Glittering.
Glorious.
Glamorous.
Thats how they used to describe her. Grizabella the Glamour Cat. A nice use of alliteration and the juxtaposition of the two parts of her name – griza and bella, really made her name stand out. But hey, that was showbiz!
Oh God she missed her home. She missed the Jellicle Cats. She missed the sun!
Grizabella sat, in the shadows outside the swanky upper class club she used to inhabit, and tried not to cry over the memories of the past. She hated the night. The cold air and the dark sky. The bold, fake glow of the street lamps. But she was terrified of the day. The dawn will cast its pale yellow glow over the horizon and she will hide, afraid to reveal herself to the sun.
The door opens beside her, and a shiny black shoe is soon sitting next to her side. The smell of unwanted food fills her nostrils and her stomach rumbles it's want. In the past, that food would have been hand fed to her, clean and beautiful. But now she has to root through the rubbish to gain the treats. And there is a voice calling over her head – human.
"Didn't we get rid of that cat, George, it might have fleas or something!"
She feels humiliated.
Grizabella is the Glamour Cat no longer and she wants to go home!
She decides, right in that second, to go home. To the Junkyard – where the Jellicle moon is shining bright and the cats are family.
They will not accept her, and they will not forgive her for forsaking them and her kits, to live her life of glamour. But she hopes that the distrust will fade away in time or perhaps will abate enough or her to sing her piece.
To sing and dance beneath the Jellicle moon and have the chance to be chosen and reborn. She may have been a bad Jellicle and a bad mate and a terrible mother, but if there was one thing she could do it was perform. And they had always been taught that singing as a Jellicle was about feeling, she had so many emotions to release, kept tied up inside of her as she limped for glamour to grime. She wanted to sing and she wanted to dance and she wanted to lie in the sun and soak up the healing light.
[Touch me!
It's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memories
Of my days in the sun!
If you touch me
You will understand what happiness is!
Look, a new day has begun!]