This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:15] Mike Abrams: Welcome to The Wrong Cat Died, the podcast breakdown of The Cat's Astrophe. I'm your host, Mike Abrams, and today we have another amazing guest.

[0:21] Mike Abrams: He was a swing on the US National Tour 5 of Cats. So welcome, Antoine L. Smith, and thank you for joining me.

[0:27] Antoine L. Smith: Thank you. My pleasure.

[0:29] Mike Abrams: I'm excited because we, like, lightly met at the Joke-O-Ball when you were seeing your good friend, Jonathan Burke.

[0:36] Antoine L. Smith: Best friend, Jonathan.

[0:38] Mike Abrams: Best friend, Jonathan Burke. And so I kind of messaged him. I was like, hey, you know, would you come on? And he's like, absolutely.

[0:44] Mike Abrams: So then I messaged you and I'm excited we're here. So we'll talk Joke-O-Ball a little bit, but I want to talk Cats first.

[0:50] Mike Abrams: I want to talk about your experience on tour. But I always start with what was your introduction to Cats?

[0:56] Mike Abrams: Like, was it the movie? Like, where was it in your learning about this crazy show?

[1:00] Antoine L. Smith: You want to know what's so interesting about this is when I was in college, I owned the Cats VHS tape.

[1:09] Antoine L. Smith: And I kid you not, I watched it every single day.

[1:14] Mike Abrams: So you were in.

[1:16] Antoine L. Smith: I was in. I was a huge fan of Cats for a really long time.

[1:25] Mike Abrams: When you're watching this, are you watching it because, like, obviously you're going down this path of this profession. Are you watching it on like I this is a dream show, like I want to be in it?

[1:31] Antoine L. Smith: It's so really, I, I have been a fan of Ken Page for a very long time.

[1:46] Antoine L. Smith: And just hearing his voice in the way that our voices are very similar. So finding as many roles as I could with that similar sound was what I wanted.

[2:01] Antoine L. Smith: And seeing Ken Page as Old Deuteronomy, I became almost obsessed with playing that role and singing that song.

[2:10] Antoine L. Smith: And, yeah, so dream show. I wouldn't necessarily say dream show, but dream song. And it eventually became, you know, a dream role to play Old Deuteronomy.

[2:25] Mike Abrams: OK, so you're watching this thing religiously and it's like, hey, I've got this is a part that I can I can sing. I want to do.

[2:33] Antoine L. Smith: Yes.

[2:36] Mike Abrams: OK, so then fast forward to you move to New York. Now, we talked a little bit before you had, you know, you had another job before you did some stuff. But like when this audition comes across your desk, per se, like, is it a like, why is wide open? This is my time. Or is it just like one of the many auditions you're going on at that time?

[2:56] Antoine L. Smith: This was oh, this is my time because I had I mean, I feel like I was subconsciously manifesting it. You know, watching like I said, watching the VHS every single day. And then finally getting this opportunity to audition for it.

[3:14] Antoine L. Smith: To be honest, I don't know, because I didn't have an agent at that time. I probably went to an open call, I believe, for it.

[3:23] Antoine L. Smith: And then once I, you know, back in the day when you knew something was really happening, you got the two one two area code on your cell phone. You knew something good was about to happen.

[3:35] Antoine L. Smith: So after that audition, I got the two one two number on my phone, callbacks, et cetera.

[3:43] Mike Abrams: Yeah, that's yeah. OK, I'm always fascinated by this because this tour started in 2001 ish, right?

[3:51] Antoine L. Smith: 2000.

[3:53] Mike Abrams: Right, right, right. And so at this point, it's going on for multiple years and they're cycling through a new cast like every year.

[3:58] Antoine L. Smith: Right, right, right.

[3:59] Mike Abrams: So are you joining midway through a group or was your whole group like a new group starting with maybe a few holdovers?

[4:05] Antoine L. Smith: Our whole group was a brand new brand of people.

