#High queen of the worryworts

[streamlass]

My grandmother: "Why are you wearing your shirt tucked in?" Also my grandmother: *obsessing over whether I've pulled my shirttails down every time I stand up, no matter what I'm doing*

If you're so upset by a rucked-up shirt, why are you also upset by a tucked-IN shirt?

(I know why. Unnecessary gender bullshit. "Girls" don't want to draw attention to their butts, even as their fashion is all designed to do just that, because...well it's probably similar to the old dudes whining about young guys' undies showing, as their own pants hang off their asses.)

[afairytalestray]

The Deutabella Family (1)

So a while back I thought about sharing some of my Cats headcanons (extended editions) here, and since then I’ve been trying to compile them all into a document, which feels more a bit like herding unruly sheep. But I finally finished part 1 of many more to come :) So here’s my headcanons for the Deutabella family! All hcs in this little series will be pre-canon, if we accept the musical as the present day canon, if that makes sense. It’s basically my take on the characters’ past. Pls enjoy! (they won’t all be this long probably) (masterpost here!)

Old Deuteronomy and Grizabella are former mates, who had Macavity, Munkustrap and Tugger together. They got together and became mates at a young age. At that time young Old Deuteronomy was a lot more like present-day Tugger than Munkustrap. For a while they were happy, but when Old D became the tribe leader he had less time to spare. He changed a bit when he took on the leadership role, becoming more serious and less free-spirited and Griz became lonely. She never really had a lot of close friends within the tribe, she never really felt like she fit in and she always had big dreams of fame and fortune outside of the Junkyard which her peers just didn’t get. She always liked attention, but with her mate so busy all the time she begins to crave it in a less healthy way. When she wasn’t performing and basking in the limelight, she became sullen, withdrawn and moody.

Things got better for a while after she had her kittens. She never let go of her dreams of fame, but she had a distraction, somewhere to direct her restless energy. First came Macavity, then 3 years later Munkustrap, then Tugger 5 years after that. Grizabella loved her kittens, but gradually her brooding moods began to come over her again. Her dissatisfaction with her life grew and grew, and so did her itchy feet and panic that she was wasting her best years. The thought that she’d never be anything more than Old D’s mate eventually became unbearable to her and one day, not long after little Tugger was born, she snapped. She packed her bags and left with only the briefest goodbyes. Later in life, this lack of full farewells/explanations would be what haunted her the most. She didn’t mean to be cruel or to hurt anyone, she was only thinking of herself and her own happiness.

Old Deuteronomy never realised how neglected she felt until it was too late. He never meant to hurt her or make her feel alone, but being the tribe leader had taken over a lot of his time. A gap had slowly and subtly been growing between them, but he didn’t notice how truly bad it had gotten until she told him she was done. Grizabella’s departure sent their whole family into a tailspin, and none of them dealt with it really well. Old D felt it strongly, their strained mating bond began causing him pain, and he missed her dearly. Once she left there was a hole in his heart, one that no one else could ever fill. He felt guilty for pushing her away, and for his children losing their mother. Although he tried his absolute best to keep it together for them, he felt horrible and weak all the time, and thus withdrew a lot to try and shield them from it. This sure did not have the effect he wanted. 

Little Tugger basically never knew his mother, and grew up only ever hearing how terrible a thing she did from the other adults and this was only ever countered by Macavity. He was raised by the tribe and so grew up with a great deal of respect for his father, but never had a particularly close bond with him until later on. He was closest with his two brothers, Macavity in particular. Tugger loved Macavity’s magic, especially how he could levitate him so high it felt like flying and then drop him and catch him in his arms. Munkustrap, bless him, was a bit of a wimp (once a stressed-out worrywort, always a stressed-out worrywort) who never enjoyed the “dangerous” games, but always seemed to end up having fun after being dragged along. As he grew, Tugger was caught between the tribe and Macavity. While the tribe was generally negative about Grizabella (although never to his face they avoided talking about her and brushed him off, never said anything more than “she did a bad thing”), Macavity would talk about her all the time and tell him how great she was and how when she came back for them she’d be a big star. However as time passed, Macavity began to realise his mother wasn’t coming back, and that began to push him down a dark path.

Macavity gradually went off the rails after Grizabella left. He had been his mum’s little star, and was the closest one to her. Griz was always very supportive of Mac, and adored the magic tricks he could do when his powers began to show. Unfortunately (and unintentionally) she leant on him a bit too much. Mac always wanted to spend all his time with her and not with the other kittens his own age (he knew she was lonely) and she let him, and as a result he never really learned how to interact with his peers or form any real friendships. He learned how to put on a fake smile and act at his mother’s knee. Griz would often vent to him; although he never quite understood how she was feeling, and he understood it as being with the Jellicles made her sad. When she left, he blamed his father and the tribe for it and began to grow angry and bitter, which would build until the events of the day of his banishment.

