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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.

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

[0:28] Speaker 3: how you doing? I love that. Clearly, none of you are excited for this panel at all. Oh, come on, theater people, let me hear it

[0:42] Speaker 3: I'm Michael C brie with the Broadway Podcast Network. In case you don't know about us, check us out. We're Broadway podcast.com or Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, probably Tiktok somewhere, but I don't know where. Alan will probably tell me at some point. I love you, Alan. So you know, I know about these guys, of course, but I had to read something, a comment that I saw on Apple's iPod. So they said this. This one guy says, I'm sure you've read this for someone who knows absolutely nothing about cats and has not seen cats, this still makes me laugh out loud. Now that's reach. So if anybody here doesn't know what we're about to do, this is going to be an incredible Smackdown here amongst everybody and and I love that it's just going to be something that's just going to be no holds barred. So I don't want to spoil what you're about to see was this. Just say, enjoy the cat claws.

[1:34] Speaker 4: Thank you everyone for being here. We're going to start our live podcast recording. So I'm going to do a quick intro. Everyone's going to do introductions, and then we're gonna start debating. So welcome to the wrong cat died, the podcast breakdown of the cats catastrophe. I'm your host, Mike Abrams, and we are live from Broadway con today. Yes, today is a special episode. If you've listened to the podcast, you know that this podcast has been my dissertation on why Grizabella was the wrong cat to die. Today, I wanted to bring other voices to prove that point. So we have a wonderful panel of guests here that have a wide range of knowledge, or very limited knowledge, on cats, and that's what we're excited for. So we are going to debate, but before that, let's do quick introductions. So what I'd love to hear is actually, have you guys to introduce. Introduce yourself. So say who you are the most important question how to find you on social media, and then who's your favorite cat? And if you don't know one, just make one up.

[2:36] Speaker 5: Go ahead. Yeah, yeah, I'll do it. Sure. Hi, I'm Michael Kushner. Hey, entrance. Applause. Nice, nice. You can find me on social media at the Michael Kushner or at the dressing room project on Instagram, my favorite cat is quack, so he's yes quack, so he's the singing part of misto police, yeah,

[3:05] Speaker 6: oh my gosh, I'm in trouble. Hi, I'm Nancy Opel, yeah, I have to tell one story. I have to tell one story. I was around for the original cats. I was around for the original one, and I went in for a replacement audition, and I swear it went like this. I went up, I sang one a word, and forgot the words to memory. Anyway, that's about as much as I know about cats. However, you know what I'm gonna pick. I'm gonna pick that boring gray one monkey strap. Yeah.

[3:50] Speaker 7: Hi everyone. My name is Tommy brocco. I am on social media at at Tommy brocco and, oh, my God. I've never seen cats. I don't know anything about cats. My favorite cat is the one in the audience. That's my favorite cat.

[4:15] Speaker 8: Actually, Stop, please. But we're fine. It's fine. Hi. My name is Christine Cornish Smith, hello. You can find me on the social media at Christine Cornish. I was in the revival, the original revival, cast of cats, 2016 I played bomb ballerina. So she is my favorite cat, because she's fucking hot. I'm not supposed to curse it. Okay, for the podcast, actually, it's very bomb of me. So that's good. All right, next

[4:54] Speaker 9: well well done. You didn't disappoint. My name is Christopher Gurr and. And I was also in the revival, the 2016 revival. And I played, in chronological order, Peter Buster for Jones and my favorite cat, Gus, the old theater cat. Can you explain Peter to the crowd? No, because if it weren't for and I was gonna use your word again, Peter, if I didn't, I didn't dance. Yeah, I had played Peter. And here's the deal. Nancy, when I auditioned, I had to act and sing at the same time as one sometimes is called upon to do a music I hate doing that, right? But what I was not asked to do at any of the three auditions I did was dance. So when I booked it, I thought, Yes, I have booked another musical where I do not have to dance. And then I got the contract, and it said, you will also be playing the role of Peter. And I didn't know cats, because I had never seen cats, and I had to call up a friend and say, Tell me about Peter opening number. It's like great. So I had to dance the first 12 minutes brilliantly, I might add. But Peter is the name TS Eliot. It's a TS Eliot name. It's in the poem, but it's also how, when you take a character actor who's only gonna do two numbers in the show, but you would like to fill out the ensemble in the opening number, and you slap the name Peter on him and put him in tights and send him out there. And that's Peter the cat. You never see Peter again after the opening number, and I had a very full story about what happened to Peter after that