[4:08] Mike Abrams: Yeah. OK. So walk me through that then process of because I'm fascinated by what they teach you, especially as a swing to learning Buster Jones, Gus and Old Deuteronomy and a couple of roles.

[4:23] Mike Abrams: But like the storytelling and the beyond just the go dance at this moment and go do this, you know, hit these blocks. But you have to build this whole story that's kind of loosely there for an audience that has been going for seven or eight years around the country.

[4:36] Antoine L. Smith: Right. So you're going back to places that you've been. How do they like walk me through what you remember of that rehearsal process, especially the story part?

[4:46] Antoine L. Smith: I can remember. Well, first of all, let me say this as a swing. You have got to put in a lot of your own work because they don't take you by the hand and guide you and give you as much time and opportunity as the core principal people that are going to be doing the show every single day.

[5:08] Antoine L. Smith: So I remember just going in there ready to take everything in, you know, singing along in the corner when I could, dancing along with the choreography in the corner when I could.

[5:21] Antoine L. Smith: I remember, though, our first day of rehearsal, they had this, this I don't know if it was a bag of tails or a box of tails, whatever. But everyone grabbed their tails and they put their tails on because, you know, so you can get used to being a cat like human with a tail on.

[5:41] Antoine L. Smith: So that was actually very exciting. And it just made everybody feel connected, whether you were, you know, the onstage cast or just a swing, that small thing of everybody having the tails on you just everyone just felt so connected.

[5:58] Antoine L. Smith: And I just remember I don't I don't want to I don't you know, they have intimacy coordinators. I guess we had like Kennedy action people and how to act like nuzzle up on people. And, you know, it was it was very interesting, but it was also it was also very, very fun.

[6:23] Antoine L. Smith: I've been doing this now for almost seven years. Right. And I work a corporate job like I work the most corporate of corporate jobs. And every time I hear someone talk about the Felinity School and I sit there and go like, you are getting paid. And like, you know, and you're producing something that's amazing.

[6:42] Antoine L. Smith: Like you need to do it to make this show work like you really do need to like embody a cat. But like, do you ever have that moment of when you're sitting there like crawling around and nuzzling up on somebody being like, this is my job? Like, like, that's got to be kind of a surreal moment.

[6:54] Antoine L. Smith: I don't know if I ever said this is my job more than, man, this is really cool. This is really something that I've never actually done before. But I mean, eventually, like month five, six, seven, like, OK, this is this is my job.

[7:11] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah. But it never felt overly like a job. But, you know, eventually, you know, the realization was it was the job.

[7:22] Antoine L. Smith: But we also got to work with some of the original musical people, music people. We got to work with people that had been part of the Broadway cast from the 80s.

[7:35] Antoine L. Smith: So it was really nice. It was directed by Richard Stafford. I remember him so well.

[7:40] Antoine L. Smith: Cats was so important to him. And the way that we told the story was important to him and being true and genuine to the story, whatever the actual story was, is.

[7:55] Antoine L. Smith: So it was very exciting to work with some of those people who were there from the beginning.

[8:01] Mike Abrams: Yeah. It's really cool to see how many times like they come back. You know, the ones who are still alive, unfortunately, lost a few of the original people involved. But they always seem to come back and they always come seem to support every version that happens.

[8:15] Antoine L. Smith: Yes. Which is really cool.

[8:17] Mike Abrams: It's definitely like I kind of joke like it's a very jellicle community. It's like but there is this like family component to it.

[8:24] Antoine L. Smith: It is, you know, a very interesting family. Yeah.

[8:29] Mike Abrams: OK, so you mentioned the telling the story. Uh huh. What do you remember of what you were told about? Either we can either do Bust for John's Gus or Old Deuteronomy like which like what was your story for them?

[8:45] Antoine L. Smith: My story was that Old Deuteronomy was the father of all these all these cats. Now, who the mothers were? Who knows? 99 wives. But Old Deuteronomy was definitely the father figure, the wise one. No nonsense at times, but also very playful at times because, you know, some of these are actual kitten kittens and some of these are actual adult kittens.

