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[0:00] Mike Abrams: Welcome to The Wrong Cat Died, the podcast breakdown of Cats-as-a-Fee. I'm your host, Mike Abrams, and we are going back to The Vault. I was very fortunate last year, in 2024, to be able to record a bunch of episodes with the creative team and the cast from the Pearlman Performing Arts Center's production, CATS The Jellicle Ball, and I am thrilled that this production is going to be transferring to Broadway, and I'm very excited for what they're going to do at the Broadhurst Theater this upcoming March. So, for the holiday season, for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I decided to release a couple of the episodes that we did during last year's run. This episode is with Tempress Chasity Moore, who was Grizabella during the PAC's Performing Arts Center, and I was really excited about this when I first recorded with Tempress, because I didn't know a ton about her backstory, except for that she was from the ballroom scene and that she's a trans woman, and I thought that that is such an incredible part of the story that you'll get to see when this transfers.

And so, hearing a little bit about how and why she kind of built her character as Grizabella and how it fits the story is super interesting. So, this was originally released in June 25th of 2024, and it was episode 171. So, please enjoy this episode and get ready for this upcoming March, where we're going to get to see this live on a Broadway stage. There's a cat over here. There's a cat over there. And the wrong one died. And the wrong one died.

[1:44] Mike Abrams: Welcome to The Wrong Cat Died, the podcast breakdown of the cast satiophy. I'm your host, Mike Abrams, and today we have another amazing guest. We are working with the Perelman Performing Arts Center reimagined production of Cats, called Cats the Jellicle Ball, to bring you a series of episodes throughout their run. I am honored to have a ballroom hall of famer, Tempress Chasity Moore, with me here today. Tempress is an actress, singer, ballroom icon, and the queen mother of her own house, which I cannot pronounce, so I'm going to have her say it for us. And while she has yet to change my mind about naming my show, her, Grizabella, is the closest I've been to changing my mind, and we'll have you rooting for her to return to the runway at the end of this production. So, I'm excited to have her here. Thank you for joining me.

[2:28] Tempress Chasity Moore: Thank you for having me.

[2:31] Mike Abrams: I'm excited. I always like talking to Grizabellas because my show centers so much around the arc of your story, and the version of this is the clearest picture I've had. I love it. And we'll get into that, but I want to actually start us on the other side, because you're a ballroom icon, and a legend in the ballroom world. But what was your familiarity with Cats before this production? How much did you know about the musical?

[2:58] Tempress Chasity Moore: To be honest, I mean, of course, as a child, I've always seen the promos, and I've always heard Memory, and I've seen the Grizabella part, but I didn't really know a lot about it. I didn't know so much about it.

[3:17] Mike Abrams: Yeah, I mean, I've been wondering, because you get the biggest number, and you have the most important part, but there's so much to that story. Did they, in this rehearsal process, go through a lot of that with you, and kind of go through the whole Cats aspect of it?

[3:31] Tempress Chasity Moore: Somewhat, but a lot of people, there was a couple of people who told me not to actually watch it, because my Grizabella was a lot different, and that they liked that aspect of it. And so, I'd seen as much as I could. I didn't want to, because we are reimagining it, so it was coming from ballroom. So, I have a lot of knowledge on ballroom, so I wanted to kind of tell my story from the ballroom aspect of it.

[4:11] Mike Abrams: No, I love that. And so, let's start there with the ballroom aspect of this. So, I thought when I heard about it, that this is a perfect vehicle for telling the Cats story. As someone who knows nothing about ballroom, but knows way too much about Cats, I love the idea of the competition aspect that you brought into this. So, when you kind of heard about this production, and you were joining on, what was the ballroom lens? I guess, how did you bring some of your ballroom experience to that?

[4:42] Tempress Chasity Moore: Well, at first, I didn't know how. I was like, what is going to be the correlation? Especially, I didn't want to be there, like a lot of appropriation going on, coming from ballroom. And so, it being like a marginalized community, people came to ballroom because of seeking love that they weren't getting from their family or society, period. And so, a lot of times, now that ballroom has crossed over to mainstream, a lot of people are using ballroom and doing ballroom, and they have no idea of the backstory of ballroom. So, I was a little like, wait a minute. But then, when I started thinking about Grizabella, and I seen how when Grizabella came back to her community, she was shunned because of age and things.