[6:29] Speaker 4: number. I want to hear that on a different podcast, different day, different day. Okay, so let's get into the debate. I want to explain what we're going to do. So I have eight characters here, and there's five of you. So what you're going to do is you're going to pull a cat out of the hat. Yeah, thanks. Thank you. The man back there came up with it. You're going to have two minutes to argue why this cat should have died over Grizabella, two whole minutes. Now I'll time it after each person goes then you have 30 seconds to do a rebuttal, in case someone says anything that you didn't agree with or like. And then the audience will vote on a winner, and we have a crown here for the winner. Okay, so let's quickly poll the names. There's eight, so pass it around. Polling. This is great for podcasting, nerve wracking. Just

[7:42] Speaker 4: right. Okay, pass them back, because I'm gonna see who we're not doing. Oh, okay, pass it back. Pass it back. I'm gonna see who we're not doing. So you have a couple minutes to kind of think of your argument. Okay, all right. So you

[8:03] Speaker 7: better believe, Oh, wait, I I have a question. So it's a good thing to die in cats, yeah, can someone tell me more about that? Why do why are we arguing? Why we should die so, like life, I don't want we can ask

[8:18] Speaker 9: the cast members. So at the end of the piece, as it happens, Isabella, who sings all of the lyrics to memory instead of the one word. She, as the old joke, goes, gets put on a tire and blown up to heaven. So Deuteronomy, the leader of our tribe says, says the Jellicle Tribe says, You're the one, and she rises on attire, and then in the revival, is flown out to,

[8:53] Speaker 9: So, yes, it's like winning. Someone said, is it you? Who said it's like winning? The Voice, yeah,

[8:57] Speaker 4: that's, it's a you basic competition show, yeah, you,

[9:00] Speaker 7: you know. Okay, so they're all competing to die. But why do they want to die? Don't they? Because they want another,

[9:07] Speaker 7: because they have nine lives. So it's the ninth, it's another, something like that. I'm so confused, but

[9:12] Speaker 4: it's a good thing this. This is why. This shows why is 4550 years.

[9:16] Speaker 7: I don't get that. Do they not like life living? No,

[9:39] Speaker 4: should you know what that means? Why should your cat? Why should your cat win? Really? Why should they win? Okay, okay, Win. Win just happens to be murder.

[9:47] Speaker 7: Argue. White should lose. I don't want my cat to die. You, you,

[9:57] Speaker 4: all right. So here are the ones that we didn't pull. I. Yeah, Mr. Misopelles,

[10:11] Speaker 9: even really a Jellicle guys. He's outside the tribe. I thought he'd get lifted up. You'd never get him up there, OSHA. I

[10:17] Speaker 4: thought he'd buy his way to a victory, the big one, yes. And then I have a feeling I know who this is my favorite, Peter.

[10:27] Speaker 9: Peter, yeah, I was okay. He's not around when the decision's made. Anyway,

[10:32] Speaker 4: I really wanted Christopher to pull Peter. Too bad. Okay, does anybody? Is anybody really dying to go first? I'll go first. All right, so show the crowd who you, who you pull, because