[9:15] Antoine L. Smith: So just moving in that space of understanding what those relationships would be with Old Deuteronomy, who was my favorite character to play? Of course, you know, singing, singing his songs and the connection to Ken Page. It was just coming back to watching that VHS every day.

[9:32] Antoine L. Smith: You're coming out there and I am now the VHS.

[9:35] Mike Abrams: Yeah. Yeah. You're someone else. I mean, you probably inspired somebody else.

[9:40] Antoine L. Smith: Oh, I'm sure. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[9:43] Mike Abrams: OK, so you are the father of all the kittens, the cats. When you're thinking I'm going to ask you all my ridiculous plot questions. We'll keep going because I just Old Deuteronomy is an interesting character because there's depending on your belief of the Jellicle choice of like he's all knowing.

[9:59] Mike Abrams: Was your Old Deuteronomy, did you know that Grizabella was coming back and this was a decision from day one and night one? Was your Old Deuteronomy picking somebody else and then has a change of heart? Probably around intermission when you see her sing Little Memory or like what is that storytelling component of how the Jellicle choice is made that particular night?

[10:26] Antoine L. Smith: I believe that Old Deuteronomy always knows who the Jellicle choice is going to be. But he allows these other kittens or cats to, you know, think, oh, maybe it's going to be me. Maybe it's going to mean just to see how they act. Just see if they have the humbleness that it takes to actually be reborn or, you know, see how they act towards the person that he's going to choose or may not choose.

[10:59] Antoine L. Smith: I just I think Old Deuteronomy knows what he's doing. He knows always who the Jellicle choice is going to be.

[11:08] Mike Abrams: So he knew Grizabella was coming back that night before everyone else.

[11:11] Antoine L. Smith: Yes, he's Old Deuteronomy. He knows everything.

[11:15] Mike Abrams: OK, did you all ever talk about that beyond? I mean, this is where this is like I am sure the fans talk about it a little bit. I'm probably the only one that's talked about this particular point as much as anyone else in the world. But did you ever talk about like what's last year's choice? What's next year's choice? Like how do you like are you building the whole world or are you building this one night? And especially when you're going on tour, are you talking about this on the bus or is it just like we're going to go step kick, sing, leave?

[11:43] Antoine L. Smith: You know, like we never we never talked. Yeah, we never talked about who was the Jellicle choice last year, two years, three years before. I don't think we ever really got that deep into it again.

[11:57] Antoine L. Smith: Like at that point, they're like, OK, let's get everybody ready to go. The tour is starting. I mean, we had where you're seven of this.

[12:05] Mike Abrams: Right, right, right, right, right. I mean, of course, again, a lot of self work comes into play with shows that have been going for so long.

[12:15] Antoine L. Smith: So, yeah, OK. It wasn't really a lot of bus talk like, oh, man, did you think that last year that such and such was the wrong choice? Because I feel like I was the right choice.

[12:27] Mike Abrams: You're turning it off and you're figuring out where you're going to have dinner.

[12:30] Antoine L. Smith: Right.

[12:32] Mike Abrams: So tell is and I was just fair, which is I get it. We're going to take a quick break and then we back for more of the wrong cat died.

[12:39] Antoine L. Smith: The other side of that, though, is as a swing. Does did you feel that your storytelling was slightly different than the other Old Deuteronomy's or the other guesses?

[12:49] Antoine L. Smith: Oh, you came on 100 percent because the person that was playing Old Deuteronomy when I was on tour, he was probably 20 or 30 years older than me.

[13:00] Antoine L. Smith: So his story, I was twenty seven at the time, actually. And this person was I'm pretty sure he was in his 50s.

[13:10] Antoine L. Smith: So he had different experiences than I had at that time. So the storytelling was completely different.

[13:18] Antoine L. Smith: He was also a different race than me. So the storytelling was also coming from a different place for me than I'm sure. Then it came for him, you know, because sometimes, you know, you have to add your own personal touches to it and who you are, you know?