Ageism runs rampant in ballroom, like it's the same thing. And so, I started building off of that. Girls who fell on hard times, not only that, a lot of the character for me was like, me being a trans woman, and growing up in society where, as a lot of people wasn't accepted of us, we had to be stealth at one point. So, a lot of us left ballroom community because we didn't want to be associated with it. And so, then now that it's being more accepted, there are girls who come back, and sometimes they don't get the reception that they want.

[6:10] Mike Abrams: Yeah. And I think that's the beauty of the arc, too, of Grizabella. And I thought the storytelling, I don't want to spoil too much. I think people know the Grizabella story, but your production does a beautiful job of bringing the ballroom, bringing her back, like you said, with the ageism. And that is where I thought was, as someone who's spent 170 plus episodes arguing against Grizabella as a choice, to see that full story as like, that kind of makes a lot more sense of being able to kind of be back on the runway, being back in the spotlight, and being celebrated for that, which I thought was such a beautiful moment to be able to bring that in the story.

[6:51] Tempress Chasity Moore: Yeah, she had fallen, she falls on hard times. And, you know, a lot of the girls have because, you know, a lot of trans women didn't, because of the discriminations in the workforce and stuff, some of them, you know, fell to sex work. And, you know, that led to drugs or what have you, they had to do what they had to do. And some of them, they didn't have the best outcome. So, for me, that was just kind of Grizabella's backstory, like, you know, but she's coming back to ballroom still trying to feel this grandeur of who she once was. And she feels like everybody should just accept that because she once was an icon in ballroom and they and she doesn't really get that reception at first. Or in her head, she doesn't feel like that, you know?

[7:38] Mike Abrams: Completely, completely. One thing I think is always really interesting in the musical Cats productions is the relationships between all of the different Cats and especially with Grizabella because there is this, this, you know, almost fear at first and then curiosity and then acceptance and that kind of story that goes throughout. I'm very curious about this production, how you weave between the ballroom aspects and the Cats musical aspects.

[8:06] Tempress Chasity Moore: I think that was kind of a more, I mean, definitely you had to, I feel like, you know, the Cats, Andrew Webber's people, like, you know, there were things that you definitely, you couldn't go outside of the lines or you had to, or whatever. I would have loved to see a ballroom person. I mean, even though you had us or whatever, and then you did, and Junior does not allow anything to go past, like, you know, if it's not ballroom, he's going to speak up and most of us do. But we kind of did our own research and then, you know, a lot of the Catsmith, the ball, the Broadway people just went and started watching balls and doing their own research or we would sit down and talk to one another or we just spoke up and said, no, this wouldn't happen like that. So it was kind of like our own research type of thing.

[9:00] Mike Abrams: Okay. Okay. Yeah. I love the mix between the cast too, of just having a wide range of experience kind of brings it to life. So I want to talk a little bit about Memory because it's the, it's the iconic song of the show that everyone knows. What was your first thoughts when you kind of realized that when you're getting cast for this, that this is going to be, you know, you're going to be on the spotlight and get to belt this number?

[9:25] Tempress Chasity Moore: Listen, I thought I had anxiety. I was waking up with night sweats at three o'clock in the morning. It was, you know, I haven't been on stage in over 20 something years and, you know, and singing. So it was just something that I really had to dedicate myself to, um, getting a vocal coach, like going just really like at first it was very scary for me. I would get on, I would just get so scared, but everyone has been so welcoming and helpful. Um, William, who has definitely worked with me a lot. And, um, you know, it was a lot of pressure, but at the pressure is going away. I think I'm like getting.

[10:10] Chasity Moore: My groove now, it did take me some time to like really, you know, get out of my head and just go ahead and do what I do and realize that I was there for a reason and there was something that I brought to it that they seen that I bought that I didn't want to compare to anyone else.