Munkustrap was the first one to see the change in Macavity. Tugger hero-worshipped his oldest brother, but Munkustrap was always the responsible one of the three. He saw that Macavity’s smiles had turned to sneers, that his jokes became more cruel than funny, that his little tricks became nasty. He saw that whenever Tugger went to play with Macavity he’d return worse for wear, but never thinking anything of it. Other adults wrote it off as the result of typical kitten rough and tumble play, but in truth Macavity began to bully Tugger, take advantage of his trusting nature and take his bad moods out on him (under the guise of “helping him grow big and strong”), but Tugger wouldn’t realise this until much later. Of the three of them, Munkustrap was the closest to his father, his natural maturity and steady/calm nature being a comfort to Old D, and he brings his concerns to him.

Old D could never acknowledge that Macavity had gone dark and evil, but he did recognise that a huge gap had grown between him and his son. He immediately began trying to bridge it, but he was never able to get through to Macavity. He tried really hard, but his eldest was too far gone, and threw all his efforts back in his face. Macavity, as the eldest, was supposed to be Old D’s heir, but the two always ended up arguing, and Mac would always end up yelling how Old D had neglected Grizabella and pushed her away and that he was the reason he no longer had a mother. The more Old D tried to reach out to him, the further away Macavity got. He began to push his magic deeper and darker, shirking his duties and lashing out at other Cats. Eventually he went too far. 

One morning not much later, Old Deuteronomy named Munkustrap his heir. Macavity had become too unstable for the job. Macavity didn’t take this well. That afternoon he snapped, and when Tugger came up to play with him, he magically threw him away so hard he crashed through a large pile of garbage and was badly hurt. Munkustrap went ballistic, and he and Macavity got into a massive fight before Old Deuteronomy stepped in and physically separated them, and banished Macavity.

It broke Old D’s heart to banish his son. He spent some time with his younger two and successfully managed to salvage his relationship with them (loving, although still somewhat distant), but once Munk was fully set up as the heir he began spending less and less time in the Junkyard. He feels guilty for not seeing the signs sooner, for not listening to Munkustrap, for allowing Tugger to get hurt, and the pain of losing both his mate and now his son, too. 

Tugger ended up blaming Grizabella for Macavity’s fall - he knew that her not coming back hurt Mac, and maybe if she had none of this would have happened. This was the first time he really felt alone and abandoned since she left. He barely knew her, but Macavity had adored her, and Tugger connected his upset about his brother with her. His relationship with Munkustrap also went downhill after the latter was named heir, and wouldn’t see improvement for a long time. Macavity would continue to try and hurt Tugger after his banishment; whenever he attacked and caused havoc in the Junkyard, he’d send visions and voices to scare his youngest brother, which leads to Tugger’s current knee-jerk reaction to run and hide whenever Macavity makes an appearance. 

Although he had never developed any real relationships with other Cats his age, Macavity was a master of lies and manipulation. On the day of his banishment, before she knew what had happened, he convinced the kind Demeter to feel sorry for him and to elope with him. He paints a picture of rejection and sadness that he was passed over for Munkustrap, lying by saying that Munkustrap turned on him when it happened, telling him to leave, and that he feels so scared and alone and that he hadn’t done anything wrong. He tells her that she has always been so kind to him and that he has fallen in love with her. In reality he doesn’t give a crap, but he knows that Munkustrap has secretly been in love with her for ages but was always too shy to tell her. Demeter, unaware of the attacks, feels for him and agrees to the elopement. She was always a shy queen who never felt as pretty as her big sister Bombalurina, and so was overwhelmed by Macavity’s carefully constructed flattery. Bomba falls for it too, to an extent, and follows to protect her sister. However, by the time they realise the truth of what Macavity is, they’re both trapped in his web. They’re both his prisoners, and stick together as much as they can. They try to come up with plans to escape back to the Jellicles, but aren’t able to manage it until they’re joined by another one of Macavity’s tricked captives, a young tom just out of kittenhood, Mistoffelees.

[saleintothe90s]

422. ”Carrie” (May 12 - May 15 1988)

I adore reading about flops. One of my favorite flops to read about is Carrie the musical. A doomed production from the start. Millions of dollars wasted. Bad costumes. Filler songs.

Similar to my Simpsons season 10 review, I wanna give something to the worst aspects of the show. With Simpsons, bad episodes were awarded Marge’s homemade Pepsi. For Carrie, I think I’m going to give the bad parts the “Vending Machine Maxi Pad” award. 