[13:35] Mike Abrams: Yeah. What about on the bus for Jones side of things? Because in that moment, you also sing Growl Tiger. You get to do two characters like how you obviously dreamed in some capacity of Old Deuteronomy in your swing. So you're going to have to learn these other parts. Right.

[13:51] Antoine L. Smith: What was going on for that track like different from Old Deuteronomy?

[13:58] Antoine L. Smith: To me, Buster for Jones was just like a playful and just ridiculous over the top character, just nothing like me at all. So it was very fun to actually.

[14:17] Antoine L. Smith: I definitely did Old Deuteronomy more than I did Buster Ford and Gus Grouse Haggerty.

[15:17] Antoine L. Smith: One of my most memorable experiences, and man, this was it, it was scary-ish kind of because the Old Deuteronomy had suddenly gotten sick. I mean, he was sweating so bad, like it looked like somebody had thrown water on his face, and they were like, "Antoine, you have to go." I think I had maybe a song or two to get completely into Old Deuteronomy costume. The makeup was intricate then; it wasn't just, you know, it wasn't the no makeup. It was intricate makeup that required shading and lines and whiskers and all kinds of craziness, and I think I got ready in probably four or five minutes.

[16:47] Antoine L. Smith: Oh no, I would more than that, probably like an hour. I mean, it was, yeah, the makeup people from Cats, we had like, I think maybe three or four days of just makeup, like putting it on, taking it off, putting it on, taking it off. But that, yeah, that was definitely one of the most memorable experiences. You're sitting back there not expecting to go on, and it's like, right, and then you're like, "Oh man, I kind of got something to brew right now that they're throwing me on," and I got eight, and we made it happen.

[17:36] Antoine L. Smith: The swing, I just have to give a shout out to every single swing that has ever done anything because unless you have ever experienced being a swing, you just don't know what that feels like to always be on the edge, to always be like, "Man, I could go on mid-show, I could go on mid-song, I could go on the last two numbers of the show when I'm packing up my bag thinking I'm ready to run outside and go eat."

[18:01] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah, so to me, it's one of the most—I didn't know what a swing was until I started this podcast. Just because I'm not in the space, I don't work in the space, I never thought about it, and the first time I started hearing, I was like, "This is crazy." It's crazy. And Cats is like the example I had, and I've watched people do this on the most recent tour too. Like the one I always say is imagine that you cover Bombay Rita and Demeter, right? Like you're going to do Macavity's number flipped, right? And I've known swings that have done that the matinee and then flipped to the other one in the evening, and I'm like, "My brain doesn't work that way."

[19:36] Antoine L. Smith: It is a skill. And there are some people who only want to be swings. That's crazy to me. And then there's some people that are like, "Okay, so the only way that I can get this job is if I become a swing, fine. I need this job. I will take this job as a swing." So it's, yeah, it's a very hard but also important job, and I wish that people who come see shows that have issues with seeing swings and not the original people, that those swings are just as talented as anybody that does the show every single day.

[20:16] Antoine L. Smith: Totally. It's a hundred percent agree, and I mean, being in New York, I see a lot of stuff, and I mean, they got rid of the pieces of paper in playbills, but I loved when I saw them because I'm like, you know, the more we can talk about some of the Joe Cabal stuff here in a minute. But I was like, "Wait, I'm going to see somebody new doing this." But I have the fortune of being able to see some of these shows more than once.

[21:02] Antoine L. Smith: Right. And I do sympathize on the other side if you're coming for one person or one thing and they happen to be out and you're visiting from out of town. Right. And I'm like, "You're going to see the talent level is so elite in these productions, and you're watching somebody do something that's so—like it's the true epitome of live theater." Right. Of like watching somebody, and you're going to get a different version, which I think is also really cool.

