#990821

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Donna Hagan as Bombalurina, Hamburg 1999; with Siegmar Tonk as Tugger.

[jedimolivolicom]

ELEKTRIFIKACIJA automobila je trenutno jedan od najznačajnijih trendova u autoindustriji , no u Boschu misle kako još uvijek nije došlo vrijeme za smrt klasičnih automobila pokretanih motorima sa unutrašnjim izgaranjem. http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

http://www.index.hr/xmag/clanak/inovacija-iz-boscha-sinteticka-goriva-ce-spasiti-automobile-s-konvencionalnim-motorima/990821.aspx

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Clinten Pearce as Mistoffelees, Hamburg 1999.

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The ballet boys at the Jellicle Ball!

Mistoffelees (Clinten Pearce), Skimbleshanks (Japheth Myers), and their little Pouncival protege (Damian Kacperski). Hamburg production, 21 August 1999.

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The tyre is ascending. Tumblebrutus has been solemn for too long. Time to bounce! Hey, he can almost touch Grizabella’s fingers again from up here! (Pouncival’s trying to join in but he doesn’t have so much luck.)

Alas, they’re too high now - hey wait what’s this? You can duck under a heavenly tyre? Cool! What’s all this smoke?

Somebody drag that kitten out of the mystical divinity machine, would you?

Hamburg 1999: Daymon Montaigne-Jones as Tumblebrutus and Damian Kacperski as Pouncival.

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Lachlan Youngberg as Bustopher Jones, Hamburg 1999.

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And his footprints are not found in any files of Scotland Yard's...

Juliann Kuchoki as Demeter and Donna Hagan as Bombalurina; Hamburg production, 21/8/1999.

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To be fair, it's very easy to make Pouncival giggle.... and he has no problem with being called babygirl.

Damian Kacperski as Pouncival and Siegmar Tonk as Tugger, Hamburg 1999.

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Daymon Montaigne-Jones is now settling into the Olympic village! He's co-coach for one of the gymnastic teams.

If you don't recognise the name you might know him better as...

Tumblebrutus, Hamburg 1999–2000...

... Tumblebrutus, Stuttgart 2001...

... Tumblebrutus, German tour 2004–06...

... or... you know... Tumblebrutus, Dutch tour 2006–07...

... or, just for a change, Bill Bailey, UK tour 2008–09.

Ten years is a long time to keep performing in such a physically taxing role as Most Tumbly Boy, and he obviously knows his stuff about keeping himself safe and in peak performance condition—and has made the transition to teaching that to others. Good for him!

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Hamburg!Demeter's journey (1 / 4) - A stranger in the tribe

Jacob Brent talked once about the idea that Demeter was new to the tribe: that what we see in the musical is her first introduction to the Jellicles, on the night she flees from Macavity.

With all respect to his memory, I don't see 1998 Demeter as being new to the Jellicles. But there's one production where this does read as true to me, and that's Hamburg (1986–2001).

I have a little series of posts on this subject, because she has a heart-wrenching and beautiful arc; and, although these points hold true for every performance of Hamburg that I've seen, I'm focussing mostly on Juliann Kuchoki's performance in August 1999, since that video has the clearest footage.

(Look at this beautiful queen?!)

The first sign we have of her uncertainty and her skittishness—apart, of course, from her appearance in the car headlights at the start of the show—is just before 'the Naming of Cats'. After the final hiss of "what's a Jellicle Cat?" she breaks away from the centre of the group and dashes away to stage left (passing behind Plato, Cassandra and Bombalurina). She hovers anxiously on the side of the stage, not returning to the group until the very last moment before they start to chant - finally slotting into place beside Bombalurina, with Cassandra behind her and Rumpelteazer in front.

That, of course, could be just skittishness. But Demeter's unfamiliarity with the tribe is more clearly signalled in 'Gumbie Cat', when we're still learning to recognise the characters. She holds herself apart, and has to be persuaded to join Jellylorum and Bombalurina every time they start to sing together....

... and in fact Jellylorum deliberately reaches out to her and demonstrates how she can join in.

Even so, after each stanza she breaks away from them, returning to her uncertainty and discomfort.

In this way, she's still given those positive female relationships with Bomba, Jelly, and Jenny, but we see them in the process of being built - we see the women welcoming her into the tribe and teaching her their ways - rather than seeing the relationships as an established fact.

Next: learning to relax and have fun! Links under the cut.

1: A stranger in the tribe

2: Finding her place

3: Finding her voice

4: Reaching out

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Alonzo / the Rumpus Cat needing some extra direction mid-performance because somebody’s getting carried away Alonzo I can’t believe of all cats...

Matthew Pike as Munkustrap and Stefano Bontempi as Alonzo, Hamburg 1999.

@skimblyshanks

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Hamburg!Demeter’s journey (4/4) - Reaching out

Demeter, in the Hamburg production, seems to be new to the tribe, and takes some time to settle in and find her voice. But even by the end, she's still finding her courage: it takes her a great effort of will to do what she's been longing to do all night, and that is to reach out to Grizabella.

'Grizabella the Glamour Cat' is, of course, the first time we've heard Demeter really raise her own voice and articulate for herself. In 'Gumbie Cat' she follows the example of Bombalurina and Jellylorum. Here, she immediately wants to extend the same welcome to (or at least talk about) Grizabella.

She finds it difficult, and is startled (and grateful?) when Bombalurina joins in - though she also immediately defers to her.

When Grizabella enters at the end of Act I, Demeter tries to reach out, but flees before she can make contact. And it isn't time yet - not for her, not for Griz, and not for the tribe.

Gradually, over the course of the night, Demeter finds her footing within the tribe - for herself. But at the final moment, she can't bring herself to step forward and make that one contact she yearns for above all.