As most anybody who follows Broadway flops knows, clips from Carrie are scarce and are in poor condition on YouTube. Most of the actual clips are from when the show was in test productions in Stratford Upon Avon, but the music has been replaced with the Broadway soundboard.  So, keep that in mind. Most of the time you can’t even make out what’s going on. Here’s the closest copy of the entire show I could find on YouTube, from the Sratford Upon Avon production. 

I know people bash the musical, and sometimes it’s rightfully so, but two things are consistent: Linzi Hateley who played Carrie, and that orchestra that is on.point. Check out the overture.

(source)

The show begins with girls cheering in gym class in the beginning of an aerobics lesson?  The white gym shorts look like diapers. That’s the first of many costume mistakes. 

The song is a banger, I love Darlene Love playing the gym teacher, she’s my favorite part of the song. The only part that is cringey to me is when the girls sing “I go CrAzZyyyyy” and they get on the ground and dance like a toddler having a temper tantrum in a Toys R Us. Since the audio quality is so bad in these clips, I thought at one point the girls were singing about not being caught picking their nose, no, the lyric is:

Bought the clothes, did my nose,

Near the end of the song, the girls are on these rising rafters? It took me for-ever to realize that they were simulating a cheerleader pyramid, and that Carrie had snuck in near the end of the number to be on the bottom of the pyramid. Oh, and she causes it to fall and someone tells her to eat shit. 

“Dream On” is the song that the girls sing while in the showers. Why yes, it does look like they’re in the nude due to the poor quality of the video.  The song is ok, it gives total night driving home from the mall in the late 80s early 90s vibes.  Although one girl says the line, “Six foot three and he's in his forties!”. WHAT. 

Carrie breaks those vibes at around 3:44 by screaming that she’s bleeding. When Miss Gardener slaps Carrie, a cymbal plays. I love it.

I like to imagine that when the girls threw the tampons and pads at Carrie, some flew into the audience. 

“Carrie” is shrill at first, and then it turns into a bit of snoozefest. Linzi sings the name “Carrie” about 458 times. 

Betty Buckley who previously had played the original Grizabella in Cats. and who played the gym teacher in the original movie plays Carrie’s mom. Her song, “Open Your Heart” is pretty good. It’s a nice little break before mom goes bottoms up on Carrie for getting her period (”And Eve Was Weak” [Stratford version with Barbara Cook]):

Carrie: I was in the shower and...

Mom: You’re forbidden from showering with the other girls...

Carrie: I started to bleed!

While Carrie spends the rest of the night in a cellar, the popular girls are at the drive-in. Now, this musical cost over $7 million dollars 1, but yet this was the best set they could think of for a drive-in movie theater: 

It looks like something out of a high school play -- which I guess makes a little sense since they are high schoolers? I’m grabbing at straws here. It cost so much money to put Carrie on, what’s a few more dollars to have two real hollowed out cars on stage, one with Chris (in the red) & Billy (in black) in it, and the other with Sue (pink leggings) and Tommy (purple windbreaker)? 

“Don’t Waste the Moon” is the song sung at the drive-in, with Sue having regrets about throwing tampons at Carrie in the beginning of the song. The song is very 1980s, and it kind of doesn’t fit in the musical. Gene Anthony Ray’s (Billy) talent is wasted here. 

It’s time for some “Evening Prayers” for Carrie where she discusses with God her new telekinesis powers. Meanwhile Carrie’s mom is being a worrywort. During the Stratford production, Carrie’s mom is in a rocking chair over there looking like Whistler’s Mother. 

“You’re going to tell Carrie that you’re sorry!” belts out Miss Gardner. In the musical, Chris seems more obsessed with torturing Carrie than in the movie or book if that’s even possible. Sue is like, “What did she even do to you?”. Even Billy asked earlier, “Who the hell is Carrie White?”. 

Oooof. Seeing the gym teacher try to cheer Carrie up by singing a song about the prom (”Unsuspecting Hearts”) and how she could go too is patronizing. Even if its sung by Darlene Love. 

“Do Me a Favor” might be the most infamous song from the musical. It’s the song I see referred to the most when I read bad reviews. For some reason Chris is wearing a metallic red bodysuit and Sue is wearing a light pink bodysuit. Are they supposed to be that cliche devil and the angel on the shoulder thing? 

Chris looks like Evil Homer! 

I’m going be the unpopular opinion here and say that I love the song! The erratic dancing also fits with the song. 

Carrie tells her mom before “I Remember How Those Boys Would Dance” that Tommy is sweet and polite, but the audience doesn’t know that. Tommy is barely a character in this production. In the end, Carrie uses her powers to shut her mama up.