[10:29] Mike Abrams: Yeah, I mean, your memory is amazing. So I, you know, this is such an iconic number. And, you know, as we were waiting as we're getting to that moment, and you know, you kind of build and build and build, and then you just belted it out. And it was, it was beautiful. So I love to, I was curious, because it is it's one of those numbers that everyone knows, like no matter who walks into that theater, they're gonna know "Memory," they might not know the rest of the stuff. They might know "Overture," but they, you know, they might not know "Skimbleshanks" or "Mungojerrie" or some of these other songs, but they know "Memory." And so it's got to be that whole all eyes on you.

[11:05] Chasity Moore: No, and I definitely have room to grow and I'm only getting better and better. So just tell them to be on the lookout. Yeah. Well, that's the beauty of doing it, you know, so many times a week is you just you get to you get practice exposure doing this. And, and I think that's with a short run. It's also such an interesting aspect to it, too, because you're doing it for two months, versus, you know, years at times for some of these shows, going into rehearsals and going into rehearsals that we were rehearsing and tech like, you know, all of that was new for me. So it was like, oh, wow, like, you know, rehearsing from one to five and then a show that night, you know, for two weeks straight, but it was great. I'm so glad that we premiered now.

[11:46] Mike Abrams: Yeah, now that you're officially open and through and yeah, and with incredible reviews, which is amazing to see. And I mean, we dropped our review while they were recording this. We dropped ours and we raved about it. But we were waiting to see kind of what the critics were and the critics raved about it as well. And I think rightfully so. I mean, it does a beautiful job telling the story.

[12:09] Chasity Moore: Yeah, I spoke to a lot of people who and some people said that they this is the first time that they really understand "Cats." Like, you know, I've seen people say that.

[12:16] Mike Abrams: Yeah, I've had people say that to me. So I, you know, we have been getting a really, really good reception. The audience has been amazing.

[12:32] Chasity Moore: So I would love to talk a little bit about the audience, because I have again, as someone who knows "Cats" too well, I did think that this told the story in a very beautiful way and really actually made I thought your story one of the easier ones to follow that wasn't always as clear in other ones. And again, not unclear. It's just they're different with the way it's told in the musical. But I found that this is a great particular production for some of where those kind of quote unquote "Cats" haters, because there's a lot of them out there because it's an easy punchline for a joke. You know, "Cats" is easy to poke fun at. And we've I've heard a few who have went and they've loved how this actually, again, tells the poetry through a different lens.

But also, it sounds like you know, the energy in the audience is just infectious. And so as a performer, how are you feel like? Are you feeling that energy as well? Are you feeding off of it? Because I loved in the beginning, they even stated like, this isn't a musical, you don't have to just sit there, like get into it. And like, just to be in and I felt that from the moment I sat down to the moment we left.

[13:25] Chasity Moore: Absolutely. We love it. Like you never know what's gonna happen. For me, I you like I said, I hadn't been on stage in a while. So I was hoping that the audience would be engaging because that does help you especially with so much energy. The cast is amazing the way they're out there dancing and voguing and singing and doing all of that. It would just be horrible if no one was engaged. Like so I love that, you know, I they've been even with Grizabella, like people are feeling so connected to her. And you know, giving I've been they've been standing up clapping for me and stuff like that. It has been so heartfelt. And it just makes me want to go even harder.

[14:20] Mike Abrams: So as you experience this type of show, how does this like, how would you describe ballroom for the musical theater people that are coming to this? Like, what's the baseline of what they need to know as they walk in? So that way they understand those aspects? Because I feel like that's a part that maybe I missed, like, there was judges behind me, I was like, kind of following some of it. But like, I, what is that? Like, if you don't know anything about ballroom, this is what you need to know to really understand the nuances that are added to this production.

[14:50] Chasity Moore: Okay, so um, so ballroom was like a bunch of underprivileged kids, like, who, you know, it's like modularized community that comes together that felt like they couldn't have, it was basically like an underground Hollywood. And so it was for a lot of kids who were kicked out and LGBTQ, a plus kids who were kicked out back in the days from their homes and lived on the streets. And, you know, so you started these chosen families. And these chosen families, you had the mother, the father, the kids, and they will come together. Crystal of Asia actually was a big part of it, because she was in a pageant scene. And they were in, you know, she was a black, well, a color, a brown girl. And she, she was tired of losing to, you know, her white counterparts.

