Michael Gruber as Munkustrap the tabby cat in Great Performances – Cats. Photo: Joth Shakerley
October 29 is National Cat Day (as if felines don’t get enough attention on the internet) and the holiday those enigmatic creatures curl up to best is nigh — Halloween. We’re not quite ready to let our feisty cats out of the bag, but here’s our big treat: Great Performances will air Cats — one of the most popular musicals in history — on November 21, 2014. (UPDATE October 28, 2015: you can still watch excerpts Memory and The Rum Tug Tugger.)
It’s never too early (and not quite yet too late) to pull a Halloween costume together. Here to show you how to put on your best cat face are professional actors who have transformed themselves for productions of Cats musicals around the world. To see what kind of Cat you are, take the quiz What Kind of Cat Are You?
Mr. Mistoffelees/Quaxo, the Magical Cat
In his time-lapse video, Australia’s acclaimed choreographer and director Callum Mansfield includes notes on how he applied makeup for his role as Mr. Mistoffelees in the 2007 production of Cats at Sydney Street Theater in Brisbane, Australia, directed by Tim O’Connor. It took Callum one hour to prepare his face for each performance. He advises to start with baby powder, which serves as a type of “glue” for the makeup and also absorbs sweat. And to keep the baby powder on? Walk through a puff of hairspray (don’t spray directly onto your face)!
Grizabella, the Glamour Cat
Five hundred performers took part in the production of Cats at the Brisbane Convention Centre’s Great Hall in July 2014. Staged and choreographed by Callum Mansfield, this was largest staging of Cats ever seen in the southern hemisphere. Marina Prior, Australia’s leading musical theater star, played Grizabella, the formerly fancy cat who sings the poignant song “Memory.” See Prior’s makeup session and final look, and watch a dress rehearsal in this video.
Munkustrap, the Grey Tabby
The actor Callum Train gives a makeup tutorial on how he uses grey, white and black makeup to become Munkustrap for the 2014 Cats production at the Birmingham Hippodrome in Birmingham, UK.