[10:45] Speaker 6: I've got a whole different kettle of fish going on here. I've got Mungo Jerry and rumple teaser now, because I've got two of them, which doesn't make any freaking sense, all right? Because I have two of them, I'm gonna turn mine into a grudge match between Mungo Jerry and a rumple teaser. Now, here's the thing, I don't know. I can't remember a darn thing about them, except that they hop around together, right, don't they? Yes, they hop around together. But in my here's the thing. I think what we should do is sort of clear the clear the trash off the middle of the stage, and then they have to do kind of like a coliseum esque, sort of a gladiator thing. What do you think? And it's gonna be no no tire swing Going up to heaven, or, have you say, they're not gonna do that. They're going to fight to the death on the stage of the wherever it is, right that that's where they're gonna fight. They're gonna fight to the death, the two of them against each other. Oh, damn it. Were they? They weren't that. They weren't the train cats. Were they? No trains, damn it. They weren't the train cats, either. Ah, the tenardiers. They're like, the tenardiers, alright, okay, so let's Okay. So let's say one of them steals something good, like, there's anything good on that stage, I don't know, like, like a shoe. They steal a shoe or or, you know, or some steel wool or something, and they fight each other for it, until one of them dies. Is there a girl and a boy? Is ruffletties Are the girl? I hope? Yes. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. Okay, okay, well, I'm not gonna say who I think is gonna is gonna kill the other one? I think that we should just kind of, like, we would see that play out, and one of the two of these would die, all right? And I think that's fair, because then, you know, actually, it's justified, right? Because you see it, and you don't just go, like, oh yeah. Like, you know, she's here comes Grizabella, and she's gonna go, and she's gonna get on the tire and go up, we all go, what the hell was that? But here we're gonna see actual death, which I think would be interesting.

[13:09] Speaker 4: that was, that was excellent. All right, okay, Michael, No, you go ahead. No, you're

[13:13] Speaker 5: gonna go next, because I'm gonna tell you what's up. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm excited. Apparently, I got shush. I got Yeah. And, you know, Nancy says something very, very interesting. She brings up a fight about with rumble teaser and Mungo Jerry and rumble teaser about who can get to the heavy side there, right? And I think because, because Rum Tum Tugger wears leopard, he did that already. He fought a cat already. Okay, so he's there to play dirty and quack, so my favorite cat, quack, so says that he's a terrible bore, and he doesn't deserve that. He does not deserve that look in my production, when I did cats, it was not on Broadway, it was in high school. I did cats set in World War Two in a bombed out cathedral. That was our set. Grizabella did not fly in a tire. She the altar rose into the sky. What 100% cost, $44,000 of this, uh, yeah. And also, we had pyrotechnics, and our Jenny, any dots caught on fire. So, that being said, I think that Rum Tum Tugger is a is a fight to the death kind of a guy. And I think that he would do anything to get to the heavy side lair. So that means he literally chewed open a leopard, not like your, not like your prissy little Mongo Jerry and Ruppel teaser and Alan. No, no, no, no, he he fought. He fought his ancestor, a leopard and more wore that leopard around his neck and his waist. No, yeah, it's like spots, at least in World War Two, it was. But seriously, regardless, a fashionista like that, someone that could take their enemy and then turn them into it's right, even if it was a tiger, if it was a tiger or a leopard, regardless, that's a huge match. Am I? Is my time? Okay? Thank you. Bye. Bye.

[15:50] Speaker 7: Well, once again, I never saw cats, so, you know, I'm working with limited information here. I have Gus do, okay, that's a good reaction. I think I'm gonna go mostly off of your reactions for my argument. I don't have

[16:04] Speaker 4: one two seats beside you, too. You played Gus.

[16:07] Speaker 7: So aside from the fact that my good friend Chris played Gus, so that's a really good thing. So we we want him to die because of that, but I don't actually want you to die, Chris. I love you. Um, do we have? This is the biggest argument that I can come up with. Does anybody? Is there anybody in the audience named Gus? Good? Anyone that's named Gus deserves a chance to be reborn and renamed, because that's, that's a shitty name. So that is my argument. Why Gus, who's named Gus, anymore? We're in 2020, no one's named Gus. This is that Cinderella. So anyone named Gus deserves a chance to come back and get a new name, and that is why Gus should be the cat to die.

[16:53] Speaker 9: Yes, well played. And thank you for the name checking of Gus and Cinderella. That was that was pretty amazing. Well done. Well done.

[17:02] Speaker 8: Okay? All right, indeed. All right, well, is it me? All right, so I got so yes, I did sing that song in on Broadway. Anyway, gross, I know. Isn't that incredible?