[21:56] Antoine L. Smith: Right. But I want to ask one more kind of touring Cats question before we go to the Joe Cabal because it is kind of a unique show, but it is theater. And you obviously did a lot of stuff since. So how much of like what you learned in Cats or what you had from the experience of Cats did you bring to other future shows? Like I know you're in MJ, you're probably not talking about the story of Old Deuteronomy, you know, like how you got to think about how much he all knows when you're playing and performing in a show about your life, like in covering a real person.

[22:40] Antoine L. Smith: I take definitely the teamwork, the team player because everyone is responsible, whether we want to be or not, for the other people that we are interacting with on stage. So I take that with me in every show that I've done. But I have to say Cats really showed me how important it was to be a team player and how to, you know, take care of each other on stage and off stage as much as you can. No, it's not your responsibility to do that, but sometimes it's very important to be able to humble yourself to be able to do that. So yeah, I definitely take, have taken that with me since Cats.

[23:33] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah. Is there a level of like family in Cats that's a little bit more or less than other shows because of just how close you are to each other? I mean, like you're crawling on top of each other. There's like this inherent peace to that, right? There’s a peace to it. There’s a trust to it. There is an understanding to it. So I would say yes. But also I've also been in other shows where we're not crawling around, you know, nuzzling each other, where we're just as close as we would be as we were in Cats.

[24:10] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah. I mean, I parallel a lot of the sports world because I do think there's a lot of like similarities, and the tour is like I played travel hockey growing up, and I had teams where I was like we were the best of friends, and there were teams I was like we were out there playing and traveling together, but like we weren't. And it feels like there's some of that of like your cast might all love each other and have the best of time, and other times it might feel a little bit more co-worker-y. You know, like we're here to do our job. But I found that it seems like it skews more in Cats to the family side just inherently with the way you're rehearsing, like you're kind of a force function to become really fast.

[24:50] Antoine L. Smith: It's definitely a family situation. Let's talk Joke-a-Ball.

[24:52] Antoine L. Smith: Yes. Because when did you first—did you see it downtown first? I mean, with having your best friend in it, I hope you saw it at the pack before.

[25:03] Antoine L. Smith: I saw it at the pack probably 10 or 15 times.

[25:05] Antoine L. Smith: Okay. Let's go back to the first time. I'll go back to the first time because I saw the second preview from the pack, and I didn't know what to expect. You know Cats. You know obviously Jonathan in it. Right. You're going to see a friend. What was your expectation, and then what did you experience the first time you saw it?

[25:23] Antoine L. Smith: I honestly had no expectation because the way that it was presented or presented and done and directed this, I literally I had no expectation. I just walked in with a very open mind, and I was blown away quite literally by what I had seen. Yeah, I mean because I wasn't—I wasn't honestly, I wasn't very familiar with the ball scene. So hearing that it was going to be based in a ball, I just—I had no expectations, and I went in, and I just, yeah.

[26:15] Antoine L. Smith: Okay, it's the best production of Cats I have ever seen. I think it is now the new bar for me.

[26:23] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah. I mean, I can't—I agree so much because I walked in with complete uncertainty of what I was going to watch, and not a bad way, but right. I didn't know the same thing. I know the ballroom scene well besides Paris is Burning, like I had seen that documentary, and that was, right, yeah, yeah, that was my extent of knowledge.

[26:44] Antoine L. Smith: Mine is where I had no personal experience with the ball. I had 30 minutes with the director, so that was kind of the only other thing I had besides, you know, obviously the documentary. But I know Cats, I know the storytelling of Cats. Like at this point, I've done five years or more of this podcast, so it's like I'm very familiar with the plot and the character development, and I knew that there was going to be some adjustments to that of like they were going to, like just from the casting descriptions, they were going to take some tweaks on the characters, which I was fascinated by.

[27:17] Antoine L. Smith: And I just remember my jaw was dropped when I walked in because the overture hits, the music's the same, but then I'm like the first category that starts walking, and then the first, like, you know, I remember walking out being like, "This is so clear. The story is so clear. Everything about it's amazing." The only thing is, since I was at such an early preview, I saw Bill and Jalen, the directors, as I walked up to them, and I said, "You made it much harder for me to argue against Grizabella." That's my only gripe is the Heaviside Layer doesn't feel like death in this production, right? So the story is so much there, but I love that it had a run at the downtown that was so successful, and then they brought it to Broadway.

