Lynn Sterling

Broadway - 1993 - Tantomile

Undated Interview -  Lynn Sterling, another swing player, has been with the show three years.

"I cover four roles, and all are considered principal cats," she says, recalling the intensely competitive audition for the job, and then the months of rehearsals which followed. "I played Tantomile for four months and remember feeling stupid and awkward in rehearsal," she says, referring to the character of the female kitten twin. But then Sterling experienced an important transition during the first dress rehearsal.

"I saw myself with the wig and nose on," she says. "When I put on the tail, I naturally went up on my legs and then I could see 'my cat." Sterling also covers the role of the sultry Bombalurina and the elegant Cassandra, characters who have qualities in common with the pet cat she keeps at home.

"I named her Freeda Girlee because she's such a showgirl. She just loves men! She is one fabulous cat, and I take her everywhere with me. We just travelled to Italy together," says Sterling, who especially enjoys her cat's talent for posing. "She knows she looks cute curled up on the wingback chair. She knows she looks really cute when she sits on the television and lets one paw dangle over the screen. I have an album full of photographs of her."

Sterling claims her pet definitely has inspired her performance. Describing how she imitates Freeda on stage she says, "Everything is more elongated and drawn out. It involves every single muscle. If you don't feel all your muscles, you won't look like a cat. I even try not to blink on stage, but to lower my eyelids slowly and deliberately, the way a cat does."