#thou I'm still waiting for my confidence to drop lol

[cassandra-has-moonlit-eyes]

Cats Vienna 28.04.2022 (Misto Focus)

I think I haven’t written much about Mistoffelees in the Vienna Revival till now and the main reason is, that for a long time I couldn’t read him, because i was too focused on what I know about him and not about what the actor was actually portraying.

I think that most of the fandom would agree that Mistoffelees is the most popular character (next to Tugger). What I’ve seen he has the most fanart, the most ships and the most different interpretations and headcanons. And I always went into theatre with all that in mind but I would say Vienna Misto doesn’t really fit what I read about him before so this time I just went and said, let’s forget everything I’ve read before and just LOOK at the character. How is he portrayed? And I think I found a reading for him for Vienna with which I’m quite conent now. My confusion about him is over.

I would say Mistoffelees (today played by Allan) is the second coming of age character in the Vienna Revival next to Victoria.

In early production, to my understanding, Misto was played quite competitive and confident. Then Misto was aged down over the years. In Vienna he is played as young adult, I would say, closer in age to Carbucketty, Victoria, Electra, Bill Bailey than to for example Tugger or Bombalurina. He is not shy but he is also not an “attention whore”.

In the first act I would discribe his function as “Munkustrap’s little helper” and as imitator of the older cats. With big enthusiasm and joy he participates in the numbers of the various cats. He helps Munkustrap with the Gumbie Cat and is tap dancing with the Gumbie Trio later. In Tugger’s number he has his line, looks offended at Tugger when he touches him and then tries to awkwardly flirt (?) with him by shooting a finger gun at him (like all the other’s are doing, I mean the flirting part). He then vanishes to a higher point on the stage, where the last couple of times I went he usually imitates Tugger by playing “tail guitarre” and swirling his tail around.

During Grizabella he just sits in the brackground and does nothing or maybe he observes how the other cats react to her. Until Bustopher Jones comes on stage. He sprints to the front, points to Bustopher so Munkustrap and Jenny see him and the song can start. He is also very eager that the other cats behave (usually he cleans Alonzo when they are all standing in a row and I’m like: Why you cleaning Alonzo, he is propably the neatest of them all, he is cleaning himself 24/7, the trash goblins are on your other side, clean them).

Mistoffelees is the one who goes to collect Old Deut and he is also very eager to participate in the Pekes and Pollicles and annoyed at Tugger disturbing the play. All in all he doesn’t seem to like when thinks don’t go as planned

When we look at the first act up to now, Mistoffelees is different to the other cats his age: Instead of making chaos happen he tries to help Munkustrap with keeping things in order. He doesn’t try to touch Grizabella (later even tries to drive her away). I would say he tries to impress but also imitate the older cats.

To me it seems a little bit like he on one hand wants to please them and be liked by them and on the other hand he is just a teenager/young adult trying different things that his community has to offer: tap dancing, theatre, cleaning (very improtant), cleaning Alonzo (not so important because that cat is clean). He loves and admires the adult cats and aspires to be like them. He even tries Tugger’s Rock Star Persona by imitating him.

So far so good.

The Ball: My obsession. Mistoffelees has following line during the Ball: “Wir zeigen uns von unserer besten Seite.” Which translates to: “We show ourselves from our best side“ (I don’t know if you can say that in english: maybe “we are on our best behaviour” would be a better translation) and that is exactly what he has been doing for the first act: He has been on his best behaviour hepling the older cats with their performances and helping keeping order.

During the Jellicle Ball he mostly dances with Carbucketty cause Carbucketty is the Mistoffelees understudy and also a dancer. That is not important to my character reading in this text but I still will write a little bit about it. If you are interested on what the ball looks like in Vienna i think this version is closest to how vienna is doing it.

During the ball Mistoffelees also has the chance to show his light magic for the first time. He moves his hands and the light starts to flicker shortly efore the head shake part. It’s an reaction to Grizabella.

So act two. 

During the Moments of Happiness Misto is sitting near to Old Deut and doing next to nothing, same for Gus. He then plays one of the pirates (as pirate he is neat and I think a little bit scared of Growltiger because sometimes he tries to hide and Mungojerrie has to shove him back in Growltiger’s direction).

During Skimbleshanks he is back on his first act behaviour. He is helping Skimble with his number, is on his best behaviour, holding the light in front of the train. After Skimble he vanishes. I’m not sure when he leaves exactly but I think it is before Macavity appears, the reason being he has to change and get on top of the stage for his entrance later.

So Macavity happens.

Mr. Mistoffelees starts. 

Tugger sings and Misto comes up from above the stage. It is completly dark, he is the only one that can be seen until he says PRRRRRRESTO (he really roles the R) and the light comes back on. The song continues. Misto seems confident, he is smiling and dancing (not singing), playing with the light and showing smaller “tricks” to Rumpleteazer. He also does that trick where he “controls” Victoria and Electra. He seems confident enough with everything he does.

After his dance solo he usually gets a lot of applaus. He always seems a little bit embarrassed and even modest about his dancing skills. For a long time I thought it was a reaction by the actor to the audience but now I think it’s an in character reaction (Gus also reacts to the audience in character). He really isn’t completly confident in his dancing (which symbolises his magic abilities). He knows he is good, but he doesn’t believe that he is THAT good.

Then there is the scene where he brings Old Deut back. It is played uncertain, I would say. Neither him nor the other cats are sure if he will succeed. He sometimes looks to Tugger and Tugger is like “do it, just do it”. When Misto takes off the red cloth he faces torward the audience and away from Old Deut. The song continues quite slow and calm, nearly sad and because he doesn’t look back and only hears Tugger sing, he thinks he failed. 

He looks quite sad and disappointed. In this moment Coricopat and Tantomile who are sitting infront of him, usually comfort him and encourage him to look back. When he does he is the happiest ball of sunshine. He jumps at Old Deut and hugs him.

He is really happy, he can’t believe that he made it. And after that he has his full confidence. All the self doubt he had before is gone. (It seems a little bit inspired by the 2019 Movie but it’s still nothing alike). After Old Deut. is back and everybody is dancing around Misto he always seems so happy to me.

Vienna Misto isn’t shy. He is uncertain about his abilities I would say, as are the other cats but he proves himself by the end of his song. At the beginning of the play he knows how to imitate others and how to participate in their numbers. He knows how to behave to get the respect especially from the adult cats. He helps where he can and is happy to do so. He is not a competitative character here.

His own number seems like him doing what he does best: Helping to keep the order and the ball running. But instead of doing so by imitating the others, like for.ex Munkustrap, Tugger, the Gumbie Trio, a train, (Alonzo’s cleaning habits), he does so with his very own abilities, with his magic. By succeeding in bringing Old Deut back he loses his doubts and becomes more confident.

While older versions of Misto started out being very confident and competitive I think for Vienna Misto this is more the end goal (not in a bad way). This is where he propably is at the end of his character development.  

Mistoffelees is a deus ex machina character (or more like daimon ex machina). His narrative function is to bring Old Deut back so the play can come to an end. In Vienna he still has some sort of character arc. He stops imitating the others and finds his own style in a way and by doing so he is of even more help to the tribe. So his motivation stays the same but his way of achieving it changed.