And she was like that she wanted to start her own thing. And so the House of LaBeija started, and then they started the ballroom scene, which was the chosen families that came together, and they competed. And so you have your judges, you have your different categories, like the vogue category, like so, and with us, like they do the virgin category, and cats, they do like the body category, you do your realness category. These were like categories, like realness is like somebody who was able to pass in society without them knowing, you know, your preference, like your gender, or, you know, as a trans person, you know, some people not knowing that you're trans or gay, you know, what have you. So it's just different categories that, you know, it was kind of a mirror of society things that we wanted that we felt that we couldn't have at this time.

[16:31] Mike Abrams: Yeah. And I love the competition piece, because I had my original breakdown of "Cats" was that I thought it was American Idol on drugs. Like I thought I watched a very weird singing competition. And so when I, you know, when you get these different moments where I love that each cat wins, you know, like they have these competitions fits that same type of thing of like, let me tell you why I'm amazing. And then you go through each cat and have that piece, which is, which is, I think, again, why it kind of brings the poetry to life really well.

[17:06] Chasity Moore: Yeah, because it does. And we're gonna take a quick break, and then we'll be back for more of The Wrong Cat Died. So I promise that you have to say your house name, because I was going to butcher it. And I did promise it up top. So you are the, the mother, the Queen Mother of your house.

[17:19] Chasity Moore: So I'm the founding Queen Mother of the House of Mason Margiela. I'm actually one of the founders. Yeah, and it's called Mason Margiela. And so the houses are really kind of started off of designer names. A lot of them are designers, most of the houses. They, they mirror like, you know, like the House of Chanel, the House of Prada, like, you know, things like that. So they mirrored like designer.

[17:45] Mike Abrams: I want to ask, did you all figure out which house the different cats would go into?

[17:52] Chasity Moore: We didn't figure it out. Um, I think as a part of the character building, some of that I wasn't there for. But I believe like, because of the characters, they put them in certain houses.

[18:09] Mike Abrams: Okay. Like characters that had a relationship, then they put them in certain houses together.

[18:14] Chasity Moore: Okay. Yeah. I'm gonna plan to ask everybody, uh, which, which house their cat would be in when I'm, when I'm interviewing them. But I did think that they created a house for Grizabella, right? The House of Glamour.

[18:24] Chasity Moore: The House of Glamour. I love that. I think that's a, I saw that and immediately was like, that's just such a brilliant way. So, um, okay. What is your, before we go to rapid fire, what is your favorite part of this production? Like, what's the thing that you love seeing every night or think the audience loves? Like, what's just your favorite moment?

[18:40] Chasity Moore: Of course, I love when Grizabella is accepted. When she finally gets over the hurt out of her head, out of being nervous to hit the floor again, and feeling that people you don't want, don't, don't accept her or whatever. And realizing that after she sings "Memory" and then all the kids run up to start touching her and hugging her and everything, that's a moment. And then she walks up to go to the Heaviside Layer. Like for me, that's like a big, um, that's one of my favorite parts.

[19:22] Mike Abrams: Yeah, the apex of the show, I do think, and we'll get in, I I'll hold my thought here. Cause I did, there's a part I think about when I think about The Jellicle Choice that with your particular story and version, I still, I want to get into, but before we do that, let's do some rapid fire. Um, so if you could play any other cat besides Grizabella for just one night, whether you could sing it, dance, it doesn't matter. Just if you could go on whose, uh, track would you want to do?

[19:48] Chasity Moore: I just think "Vocabulary" is over me.

[19:50] Mike Abrams: Yeah. "Vocabulary" is great.

[19:52] Chasity Moore: Yeah. So it's such a, uh, mystery and like, so like, so funny to do the way that "Vocabulary" appears and everything. I love that.

[20:04] Mike Abrams: Um, from personality wise, so not a performer, but personality wise, who are your favorite and least favorite cats in the show?

[20:14] Chasity Moore: I love all the cats. I think everybody.