[17:27] Speaker 6: Oh, he's the spooky one that, like, goes away and stuff. Yeah,

[17:31] Speaker 8: there's a couple macavities Not there. Although we

[17:40] Speaker 8: playing, she's playing dumb, you know, because it's more anyway. So I have a couple arguments for Macavity going to the heavy sight layer. First of all, his hair, it would be for the greater good of the Jellicle Tribe, because one, his hair, his like electrified, electrocuted hair that is not in the esthetic of the Jellicle Tribe. So we need him to go figure that out and come back with a better style. I don't know if you've seen the movie, but he has some colored contacts happening, so we need his eyes to be maybe laser repaired, you know, to come back and, yeah, also, you know, I think that, personally, I think it's hard to not have macavid and the Jellicle Tribe, because he provides a lot of drama, a lot of source for anxiety for certain people, such as Demeter, and also Demeter, so there's the weird

[18:44] Speaker 8: That's Cassandra Demeter is, like, very freaked out. She's my friend, and I'm like, Girl, gotcha? Like, we both had a moment. That's a whole that's another podcast. But yeah, so I think that Macavity needs to go so that everyone can kind of calm down for a sec and get there together, you know? And yeah, Macavity, there we go. That's it. Thank you very much.

[19:18] Speaker 9: Am I up? You're up. All right. I drew bomb ballerina. Ladies and gentlemen, bomb ballerina right here. This is who it was. I'm gonna go a little deep canon here. One word, what's cats about? Do you remember

[19:39] Speaker 9: Trevor said the cats is about forgiveness, all right? And that's really why Grizz gets picked, by the way, because she has the most things to be forgiven for. So that's why she gets blasted onto the tires. The

[19:56] Speaker 9: So I kind of argue that bomb it's about for. Goodness and acceptance, those two things. And I remember that in our production, there was a great deal of jealousy in the tribe about bomb, and frankly, some she's all that, and there was some slut shaming from the tribe towards bomb. I know it's terrible, it's heartbreaking. She liked it a little bit. I wasn't gonna, I wasn't gonna bring that up, but she she did, at least in the revival, she did. So I would simply argue that, if it's a theological proposition, and I think it is, who gets to be put on the tire and blown up to the heavy side lair, that in fact, next to Grizabella, the person in the tribe who needs forgiveness and acceptance most. By the tribe is bomb, ballerina, God. You guys, I went for blood sport, and

[20:49] Speaker 6: you guys are going for like. You guys are gonna like forgiveness, who should be forgiven. And Fiddler was about tradition.

[21:02] Speaker 9: You and forgiveness, no, just, so that's it. That's my argument for bond, right? All right. So

[21:11] Speaker 4: thank you all for the arguments. Now I will. You don't all have to use your 30 seconds. Does anyone? Does anybody want to do a rebuttal to anything you heard? I'm just,

[21:31] Speaker 4: That's good for you today. Okay, then let's do an audience vote, all right. So we're gonna do it by by applause. So we're just gonna go and order the panel. So most applause for Michael Kushner,

[22:08] Speaker 9: ladies and gentlemen, the power of television, power of Gus. How

[22:23] Speaker 5: Can we break the crown up like in Mean Girls? Yeah, I actually can get it.

[22:38] Speaker 6: And how completely appropriate that the person who never saw cats,

[22:46] Speaker 7: But I think that's the point of cats, right? From what I'm gathering, it doesn't matter. Oh, my God, I'm sending you to the heavy set layer. Is that what it's called? Right? No.

[22:59] Speaker 4: Heavy side. Heavy side that

[23:06] Speaker 7: would be busted for Jones, the heavy set layer I'm hearing in my accent. Is it layer or layer? Layer,

[23:15] Speaker 10: ah, layer? Like a cake, like a cake going there, wherever it's whatever

[23:42] Speaker 4: all right. Well, thank you. Thank you all for being here, thanks to the wonderful guests. And then thank you for the audience for being here. Give me all our applause so you can follow along wherever you get your podcast, Apple Spotify Stitcher, and then if you can follow along on social media at the wrong cat died, or the roncat died.com part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Thanks everybody. You.