I wish it stayed on forever, and obviously a lot of conversation about everything there, but is it like when you were watching it as a performer, was this something that where you're going like, "I want to be in this, like I'm ready to do this," or are you just such a fan?

[28:10] Antoine L. Smith: I know where my skills and my strengths are, and my skills and strengths were not in that production. My skills and strengths were supporting that production as much as I could.

[28:34] Antoine L. Smith: He was just as on top of it 18 years later as he was 18 years before. And that to me was mind blowing.

[29:04] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah. Because the mongrel, Jerry and rumble teaser choreography in the original cast is much different than the one in the Jellicle ball. I feel the one in the Jellicle ball was much more athletic to me. Because you're using different parts of your body, your knees, your knees. When I saw the amount of knee usage, there would be no way that I could ever be in the Jellicle ball. So I have to give it up to Jonathan so much for his ability to be able to do that role after 18 years flawlessly.

[29:28] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah. Every time he did that lift his leg up clap and then went to the splits, it always made me laugh. But I'm also fat. I can't do any of this stuff. So it's always hard to me. But there were moments in that where I'm like the dips and some of the other stuff where I'm like I don't know how you all do this eight times a week.

[29:50] Antoine L. Smith: Right. He was 22 in the version that we did. And yeah. He's a little bit. He's not 22. But man, the body and the movement is still at 22. And I have to give it up to him for that.

[30:11] Antoine L. Smith: Did you of any of your times going go with any other former Cats cast members that were like were you bringing them to see this? Because there has to be a different experience seeing it knowing Cats than going in blind or not knowing Cats.

[30:24] Antoine L. Smith: I didn't go with any of my former Cats cast mates, but I did see a lot of them there at different points. But, no, we never went together. No outing. No, no, no. I think a lot of the people that I was on the tour with no longer actually live in New York City.

[30:41] Antoine L. Smith: Interesting. Like a good portion of them.

[30:44] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah, it is because the tour because this was non equity, right? This is a non equity tour. You have a lot where people like you and Jonathan that went on and continued a career in theater. And some that have moved to either adjacent or just completely out of it.

[31:00] Antoine L. Smith: Completely out of it or adjacent. Yes.

[31:03] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah. Interesting. Save that.

[31:06] Antoine L. Smith: Okay. Any other thoughts on the Jellicle Ball before we do some Cats rapid fire to close us out?

[31:11] Antoine L. Smith: I think it closed prematurely, which I think everyone around the world agrees. I believe it had much more life in it. They were supposed to be open to, I believe, January. I think they could have easily made it to January. And I want them all to know that they did a fantastic job. History was made on so many levels.

[31:32] Antoine L. Smith: And yeah, it's sad that it's over, but absolutely ecstatic and honored that it happened. I think it's always interesting to look at immediate history when things like this happen.

[31:47] Antoine L. Smith: Right. And I think when we come back to this show many years down the road, it's going to be remembered as one, just an incredible piece of showcasing different people and putting a spotlight on communities that don't get the spotlight in Broadway at the time.

[32:05] Antoine L. Smith: Right. And I think it's also going to be, I think it's the tipping point or one of the first truly, really revolutionary revivals. We're getting an entirely different revival of something so well known. That to me is what a revival is, breathing newness into a piece and bringing an understanding to a piece that people really didn't understand what Cats was before.

[32:30] Antoine L. Smith: It was a bunch of vignettes woven into a quote unquote story. But this had a very clear through line.

[32:39] Antoine L. Smith: Yep. And that's what made it so revolutionary to me. I'm hopeful that when people look back and say, this was the first, we weren't ready for this and now we are. I also hope that there's just a life downtown or somewhere where they could run this forever.