[20:21] Chasity Moore: I mean, I just feel like that solidifies everything. It's a different show to the world. Really put in this situation. Yeah, it's a different show. This is her going back into the world. And now she has her confidence and things back. And she's able to, you know, go and turn her life around because she got it. You know, so, yeah.

[26:03] Chasity Moore: Now, I agree, I think, and this production, again, does the clearest job of where you come back. And it's and also like a lot of times people argue for Gus and Junior is not ready to go. Like it's Junior's living his life on the runway there. So there's no chance he's ready to go. But I do like I thought like, oh, you know, the house of glamor back open. We're ready to go. You're being accepted. And it's like, no, let's just keep going. Let's keep like let's let's not send you back up those stairs. So it kind of is the same argument I've been making for a while. Well, a lot of times, like, you know, with ballroom, you know, sometimes like you need to pass on the torch to, you know. And, you know, sometimes, yes, there is ageism.

But then sometimes there are people who just not. It's not. I mean, I would love we'd love for them to stay in this thing. But like if you're holding on to an overall position for like over 20 years or something, it's like, how are you? You're not a leader if you're not creating other leaders. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, yeah, it is. Let her get her just do it. And then the next person, you know, let her go on like she doesn't have to necessarily stay and still be like mother at the house of glamor. She's bounded in and pass it on.

[27:20] Chasity Moore: Yeah, I think so much of this hinges on what you believe the Heaviside Lair is like, where are you walking to up those stairs? Because my joke has always been it's you're walking to death. I know. At first I was like, oh, God, I'm like, am I going to heaven? Like what is going on? I agree completely. It's beautiful. And I think like the stories, I love the way you all told it. Like, I just love the way you put it together. And again, we raved about it for our entire recap. Like we actually turned it from I like refuse to call it a review. Because I'm like, we're just like we're just talking about how amazing it was. Like it's reviewing it. But it was a it was so much fun. And I think I want everyone to see this, because as someone who is known and spent so much time talking about the story of cats and defending the like depth to the story, this is going to, I think, help a lot of people who don't know that as well get a clearer picture of it and then at the same time also expose a lot of people to the ballroom culture, which, as you said, is going a little bit mainstream.

But it's still something that is, you know, there's more education that can be done. And so I have just been floored with everything you all put together and hope everyone gets to run to the pack to see it. Thank you so much.

[28:35] Chasity Moore: Thank you. I think Bill and Jaylon had done has done a wonderful job putting this piece together and respecting both aspects. And like you said, shedding light on the community. I love it. And yes, come out to the pack. And thank you so much for having me here.

[28:51] Mike Abrams: Yeah. How can people stay in touch with you on social media and everything else you're doing?

[28:55] Chasity Moore: So my Instagram is I underscore am underscore temperance. That's T.M.P.R.E.S.S. And on Facebook, it's Chassidy Moore. That's C.H.A.S. I.T.Y. last name more M.O.O.R.E. I also have a podcast on YouTube. I have a podcast on YouTube. That's Femqueen crazy, sexy, cool. That's F.Q. crazy, sexy, cool. We will link everything so that way you can find it in the description notes. We'll also link how to get tickets to the show, which is running, I believe, until July 28th of this summer.

[29:35] Chasity Moore: Yeah, it's been extended to the 28th.

[29:38] Mike Abrams: Well, thank you for coming on again. This has been so much fun and I always love talking to a Grizabella. I feel like I'm slowly getting closer to maybe changing my mind, but not quite there.

[29:47] Chasity Moore: Thank you. It felt like that. I didn't feel too bad. I thought she was going to really get Grizabella, but she didn't. So I feel like you're coming on over to the Grizabella side a little bit.

[29:58] Mike Abrams: I love it. I love it. I'm not there, but I'm still I'm pro Grizabella story. I'm just not pro the heavy side layer choice. So we're getting there.

[30:06] Mike Abrams: Thank you. And thanks for listening to this episode of The Wrong Cat Died. The podcast breakdown, the catastrophe to follow along. You can subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify or any other system podcast. Plus on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and threads at The Wrong Cat Died. Or check out our website, the wrong cat died dot com.