Gus: The Theatre Cat-Musical Mania

[ti:Gus: The Theatre Cat] [ar:Musical Mania] [al:Music From The Musical: Cats] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.60]Gus is the cat at the theatre door [00:07.28] [00:08.05]His name as I ought to have told you before [00:15.91] [00:16.46]Is really Asparagus and that's such a fuss to pronounce [00:25.41]That we usually call him just Gus [00:31.78] [00:32.63]His coat's very shabby he's thin as a rake [00:38.53] [00:39.04]And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake [00:45.95]Yet he was in his youth quite the smartest of cats [00:53.16]But no longer a terror to mice or to rats [01:00.58]For he isn't the cat that he was in his prime [01:07.12]Though his name was quite famous he says in his time [01:14.41]And whenever he joins his friends at their club [01:21.12](Which takes place at the back of the neighboring pub) [01:28.75]He loves to regale them if someone else pays [01:35.55]With anecdotes drawn from his palmiest days [01:42.02] [01:42.55]For he once was a star of the highest degree [01:48.92] [01:49.69]He has acted with Irving he's acted with Tree [01:56.84]And he likes to relate his success on the halls [02:03.31]Where the gallery once gave him seven cat calls [02:11.16]But his greatest creation as he loves to tell [02:18.87]Is Firefrorefiddle the Fiend of the Fell [02:27.70] [02:32.96]I have played in my time every possible part [02:39.60] [02:40.27]And I used to know seventy speeches by heart [02:47.71]I'd extemporize backchat I knew how to gag [02:54.47] [02:55.12]And I knew how to let the cat out of the bag [03:02.03] [03:02.60]I knew how to act with my back and my tail [03:08.94] [03:09.56]With an hour of rehearsal I never could fail [03:15.85] [03:16.36]I'd a voice that would soften the hardest of hearts [03:23.18]Whether I took the lead or in character parts [03:29.60] [03:30.16]I have sat by the bedside of poor little Nell [03:36.50] [03:37.02]When the curfew was rung then I swung on the bell [03:42.88] [03:43.51]In the pantomime season I never fell flat [03:49.31] [03:50.07]And I once understudied Dick Whittington's cat [03:55.85] [03:56.64]But my greatest creation as history will tell [04:02.78] [04:03.68]Was Firefrorefiddle the Fiend of the Fell [04:12.31] [04:19.41]Then if someone will give him a toothful of gin [04:24.20]He will tell how he once played a part in East Lynne [04:29.52]At a Shakespeare performance he once walked on pat [04:34.28]When some actor suggested the need for a cat [04:39.15] [04:39.76]And I say now these kittens they do not get trained [04:45.72]As we did in the days when Victoria reigned [04:51.87]They never get drilled in a regular troupe [04:57.78]And they think they are smart just to jump through a hoop [05:03.48]And he says as he scratches himself with his claws [05:09.77]Well the theatre is certainly not what it was [05:15.59]These modern productions are all very well [05:22.08]But there's nothing to equal from what I hear tell [05:27.88] [05:28.58]That moment of mystery when I made history [05:36.47] [05:36.98]As Firefrorefiddle the Fiend of the Fell