington's cat. I have no idea who Dick Whittington is. I actually looked it up and really couldn't find much about it, but it's part of the song. And then I really love the last two which is he crossed the stage on the telegraph wire to rescue a child in a house on fire. So he is now saving children, which is crazy to think about, because most children are bigger than cats. And then his greatest creation was fire for fiddle, the fiend of the fell, which I have no idea what it is, but it's said about eight times in the song. So really, give this cat a Tony already. But seriously, Gus is so insanely accomplished and loved, it's hard not to argue that he is the most deserving to die. And honestly, half of the YouTube comments are people saying that he is more deserving, If only, if only somebody was making a case for all these YouTube commenters. I want to take a quick tangent because there's one small section of Gus song that I absolutely love. It's one of my favorite parts because it's something that most people probably don't recognize. Midway through the song, best goes on his little tan Jay. That's very 2019 here's what he says. And I say, Now, these kittens, they do not get trained, as we did in the days when Victoria rained, and they never get drilled in a regular troop. And they think they are smart just to jump through, stop and let that sink in for a second. The TS Eliot poems were published in 1939 and we're in 2019 it's now 80 years later, and we still have the older generations talking about how lazy the younger generations are. Gus is a baby boomer talking about millennials that don't have the discipline and training that his generation has, and they all get a participation trophy just for jumping through a hoop. I bet TS Eliot had a line of the poem about Gus walking to school uphill, both ways in the snow, but had to cut it out. It amazes me how some of these themes hold true for eternity. I can't wait for when I'm an old man and I get to complain about how the younger generations have it so easy. Tangent, over back to Gus. To end this section, I want to cover the emotion of the song, because. When I first saw this play, I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't a huge fan of this song. I thought it was odd to come off intermission a time when everyone's loud, restless getting back to their seats with this quiet and slow, tear jerking song. It really isn't the most catchy, and it's sung so painfully quiet that in some cases, it's hard to hear over the inevitable chorus of coughs and sneezes that come with every Broadway crowd. Now, with all that said, my mind was completely changed when I watched the movie from 1998 in the 1998 movie, Sir John Mills plays Gus in 1998 Sir John Mills was 90 years old and he was blind. They walked him out on stage. They have him sit down, and he delivers one of the most beautiful performances I've ever seen. It's gut wrenching to watch, and even more incredible when you know the backstory that he's 90 and blind. It's also the version that's on YouTube on the official catch channel. So if you want to see it, you can go watch this beautiful masterpiece. This performance was so strong and so customized for the 1998 movie that they actually had to cut out an entire song glow Tigers last day in to let Sir John Mills perform his part, because they had to get him on and off stage with help. If you watch this version from Sir John mills and don't believe Gus deserves to die over Grizabella, you are a heartless human being or cat, we've got a quick additional section for today's episode, a very special section I had the pleasure of interviewing Christopher Gerr, who played Gus in the Broadway revival in 2016 and we have an entire interview and bonus content coming out this Thursday with Gus, but I wanted to play a quick snippet of my conversation with Christopher, and so that is where my take is, is that Kelly gives up her chance to sing to Grizabella as an I'm sorry for sleeping with her friend. Yes.

[6:43] Speaker 3: Deep read, is that right? I mean, is that right? You asked it like you didn't think

[6:50] Speaker 4: through this as you were preparing for the show. No, but

[6:53] Speaker 3: I love that. That's my take, dude that lines up. I mean, everything you just said there, I'm thinking of actually internal acting moments, there would be no way you would know about that line up with all of that.

[7:05] Mike Abrams: So how else can I solidify this? What other parts of the show that I'm missing because I'm, you know, I'm reading rumor mills and watching this? Well, if you

[7:12] Speaker 3: really watch jelly Lorem during the bust of her Jones number, and you watch how she specifically responds, that it totally lines up, that they would have had a relationship that was specific. Then when you watch jellies, because jelly gets really the first time.

