Carbucketty

Carbucketty is an ensemble kitten from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Cats. The name Carbucketty was one of T S Eliot's ideas for cat names, for a "knockabout cat". His role is primarily that of a dancer and acrobat. In many productions, this role is re-named Pouncival.

Personality
"Acrobatic, Energetic, Accident-prone"

- Three Words

Carbucketty, in most productions, is portrayed as a young, troublesome, fun-loving kitten. He is often shown causing trouble or playing around. He is often seen with Bill Bailey, Electra, Etcetera and the other kittens.

In "The Old Gumbie Cat", Carbucketty is seen trouble-making while dressed up as a beetle. During Grizabella's first entrance, Carbucketty - egged on by Bill Bailey and Admetus - tricks her into coming close to him so that he can scratch her. He bullies Grizabella again during her second entrance, this time pushing her.

Carbucketty is sometimes portrayed older in productions that include both him and Pouncival. For example, Giuseppe Bausilio specified that in the Broadway revival, Carbucketty is a teenage cat whereas Pouncival is the young kitten.

Role
"Dancer with very good classical ballet training. Confident baritone to F. Youthful and not too tall."

- Casting Calls

Carbucketty appeared in both the original London and Broadway shows. In 1987, when the Broadway show was reworked to remove the "Trash puppets" Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, the character was replace by a ensemble Mungojerrie. The actor who played Mungojerrie after the show was reworked, Ray Roderick, had played Carbucketty for a few months prior.

The actor playing Carbucketty is usually the first understudy for Mistoffelees, and so is a strong ballet dancer as well as a mischievous kitten.

Australian Carbucketty
In most Australian style productions, Carbucketty was an occasional chorus cat/on-stage swing of variable costume design. When the revival changes were imported in 2015 however, Carbucketty was added as a full, understudied character, in addition to Pouncival, similar to the addition of Pouncival to the London revival. However, Pouncival retained all of his original featured dance parts and character, while Carbucketty became the sixth member of Growltiger's crew, effectively switching the names from the Palladium roles.

Appearance
Carbucketty is a small, scruffy, Tabby and White kitten, with gold/brown/black stripes and hatching on a pale base. The initial design for the Broadway production's Pouncival was a separate design from Carbucketty, while having a similar appearance Pouncival lacked the clear chest stripes and had a looser, greyer colour palette. The Broadway production used the "George" design for Carbucketty.

Since the filmed version of Cats used the name Pouncival but the costume for Carbucketty, it has become common for productions to do likewise and use Carbucketty's stronger design for the role named Pouncival.

Fandom
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