Jelly and Misto hand Grizabella over from the kittens to Bombalurina. By now we're used to Bombalurina being Demeter's voice, and so - though we see Plato and Cassandra there - we're immediately looking past them to the next two cats, Demeter and Alonzo.

But Demeter is hiding behind him... she can't quite pull herself into the front line, but she'll do it, any moment now...

... but she doesn't. She takes too long. We were waiting for that moment, but she missed her chance.

.... or did she?

Grizabella greets Skimble and Jenny, and is about to touch hands with Munkustrap before being passed on to Deuteronomy, when...

... she feels a touch on her back. And... it's the touch she's been waiting for all along.

Even Munkustrap waits, soft and patient, before reaching out a reverent paw to remind her of her ultimate destination.

... no, wait. let's see that again in the 1995 video.

Oh, Alonzo. This time we can see that he gently encourages her (literally, in the sense of 'increasing her courage') and then receives her back into a hug afterward.

What a good boy.

This is a deliberate directorial and acting choice. Demeter yearns to touch her but doesn't have the courage. She lets her go past, and just before that final moment where she's given over to Munkustrap's hands and the mysticism of the moment, Demeter manages to touch her, and make her turn back. Demeter is her final moment of contact with earthly love, and welcome, and forgiveness.

And by now, who would understand that better than Demeter?

1. A stranger in the tribe

2: Finding her place

3: Finding her voice

4: Reaching out

(munk be like time for your ritual sacrifice honey, let me present you to the dirty mop)

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Alonzo (left) and Plato (right), in ‘The Naming of Cats’ - Plato turns to nuzzle him as he says Alonzo’s name (but sadly the camera cuts away at that point).

Stefano Bontempi covering Alonzo, and Sean McGrath as Plato, Hamburg 1999.

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Mungojerrie trying to fix his socks. :(

He got the left sock in the first gif but it took him another three gifs to sneakily grab the right one and work it up toward his knee. (In the second, he tries to grab it on the way past as he pulls his hand back; in the third, he tries and fails to fix it out of the audience’s eyeline while kneeling.)

But finally, success! He has two socks which come... about halfway up his shin. Well, it’s better than the ankle-warmers he had before.

Deon Ridley, with Adrianne Richards as Rumpelteazer; Hamburg 1999.

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Hamburg!Demeter's journey (3 / 4) - Finding her voice

Demeter, in the Hamburg production, seems to be new to the tribe and takes some time to relax. But long before she's comfortable with these cats and this place, she's forced into an inarticulate panic by the intrusion of - apparently - Macavity. And she has to try to communicate when she's least able to do so.

This is the first Macavity scare, so he isn't actually present. Nevertheless, Demeter - who has been sitting off to one side throughout Bustopher's song, thrown back into solitary gloom by thoughts of Grizabella - takes the scare very seriously.

She runs first to Munkustrap, trying to communicate with him. But, like in a nightmare, she can't speak: she can't make herself understood. She claws at his arm a couple of times, but he isn't even looking at her: he's focussed outward, looking for threats. Agitated, she runs to Bombalurina (lashing out at Cassandra when Cassandra reaches out to her), and almost drags Bomba back to make her explain to Munkustrap - but Bombalurina doesn't understand either.

Panicking, Demeter looks for help both to Bombalurina and Jellylorum, the only two cats with whom she has so far formed a connection. They can't help her - and finally she manages to blurt out, 'Macavity!'

Everybody takes that seriously, at least, and they dart offstage - although Munkustrap does share a look with Coricopat and Tantomile where the three of them seem to conclude that it's probably not Macavity, but still worth being wary...

But Demeter is still very used to being alone.

Bombalurina repeatedly steps up to be her strength, to reassure her or show her how to behave, or just to check in on her. But after the first stanza of the 'Macavity' song, she seems to have forgotten that she isn't all alone again.

And that's when Bombalurina, reliable and warm and strong as always, steps in to join her, and to bring her back to the present.

She confirms what Demeter says, she moves with her, but she keeps her grounded as well, until they're moving together to teach the kittens, and to affirm their own bond.

The culmination/confirmation of Demeter's acceptance into the community, of course, is the moment when she's finally proven right, and she has to apparently show aggression to their beloved leader and the kittens, and see whether they will take her word on it.

She's inarticulate again, charging in and scattering them almost fiercely with her paws, dragging Victoria away, lashing out at Mungojerrie. Then she darts to Munkustrap, who is reaching for her, bewildered - but not aggressive.

He trusts her. He knows something's wrong. So do Jelly and Jenny and Skimble over there on the right. So does Rumpelteazer - look at her, reaching out to haul Mungojerrie back by the tail when he tries to move forward again! And Pouncival at this point is just following Mungojerrie's lead, because he doesn't know what's going on.

When she actually leaps on Deuteronomy's back, the SkimbleJellyDots gang cringes back toward the bedframe/ladder, and the two queens lash out, but it seems more like agitation than aggression. Even Munkustrap (you can see his paw entering shot on the far left) isn't trying to stop her. Someone he just met today is attacking Deuteronomy and he isn't trying to stop her. That's huge. He knows. He doesn't know how or what, but he trusts something's wrong, and that Demeter understands it - even if he doesn't understand her.

She's one of his cats now, and that means everything.

And then, of course, we have the Macavity fight. Munkustrap gets thoroughly trounced - this Munk is a diplomat, not a fighter - and Alonzo saves the day. But both of them stepped up for her as much as for the tribe, and proved that she's important to them. And the queen who was flinching away from all toms at the start of the night, now seeks Alonzo out to nuzzle him like this.

But there's still one thing Demeter hasn't quite found the courage for...

(Links below the cut)

1. A stranger in the tribe

2: Finding her place

3: Finding her voice

4: Reaching out