[Yip1982]

I'm sorry if this post is SIX MONTHS (!) overdue. but Susan Boyle's Britain's Got Talent performance of Memory got me thinking about the character of Grizabella.

Susan Boyle sing it well despite some hiccups after her first notes. However, it set me thinking about the character of Grizabella. I'm concerned that we seem to expect the women who portray the character and perform the role to mimic Elaine Paige. No doubt every CATS fan looks up to her as THE Grizabella. However, it would be better for the actors to delve deeper into the character, and not just mimic her. It's very much like people trying to imitate Dame Julie when they portray Maria von Trapp. I know you won't think much of Buckley or Byrne, but I found that I rather liked Delia Hannah's portrayal when she came on the recent CATS tour. She understood the character but yet she made it her own with the pathos she brought to her performance.

[Mungojerrie_rt]

Delia Hannah is Grizabella, to be all fanboy-like. I have never seen/heard anyone better than her. She gives the character a life, and a forcefulness she is usually lacking. Not the mention the symbolism with her tail was brilliant. She had an aggression to her to begin with that is usually not there. The opening of "Remark the cat" was sung directly at Munkustrap. Her Memory had such passion and feeling that is was truly haunting. (My friend was embarrassed because almost cried during the song).

As for the others, Betty Buckley's recording and the Tony Awards performance I find very flat and emotionless. Debbie Byrne on the other hand I like.

[High-baritonne]

To call Elaine Page THE Grizabella is an offense to all the great actresses that has portrayed the part. Betty Buckley, for instance, are of much better quality than Page. I haven't heard or seen too many versions of Cats, but out of those I've seen / heard Betty Buckley wins!

[Belle]

Chrissie Hammond is THE GODDESS when it comes to Grizabella. She has a rough, raspy edge to her voice, not unlike Bonnie Tyler, that suggests her Griz has lived hard and partied long before falling to her dishevelled, abandoned state. She really portrays the pain and loneliness of the character, far more acting than just singing the song nicely.

Elaine Paige does it well, of course, no denying that. But I think she's sung the song so many times as a concert piece that it's Elaine Paige singing, not Grizabella.

[Heavylove]

I thinks a lot of grizabella to and more precis what her life was before the event off Cats aka in her heydays?

In my imagination she drafts away to have been some sort of actress/musical star/singer and or a celeb kinda girl, or rather cat (like Paris Hilton) but tends to have her more like a street girl.

Is there any sort of official or almost official description of what she was like in her heydays?

[Mungojerrie_rt]

"Remark the woman who hesitates towards you
In the light of the door
That opens on her like a grin"
That comes from "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" and is a direct reference to a street walker.

"She flitted about the no-mans-land
From The Rising Sun to The Friend At Hand"
Also implies a streetwalker covering the feel territory between the brothels.

[Heavylove]

Should be interesting enough anyway... But then what make her left the Jellicles in the first place? Was she just to curious about the rest of the world to stay in a junkyard for the rest off her life?

[Jemima57]

[Heavylove]

I second the last sentence. The good thing about seeing different versions of a famous play is when every actor or actress makes theyre own version of the caracters they play.