Lindsay Chambers - Tumblr Posts
Some Little Moments from Zurich Misto's Big Number
Early in his number, in his exuberance, he gets a little too close for comfort for one of the older cats (I think they look like one of the older cats anyway).
More under the "Keep Reading" thing because there's a lot of gifs here.
Yes, ya gotta gif the classic Misto and Tugger dance duet, because it's so fun! Though, is it just me or does Tugger look like he's leaning down to look at...something? The first few times I watched this, I thought he was checking out Misto's butt, though it is just as possible he's looking at Victoria, who is right there and goes up to him.
Wriggly pew pew fingers! I can imagine him doing this with a cheeky grin (think like some of the expressions Jacob Brent's Misto gets in the '98 stage film.) I *think* it might be Alonzo there? (Feel free to correct me on the cats by the way, because it's hard to tell in this 3-pixel bootleg!)
Immediately before he turns to pose to the audience, Misto first points at Tugger to acknowledge his part in this, and I think it's such a cute and sweet little moment.
Spinnies with the cloth! I LOVE this, but also check how quickly he stops doing it and snaps out of it, quickly looking around as if to check anyone saw. Misto you're fine, you're allowed to spin with capes. If you have a cape or a swirling blanket, you must do spinnies.
Plato(?) making that HUGE LEAP off the set gets me every time, lol--his flailing arms, the way he jumps so high and then makes a loud THUD on the ground when he lands.
His little stim with the blanket after revealing Old Deut is also a little moment I love as well--it's like he's still a little unsure/anxious (this is during Tugger's slow, gentle part of "Oh well I never..."
Near the very end, when everyone else is welcoming Old D back, Misto runs back to where Tugger is to do some more dancing and spinnies. But watch Tugger: his little head tilt he does at Misto like "you got this! Go for it!"
Found the very start of Gumbie Cat (skip to 4:41, because apparently Tumblr doesn’t play videos from timestamps. Tumblr pls.) when Misto thinks it’s his turn in a video with Lindsay Chambers as Mistoffelees on Broadway in the early-ish 1990s. Some interesting notes and thoughts on this very brief part, noting some differences from his performance as mute Zurich!Misto.
1. Misto’s little spins across the floor on his hands and knees is extremely adorable
2. His pose right as Munk starts singing is very dramatic, apropos of Mistoffelees, and is similar but different to his Zurich!Misto performance. I can definitely see the influence on Jacob Brent’s later performance as Misto, especially in the 1998 film.
3. Munk here isn’t as harsh toward him as Zurich!Munk is with Zurich!Misto; instead he just sort of shakes his head at him and reaches out his paw toward Misto as if to let him down gently “No, not your turn yet, Mistoffelees.” He does do a little step toward Munk as well before sinking down with disappointment, though he does look a little annoyed as well.
4. However, unlike Jacob!Misto, he doesn’t get embarrassed and cringe to oblivion when he realises it’s definitely not about him. Instead, he just sinks down into a kitten crawl and sadly and slowly crawls away, reminiscent of Zurich!Misto, which only serves to break my heart again.
Zurich 1992: Matt Baker as Tumblebrutus, Lindsay Chambers as Mistoffelees, Brian Carmack as Tugger.
And Lindsay knows what’s up!
This photo was posted in a facebook group for members of the Zurich production and following European tour, and some people have also joined the group who are members of latest Cats casts. One of these is Karl Warden, who was Plato in the Troika tour (US tour 5), 2001–2003. He made a small mistake when he saw this photo, but the following comment thread was fascinating:
Karl: you had a female misto!?!?!? Lindsay: How do you think I made 7 kittens? Karl: LOL! I’m sorry Lindsay! I’ve never known a male lindsay and you’re BEAUTIFUL in misto makeup so forgive me please! Lindsay: LOL I’ve directed the show now twice and I’m always on the lookout for a female Misto since I think what T.S. Elliot had in mind in the poem Karl: and you’ve never found one!? I’d think it’d be easy to find a female misto… Lindsay: I have. Now, letting me direct the show again (twice) is another story. Look for my college-buddy Andrew B. to shake things up around Christmas time. and Cats will be the wild wild west Lindsay: also, I WAS sexy as fuck
By the way, he’s absolutely right. About half the jokes in the poems are about parodying various human tropes/stereotypes (like the way ‘Macavity’ riffs off Arthur Conan Doyle’s description of Moriarty in “The Final Problem”) and the other half are mostly of the ‘you know that cat who is just like that’ variety (like the officious Skimblecat running around and checking on all the humans in his space and believing he’s so important that nothing can be done without him).
And the simplest and most obvious reading of the ‘seven kittens’ line is ‘and he’s also that cat who you thought was male and your kids named Mr X and then he started getting obsessed with the linen cupboard and suddenly there was a nest and kittens in there’. Cats aren’t actually all that easy to sex visually, so it was actually a fairly common happening up until the last couple of decades (with the normalisation of ‘actually you should take a cat to the vet regularly instead of just in emergencies’). You can add extra layers of interpretation to the line, of course, but that’s the immediate trope that Eliot’s referencing: in the poem, Mistoffelees is biologically female.
And on the stage he, she, or they is sexy as fuck.
(Btw, as always: this isn’t me telling you what to headcanon about the character! The musical is not the poem, and every Mistoffelees is different, and headcanons are free.)