Cats the Musical holds many fond memories for me.
It was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber as a musical adaptation of T.S Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats from 1939. The stage musical was directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne opening in the West End in 1981.
I was exceptionally lucky to go and see it with the original cast of Wayne Sleep, Bonnie Langford, Elaine Page, Sarah Brightman, Brian Blessed and Paul Nicholas among just a few. I was star struck and awestruck by the cats moving among the audience, the rotating stage and the enormous props to make the cast look cat sized! The music and dancing was spectacular, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! All in all it was one heck of a A~W~E~S~O~M~E experience!
I loved it so much so that many years later, I returned dragging my husband with me to the theatre in London and thoroughly enjoyed seeing it again.
Many years after that second visit, when our three daughters were old enough we took them to see the touring version in Nottingham. This third time for me, second for my husband and first for the girls was equally brilliant. It's just a shame it wasn't the original theatre with the revolving stage. However my girls were just as mesmerised as I was, to such a degree that we purchased and they wore out two VHS Cats Videos and on DVD plus an additional audio CD!
This is the trailer of the original show, which I love so very much;
Imagine my excitement when I heard that Universal had made an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webbers musical and it was being released towards the end of this year with an all star cast! However, after viewing the trailer I'm a little perplexed by the howlingly awful rendition of Memory by Jennifer Hudson and the ever changing scale of props in relation to the actors as "cats".
However, this hasn't curbed my curiosity and excitement at the prospect of watching this film when it comes out. It looks as if, at the very least, it will be enormously entertaining to view, I'll just have to put in ear plugs when "memory" starts up ~ either that or it won't sound so bad in context when immersed in the film!
The cast for the new film is as follows (should you be a Cats nerd like me);
Idris Elba ... Macavity
Rebel Wilson ... Jennyanydots
Judi Dench ... Old Deuteronomy
Ian McKellen ... Gus The Theatre Cat
James Corden ... Bustopher Jones
Taylor Swift ... Bombalurina
Ray Winstone ... Growltiger
Jennifer Hudson ... Grizabella
Laurent Bourgeois ... Socrates
Laurie Davidson ... Mr. Mistoffelees
Jason Derulo ... Rum Tum Tugger
Naoimh Morgan ... Rumpleteazer
Steven McRae ... Skimbleshanks
Danny Collins ... Mungojerrie
It was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber as a musical adaptation of T.S Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats from 1939. The stage musical was directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne opening in the West End in 1981.
I was exceptionally lucky to go and see it with the original cast of Wayne Sleep, Bonnie Langford, Elaine Page, Sarah Brightman, Brian Blessed and Paul Nicholas among just a few. I was star struck and awestruck by the cats moving among the audience, the rotating stage and the enormous props to make the cast look cat sized! The music and dancing was spectacular, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! All in all it was one heck of a A~W~E~S~O~M~E experience!
I loved it so much so that many years later, I returned dragging my husband with me to the theatre in London and thoroughly enjoyed seeing it again.
Many years after that second visit, when our three daughters were old enough we took them to see the touring version in Nottingham. This third time for me, second for my husband and first for the girls was equally brilliant. It's just a shame it wasn't the original theatre with the revolving stage. However my girls were just as mesmerised as I was, to such a degree that we purchased and they wore out two VHS Cats Videos and on DVD plus an additional audio CD!
This is the trailer of the original show, which I love so very much;
However, this hasn't curbed my curiosity and excitement at the prospect of watching this film when it comes out. It looks as if, at the very least, it will be enormously entertaining to view, I'll just have to put in ear plugs when "memory" starts up ~ either that or it won't sound so bad in context when immersed in the film!
The cast for the new film is as follows (should you be a Cats nerd like me);
Idris Elba ... Macavity
Rebel Wilson ... Jennyanydots
Judi Dench ... Old Deuteronomy
Ian McKellen ... Gus The Theatre Cat
James Corden ... Bustopher Jones
Taylor Swift ... Bombalurina
Ray Winstone ... Growltiger
Jennifer Hudson ... Grizabella
Laurent Bourgeois ... Socrates
Laurie Davidson ... Mr. Mistoffelees
Jason Derulo ... Rum Tum Tugger
Naoimh Morgan ... Rumpleteazer
Steven McRae ... Skimbleshanks
Danny Collins ... Mungojerrie
For those of you who haven't seen the trailer, here it is for your pleasure;
Aside from getting my knickers in a twist with excitement and befuddlement about the new Cats adaptation due out I have been busy making myself a wand.
Yep, you heard right ~ rather than buying a beautiful wand made by someone else I decided I would make my own from scratch. However, in my excitement to make it I forgot to take photographs along the way showing the process and my progress with it.
Firstly I took a trip out to the local meadows to find a suitable tree for the large "twig". Once the tree had been selected and permission granted from the tree to harvest said piece of wood I carefully removed the small branch ~ or branchlett (is that a word?) from the tree. Taking great care I then thanked the tree and gave it a small sacrifice of water.
Once home I left the wood on my alter to slowly dry out.
Once dried I removed the bark and sanded it down. Next I checked the length and yup ~ it ran from wrist to elbow in length ~ perfect.
Once sanded I then stained and oiled the wood but left the top by the handle the original colour.
Then I went to my crystal collection and waited until the right crystal spoke to me, once selected I used it for the tip of my wand.
Finally ~ decoration! I chose some small beads that I use for meditation mandalas to string and wind around my wand plus some purple ribbon to wind around the handle.
A large amount of gorilla glue was used in the process of creating this wand and most of it ended up on my fingers, at one point I thought I would be permanently joined to the dining room table but thankfully managed to part finger tip from table!
I love creating and artistic endeavours but I'm not all that great at it, so ~ yes ~ this is a very "home made" and "rustic" looking wand but it's mine, made and created by me, for me, which makes it, in my eyes, perfect.
I am thrilled with the result and so have some photos below to share with you.
Finally ~ decoration! I chose some small beads that I use for meditation mandalas to string and wind around my wand plus some purple ribbon to wind around the handle.
A large amount of gorilla glue was used in the process of creating this wand and most of it ended up on my fingers, at one point I thought I would be permanently joined to the dining room table but thankfully managed to part finger tip from table!
I love creating and artistic endeavours but I'm not all that great at it, so ~ yes ~ this is a very "home made" and "rustic" looking wand but it's mine, made and created by me, for me, which makes it, in my eyes, perfect.
I am thrilled with the result and so have some photos below to share with you.
~ Blessings ~
x~X~x