[32:57] Antoine L. Smith: Like Little Shop is done or some other ones where it's like put in a theater where the economics are different because the Broadway economics are very off kilter right now in general.

[33:09] Antoine L. Smith: Right. And I hope it has more than this life. I'm so glad we're getting a cast album at least and they'd have the recording and there's some history for this.

[33:20] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah. And it saddens me that we still have to say that this show was before its time or this show was too revolutionary. This is 2026. All of the stuff that we've gone through in the past two years alone, we weren't ready for this to be the hit that it was, but the hit that it could have been for a long time to come.

[33:41] Antoine L. Smith: I really thought this would run forever.

[33:43] Antoine L. Smith: Oh, me too. At least more than the five or six months.

[33:46] Antoine L. Smith: Five, six months. Exactly. I'm praying that the West End may see a production. I hope it doesn't take years and years for more people to see it, but we'll see.

[34:01] Antoine L. Smith: I agree. Well, I've been keeping the drum beat of trying to highlight as much as I can and share it because I love, to me, the beauty of Cats is how open-ended it is.

[34:16] Antoine L. Smith: Right. And the reason I can have 270 plus episodes is because everyone's Old Deuteronomy story is slightly different and everyone's relationships are slightly different.

[34:31] Antoine L. Smith: Right. And this was just a slightly, not slightly, it was different, but it was still Cats. I love that and I know there are some traditional theater people that don't love change.

[34:47] Antoine L. Smith: Right. But I walked out being like, this is awesome. We need to do this more. Give me any other variations of Cats we can do.

[35:01] Antoine L. Smith: And not just Cats, but other shows. Give me new interpretations of things that we love because you still get the music. You still get the storytelling in a way that keeps the essence of the show. I'm all for that type of change.

[35:18] Antoine L. Smith: I agree. We're going to take a quick break and then we'll be back for more of The Wrong Cat Died.

[35:27] Antoine L. Smith: Okay, let's wrap this up with some rapid fire with Cats related. So I'm asking you this as Antoine, not as Old Deuteronomy or anything. This is you specifically.

[35:36] Antoine L. Smith: So if you could go in for one character, one night in Cats, you can do Joe Cabal or the other original OG Cats. Right. It doesn't matter if you can sing it, dance it, perform it. You can play anybody that you want to play. Who would you want to perform as?

[35:54] Antoine L. Smith: I would want to perform as... I know this is going to sound lame, but I just have such a connection and love for Old Deuteronomy. I would be Old Deuteronomy, hands down.

[36:06] Antoine L. Smith: Who are your favorite and least favorite Cats from a personality standpoint? Which one would bug you and which one would you want to hang out with?

[36:16] Antoine L. Smith: My favorites... Again, I'm not being biased. I'm being honest. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer because they are just so mischievous. They are just so curious. And we all have the mischievous and curious side to ourselves. So definitely Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. Love, love, love.

[36:37] Antoine L. Smith: Who... You said who do I dislike? Which Cat would bug you to hang out with? Which personality would be the one that you're like...

[36:47] Antoine L. Smith: Bug me? The Rum Tum Tum.

[36:50] Antoine L. Smith: Okay, okay. And I'm just going to leave it at that.

[36:53] Antoine L. Smith: Favorite song in the show?

[36:55] Antoine L. Smith: Favorite song in the show... I love Memory just because of what it stands for and how it can relate to so many people. Whether male, female, you know, whomever you are. I believe that that song translates for everybody.

[37:14] Antoine L. Smith: White, black, male, female, other, you know.

[37:18] Antoine L. Smith: Okay. I always ask one fun one. And I know you're in MJ, the musical, which I've seen a few times. I've actually seen... There's been an old Deuteronomy in the show a lot. A former old Deuteronomy has been in MJ many, many times.

[37:36] Antoine L. Smith: If we could cast one of the Cats into MJ, who are you putting in the musical?

[37:41] Antoine L. Smith: If I'm putting one of the Cats in MJ the musical... Ooh. Oh my God. This is a brilliant question. Who am I putting in MJ the musical?

