Murad

Murad is an on-stage swing character in Australian-based Asian productions, seeming to originate in the South Korea Tent Tour in 2003 in order to gain more male chorus names.

Origins
His name comes from an idea T S Eliot had for a cat named "MIRLA MURAD ALI BEG" who was to be "a very Grand Cat...a Persian Prince and it is Blue because it has Blue Blood."

"Murad" is not mentioned in "The Naming of Cats", but Eliot wrote a poem titled "Lines for Cuscuscaraway and Mirza Murad Ali Beg" that was published in Five-Finger Exercises (1933):

 How unpleasant to meet Mr. Eliot! With his features of clerical cut, And his brow so grim And his mouth so prim And his conversation, so nicely Restricted to What Precisely And If and Perhaps and But. How unpleasant to meet Mr. Eliot! With a bobtail cur In a coat of fur And a porpentine cat And a wopsical hat: How unpleasant to meet Mr. Eliot! (Whether his mouth be open or shut).

Personality and role
According to the Chinese production's official website, Murad is a small male cat who is often found perched on the high ledges of the set.

As a chorus cat, he does not have any featured moments as he understudies other roles, and the character is cut when doing so. He dances in large ensemble numbers and sings in the chorus.

The Murad performer usually covers the adult male roles that require strong dance skills such as Skimbleshanks, Alonzo, and Plato/Macavity.