[7:32] Mike Abrams: So how does Gus song differ from the poem Andrew Lloyd Webber is getting clever later in the show, because these lyrics are almost identical, but he did a little cut and paste for a few lines in the middle and put them at the end. Here's where it changes. After his Shakespeare performance, the poem goes into his blood curdling noises to bring on a ghost, and then his telegraph wire stunt to save the children from a house on fire. Instead, Andrew Lloyd Webber puts that at the very end of the song and flips the order. He also cuts out one line entirely. It went. He once played a tiger. Could do it again, which an Indian Colonel pursued down a drain. First again in drain don't rhyme. Ending in ain does not mean it phonetically rhymes. And when did Gus go to India? I thought this was supposed to be set in the UK, maybe New York. I'm confused why we need a global army to intervene with Gus a song. But I'm going to give credit where credit is due, because Andrew Lloyd Webber's ending was a much better way to end the emotional song. So I think the change was definitely for the better. Let's dig into some real and fictional characters for Gus. Gus is such an emotional and amazing character in the play that I want to keep this section short, because I want to honor Sir John Mills's legacy. Gus can be just about any accomplished older actor or actress. So let me just name a few names that seem to fit. Clint Eastwood, Betty White, Christopher Plummer, Cloris, Leachman, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, and, of course, Ian McKellen, who will be playing Gus in the movie. Of those, Robert Duvall seems the most fitting. Not only is he known for his classic movies like The Godfather, but he has an extreme range later in his career, especially being the father and step brothers, where he delivers one of the best parts of the movie when he talks about giving up his dreams of being a dinosaur. Gus is such a skilled actor that I could definitely see him playing a character role like this. And the point is, don't lose your dinosaur. Let me give you one other TV character that's a little bit of a stretch, and you're gonna have to stick with me, but this is my podcast, and you chose to listen to deal with it. The dad, Frank Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond, gives me a weird Gus vibe, and I really can't place it. Frank's character is tough, sarcastic, and he ridicules his kids more than anything else. That part really isn't very Gus, but he's definitely made the younger generations have an easier argument in his career, and that's definitely very Gus. There's an episode where Frank wins the Man of the Year Award from his Lodge, but then none of the lodge members actually have anything nice to say about him. In his tribute video, this feels like the reverse of the play, where everyone has extremely nice things to say about Gus, but he doesn't win the award at the end. You. So it is a little bit of the complete flip of what I would see from Frank Brown. Again, I really can't place my finger on it, but every time I sat down to write this episode, he kept popping in my head. Welcome to the internet rumor mill, because Gus song is so emotional, there's not a ton of internet rumor to go with it. I'm still working on the first rumor, which is the cats family tree, but Gus clearly sits somewhere near the top with OD and Jenny. He's rumored to be the father of a ton of cats, and because he's wildly famous actor, he's rumored to have slept with nearly all the female cats as well. It's kind of a weird rumor, considering that he's supposed to be the father and the lover of both of them. I really want to end this entire podcast by being able to draw a family tree, but there seems to be a lot of dotted lines on it. Second rumor we covered how Gus and asparagus could really be two different cats. Well, in the revival, the rumor is that the ensemble version of asparagus is actually named Peter, which might be one of the funniest footnotes I've found, because Peter is such a common name for a show that features names like Mr. Mestophys, rumple, teaser and rum tuck Tucker, who came up with Peter, what a lazy piece of writing. Can we come up with something way crazier? Okay, astrology. We all know I hate this part, but Libra, because there wasn't much for Gus. I was going to do a little research, but I got to a site called Cat stir, and the first paragraph talked about how Libra cats were diva supermodels, which is exactly what I would expect from a young Gus. So it freaked me out so much that I shut my computer and had to take a break. I think I learned my lesson already, but I guess I didn't the things I do for you listeners. Let's dig into Gus YouTube comments. Here are my favorites, lemon dragon. His name is really asparagus, but that's such a fuss to pronounce. Oh, but names like Mr. Mustafa Lee's Old Deuteronomy and the rum tug Tugger are all fine. Hey, lemon dragon. I've been saying this all along, which is why I've nicknamed every single one of them. Nemi, I'm not crying. You're crying. Gooble, Gus, looks so like my Nan. I'm getting extremely uncomfortable. Google, I want to know what your name looks like, because I'm getting uncomfortable. B Mac, Ling, asparagus should have went to the heavy side layer first instead of Grizabella. B Mac link, I totally agree. If you're listening, I'd love to have you on to make this argument with me. So why does Gus deserve to die over Grizabella? Gus is easily the most accomplished, well loved and admirable cats in the play. He had a long career that spanned decades, and if he's not going to win the competition to die, he's definitely going to get a lifetime achievement award soon, then they're going to put him up in the in loving memory tribute Vinnie on the Tony soon. And none of us want that. Plus, I'll reiterate, if you watch Sir John Mills's performance, knowing he's delivering it as a blind 90 year old, and you don't choke up, you are a heartless human or cat. Quick counter. As amazing as Gus is, he's super old, so just like Old Deuteronomy, he might not have another life left to be reborn, and he might just die if he's chosen, and none of us want that. So how do I rate Gus on a scale of one to nine cat lives? I give Gus seven cats, one for each of the seven cat calls he gets in his song. He's one of the most worthy cats to die, and deserves to be graded as such. Thank you for listening to Episode Six about asparagus, aka Gus, aka the theater cat on the wrong cat died the podcast breakdown of the cat's atrophy. To follow along, you can subscribe on Apple podcast, 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 wronghead died.com. You.