Talk:Grizabella/@comment-2602:304:B2CF:5E70:6554:BA7A:E850:BA92-20170719003149/@comment-3182821-20170719122537

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You need to know Grizabella's story. You've got the massive money song to sing, but you need to ACT it. Belting out "Touch Me" is nothing without understanding why Grizabella is so desperate for someone to touch her! Grizabella left the tribe to become "the Glamour Cat" - but it's suggested she ended up a prostitute, in the place names mentioned in "Grizabella the Glamour Cat". She has a strong story arc even in her brief appearances.

First time we see her, she wants to come back to her family, her tribe, but she's proud. She's the Glamour cat, faded and tattered though she is - she's too proud to beg. She's lonely but she feels she has a right to be there - how dare the others insult her and drive her away! She's angry that they would reject her and that scares them.

But she can't just leave. She watches the Jellicle Ball - she wants to join in, she tries to dance along, but when they all cuddle down after the Pas de Deux, that's when Misto, Cori and Tant notice her - I think it's one of the meanest bits in the show when the second half of the Jellicle Ball gets going, they're showing off what they can do, that Grizabella has lost. They're driving her away by being so agile, young and beautiful, everything she used to be and isn't anymore.

So then Griz comes back after the ball - she's more broken down now, she still has so much pride and anger towards them but she needs to be there with her family. But they all run away from her (she doesn't know Old Deuteronomy is still there) - alone, she tries to dance like they danced, but she's slow, she aches, she can't move like they can. So the short version of Memory is her thinking aloud to herself.

Old Deut has heard her, and he spends the interval thinking about her situation. So "Moments of Happiness" is Deut trying to explain to the others about Grizabella, how she came to be where she is, and why they should have sympathy and not judge her so harshly.

Grizabella, as Deut is about to decide who is going to go to the Heaviside Layer, takes one last opportunity to approach the tribe. Now she has no pride left, she is desperate, alone, her last chance for her family to hear her. So without that arrogance, she tells them how she feels, she pours out her pain and all the emotion in the full version of "Memory". And Jemima gets it! sweet young innocent Jemima understands. Deuteronomy sees that she has reached the point where she no longer has a hard pretense of arrogance, and he encourages the other Cats to bring her in. So she gets her redemption, she is understood and accepted by her tribe, and she is given the chance to start her life again!

Finally, we see Grizabella as a young kitten (Baby Griz), reborn without her sad memories but with all the joy of life, dancing in "Jellicle Songs" at the very start of the show! The very end of her story is at the beginning.

I have a headcanon that Grizabella is Bombalurina and Demeter's mother - Bomba is older, Grizabella left when Bomba was a teenager, and Demeter was still very young. Bomba had to spend her teenage years raising her little sister - who got caught up with Macavity - rather than enjoying her freedom. So Bombalurina has a lot of resentment towards Grizabella, she blames her for leaving the girls in a bad situation, that let Demeter get so hurt by Macavity, it wouldn't have happened if their mother had been there. Demeter, however, has a softer, sadder attitude, she desperately misses her mother, she only has very young memories of her. Also, Jemima is Demeter's daughter - Grizabella's granddaughter - and that family link helps her understand during "Memory". But this is just my headcanon, it makes sense to me but every performer needs to work out their own relationships with the other characters. Maybe your Demeter and Bombalurina would agree with me, maybe not!

The more recent productions (Nicole Scherzinger, Leona Lewis, etc) have pitched her as no longer old, but more an "Amy Winehouse" type character - struggling with drugs and mental illness, having lived hard and fast and worked herself into a state. Previous productions have simply had younger performers playing the character as older - Elaine Paige was only 33 when she created the role in 1981, younger than Nicole Scherzinger's version!