From what I gather in “Out for Blood” (audio) where Chris and Billy go looking for a pig to kill, the chorus dancers are the pigs? The video quality is so poor. Chris had another crazy ass red outfit on, some sort of shiny red skirt and a crop top. The costumes in this are just horrible. It was like the wardrobe budget was $50. 

This song is so.so.bad. It reminds me of whenever Rocko from Rocko’s Modern Life would see a movie trailer or a parody of something on TV for some reason?! Or the “gotta get that Reptar song” from Rugrats when the kids saw Reptar on ice. Especially when the chorus tells Billy to kill the pig: 

CHORUS Cha! Kill the pig, pig, pig! CHRIS Go! CHORUS Kill 'im, kill 'im, kill, kill! We'll make him bleed! CHRIS Go! CHORUS Get the blood, blood, blood Oooh, blood! CHRIS Oh, baby show... CHORUS Kill the pig, make 'im bleed Let's get the blood, that's all we need!

Sue’s song “It Hurts to be Strong” is a bit of a throw-away. It gets a vending machine maxi pad award. Moving on. It’s filler  

In “I’m Not Alone”, Carrie sings while using her powers to move things around in her room. What things? I don’t know the video quality was so bad. That’s another thing! The sets are nonexistent! I wouldn’t know we were in Carrie’s room unless the Playbill told me. It’s another forgettable song. Three in a row!

Betty Buckley saves the day in, “When There’s No One”, a sad song about facing life without Carrie being her subordinate. 

I don’t understand the prom dresses in “Wotta Night”, they’re all garish giant white numbers that make the actresses look about 20 pounds heaver.  The guys look like that Rio doll from Jem. The costume designer couldn’t just go to Alexanders or A&S and buy prom dresses? You know, why am I even asking at this point. We all saw what Chris has been wearing this whole time. There is a disco ball thrown aside in the corner instead of hanging up. More on that later.

The song sounds way too much like that song “Rock on” by David Essex.  Automatic Vending Machine Maxi Pad. 

Here’s a cute rehearsal clip I found of “Heaven”, the song sung while the Prom Queen and King ballots are being counted. Unfortunately, the audio is bad. Chris is there to remind us that she’s still out for blood.

Finally, finally it’s time for Carrie the prom queen to get drenched with blood -- but the thing is, due to microphone technology back then, Carrie really couldn’t have blood dumped on her. Chris and Billy just run up to her and half ass pour the bucket at her. Could the set designer not suspend the bucket from above the stage? Is that also why the disco ball is thrown in the corner? I don’t even think she has stage blood on her during “The Destruction”, (which is the best song from the musical).  I think a red spotlight over Carrie signifies the blood.

I think Linzi is really only truly covered in blood for press shots. 

Anyway, the Destruction, I love it when she screeches “DOESN’T ANYBODY EVER GET IT RIGHT??! DOESN’T ANYBODY THINK THAT I HEAR?!” It’s the best. I could listen to it all day and I almost did the other day. 

Due the poor video quality, I can’t really tell how the prom-goers are dying. They’re kinda just twitching there in the laser light or slamming themselves against the clear barrier that descended from the stage to signify Carrie closing the doors to the gym. 

After Carie kills everybody, this giant white staircase descends and covers up the gym. I read somewhere, I forgot where, that its supposed to be the school stairs? We’re led to believe that Carrie’s crazy mom ran to the school. The first time I saw it, I thought that it was Carrie and her mom getting ready to go to heaven. I thought maybe someone over at the set department took the classic song too literally. 

It appears that while the stairs are descending, Carrie smears stage blood on her. 

The reprise of “Carrie’ is so much better than the original. Carrie stops her mom’s heart cold mid song. Then she slins down the stairs and Sue catches her. In an interview on playbill.com, Betty Buckley says that on opening night (I don’t know if she meant the first preview, or the official opening night), there were boos from the audience at the end, but cheers for Linzi and herself. I believe it. Betty and Linzi were amazing. Darlene Love was amazing. The rough scenes are the scenes with the school kids. They’re awful, in the words of my boy Jay Sherman, “they’re awful I tell you. aw.ful.” 

(relevant prom .gif) 

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1. Rothstein, Mervyn. “After Seven Years And $7 Million, ‘Carrie’ Is a Kinetic Memory (Published 1988).” The New York Times, May 17, 1988, sec. Theater. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/17/theater/after-seven-years-and-7-million-carrie-is-a-kinetic-memory.html.

New York City Broadway reviews on the news in NYC for Carrie.  That first reviewer, Stuart Klein, I love him. I’ve watched several of his reviews on flops on YouTube. Joel Sigel who was the Good Morning America film reviewer is here too. 

Archive of Betty Buckley interview.