Rumpleteazer

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Jo Gibb as Rumpleteazer in the film version of Cats

Rumpleteazer (or Rumpelteazer) is a character in T. S. Eliot's book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats.

1 The Poem
2 The Musical
3 References

[edit] The Poem

In Eliot's original poem "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer," Rumpleteazer is suggested to be a male cat. "They were plausible fellows..."^[1]. However, Rumpleteazer is usually portrayed as female in the musical.

Rumpleteazer and her partner in crime, Mungojerrie, specialize in petty theft and mischief. Some think of Mungojerrie to be Rumpleteazer's brother while some think of him as her mate. Additionally, in Eliot's depiction of this duo, these cats are depicted knocking over Ming vases and stealing items from their human family.

[edit] The Musical

Although Rumpleteazer and Mungojerrie are rumoured to work for Macavity, they're not as malevolent as their alleged boss cat. In fact, Rumpleteazer and Mungojerrie behave more like clowns than criminals, and are accepted members of the Jellicle tribe. During Plato's dance Rum Tum Tugger flirts with Rumpleteazer. He also lies down with her after Plato and Victoria's dance is done.

In the original Broadway production, Rumpleteazer doubled as another character, Etcetera. In smaller local productions, this double character casting still occurs. In addition, Rumpleteazer and Mungojerrie can be cast to double as another tertiary set of characters: the twins, Tantomile and Coricopat. Of the musical score, there were changes from the original musical production as well. While the song "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" was sung by Mr. Mistoffelees in the original Broadway production, this was changed a few years into the run of the show. In addition, two distinct versions of the "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" music exist: the original London production's version has a slower tempo and more jazzlike sound, while the more common version is upbeat.

[edit] Spelling

There are various versions of the character's name, used in the poem, and different productions. While misspellings of the Jellicle Cats names are common, there is not a definite "right" answer for Rumpleteazer.

Rumpleteazer
Rumpelteazer
Rumpleteaser

[edit] Costume

In the musical version of Eliot's cat poems, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are traditionally costumed as orange, black and white calico or tabby cats. In the original Broadway production, they wore baggy clown-like costumes seemingly made of various food wrappers as characters performing for Bustopher Jones. Generally Mungojerrie's costume is a darker, more heavily striped Tabby, while Rumpelteazer is paler. However when they perform their solo song they have additional costume pieces, a vest and stockings for Mungojerrie and leotard and stockings for Rumpleteazer. This has the effect of making them appear almost identically marked.

[edit] Cast

Rumpleteazer was portrayed by Bonnie Langford in the Original London cast, Christine Langner in the original Broadway cast, and Jo Gibb, who played the role in London and in the filmed video version.