[37:56] Antoine L. Smith: I'm going to go with... I'm going to go with Skimbleshanks and the Skimbleshanks specifically from the Jellicle Ball.

[38:05] Antoine L. Smith: Okay. Okay. So you're putting Emma in it.

[38:08] Antoine L. Smith: I'm putting... That number and the way that she performed it and the energy and the personality. I'm definitely putting her in MJ.

[38:18] Antoine L. Smith: I went to the New York Liberty game last night, and I'm not from here originally, so I don't own any Liberty gear. But I'm a huge fan of sports, huge fan of the WNBA. And so I was like, I wore my Skimbleshanks shirt with Emma on there.

[38:36] Antoine L. Smith: And I got more compliments of that shirt than anything else. It's like every time I wear that shirt, everyone's like, they know. It's like when you know, you know.

[38:47] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah, she's definitely MJ cast. I went a different route. I thought about two answers to that question. One is I thought Old Deuteronomy because they could use a different father figure. Or I do think you could put Mistoffelees as just like one of the brothers dancing.

[39:06] Antoine L. Smith: Oh, yeah. It doesn't need to sing with, but just add them to the Jackson 6 now, and we got to do some numbers with them.

[39:13] Antoine L. Smith: I can see that. I like Skimbleshanks. I'm here for it. And I specifically Jellicle Ball Skimbleshanks.

[39:20] Antoine L. Smith: Okay.

[39:21] Antoine L. Smith: My million dollar questions, I'd argued at length that I don't think Grizabella's the right Jellicle choice. So I want to know who is your Jellicle choice and why.

[39:30] Antoine L. Smith: Without a doubt for me is Gus. Team Gus. Team Gus all day. I've played in my time every possible part except the Jellicle choice.

[39:43] Antoine L. Smith: You've lived so long, Gus Asparagus, that I would choose you to be reborn. Again, because I know what it's like to be an actor, the ups, the downs, the anxiety, the, you know, just all of that, what it takes to be an actor and, you know, to be successful.

[40:05] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah. So I think, not I think, I know for me it would definitely be Gus.

[40:09] Antoine L. Smith: Okay. I'm team Gus, too. Love you, Griz. But I'm giving it to Gus on this one.

[40:15] Antoine L. Smith: Awesome. Awesome. This has been so fun. How can people stay in touch with you on social media and all the different things you're doing in your career?

[40:24] Antoine L. Smith: At AntoineLSmith32 on Instagram. I don't have Facebook or TikTok. Not doing any of those other things yet. Other things that would keep me connected to my phone.

[40:39] Antoine L. Smith: Awesome. Well, this has been so much fun. I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your experience and all the fun stories and talking a little bit about all the different things.

[40:54] Antoine L. Smith: I really had a great time.

[40:56] Antoine L. Smith: Well, thank you. And now that Jellicle Ball is over, I want to invite people to come see MJ the Musical. Come see MJ. MJ is fantastic.

[41:06] Antoine L. Smith: It's so fun. It's so good. It's so good. I've seen it, I think, three times, four times now. Because I bring a lot of fans. I bring my out-of-town family members and people I know.

[41:19] Antoine L. Smith: It's a show that you're going to have a good time. You know the music. It's a great time. And whether you think you know the music or not, once that music starts and you start hearing it, you're like, now how in the world do I know this song?

[41:36] Antoine L. Smith: Yeah. It's so good. The minute Thriller starts to you, it's that whole dance number. Just the whole thing. It's so good.

[41:47] Antoine L. Smith: Well, next time you come, let me know.

[41:49] Antoine L. Smith: Okay. I will. I will.

[41:51] Antoine L. Smith: Well, thanks again. And thanks, everyone else, for listening to this episode of The Wrong Cat Died, the podcast breaking down the cat's atrophy. To follow along, you can subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Ernest Podcasts. Also, social media at TheWrongCatDied. Or check our website, TheWrongCatDied.com.