Elana Valastro

The North American tour of the Broadway smash Cats hits the Place des Arts in Montreal March 8 to 13 and Jewish cast member Elana Valastro could not be more excited.
Valastro has grown up as part of the Burlington, Vermont Jewish community. “My mom is elementary music teacher and played piano for the local synagogue,” she said.

Valastro graduated from Cornell University with a performing arts degree and through the years trained at additional programs including the London Dramatic Academy, Circle in the Square Summer Musical Theatre Intensive, Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Intensive, Broadway Artists Alliance, The Growing Studio  and at Heidi Miami Marshall’s acting studio.

Prior to Cats, Valastro has appeared in regional favorites West Side Story, Godspell (New London Barn Playhouse), Little Mermaid (Northern Stage), Spamalot, Fiddler on the Roof (Saint Michael’s Playhouse) and Oceania Marina Cruise.

Growing up a mere two hours from Montreal in South Burlington, Elana has fond memories of going to the Place des Arts as a young child to see the travelling edition of Mamma Mia not to mention The Jazz Festival. So coming back to that very same entertainment venue March 8 to 13 as a cast member of the North American tour of the Broadway smash Cats is indeed a dream come true.

“This is all very much full circle for me,” Elana told me in Zoom interview from Jacksonville. Florida, where the tour has currently stopped. “Being on stage….I knew this is what I wanted to do for a very long time.
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, the record-breaking musical spectacular has captivated audiences in over 30 countries and 15 languages. This tour features new sound design, direction and choreography for a new generation,

Cats was supposed to come here in March of 2020, just when the COVID-19 pandemic locked everything down. It was switched to August 2020 and finally this date.
Elana joined the cast last August as a “swing,” meaning she serves as the understudy for five roles and is part of the ensemble. As for COVID safety precautions, she told me that the cast of 32 and 30 crew members are very careful. “We are tested all of the time,” she says, “as well as masked up. We are very careful where we go in different cities we visit. It has definitely been a change for us, seeing the audience wearing masks. Normally we go into the crowd, but not this time as we need to make this all work.”

The current cast of Jellicle cats includes Vinny Andaloro as “Alonzo,” Zach Bravo as “Bill Bailey/Rum Tum Tugger,” Chelsea Nicole Mitchell as “Bombalurina,” Lexy Bittner as “Cassandra,” Taylor James Rosenberger as “Coricopat,” Lauren Louis as “Demeter,” Tayler Harris as “Grizabella,” Kayli Jamison as “Jellylorum,” Michelle E. Carter as “Jennyanydots,” Paul Giarratano as “Mistoffelees,” Max Craven as “Mungojerrie,” Devon McCleskey as “Munkustrap,” John Anker Bow as “Peter/Bustopher Jones/Asparagus,” Aiden Pressel as “Plato/Macavity,” Dominic Fortunato as “Pouncival,” Kelly Donah as “Rumpelteazer,” Brianna Kim as “Sillabub,” Christopher Salvaggio as “Skimbleshanks,” Alexia Waites as “Tantomile,” Sean McManus as “Tumblebrutus,” Indalecio De Jesús Valentín as “Victor/Old Deuteronomy,” Hyla Mayrose Perillo as “Victoria,” along with Gracie A. Anderson, Megan Arseneau, Carolyn Bacon, Kelliann DeCarlo, Connor Orion Bermingham, Kieran Macdonald, Tony Mowatt, Brian Craig Nelson, José Raúl Mangual, and Valastro.

Since its world premiere, Cats has been seen by more than 75 million people worldwide. The original Broadway production opened in 1982 at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre, where it ran for 7,485 performances and 18 years. The Tony Award-winning Best Musical held the title of longest-running musical in Broadway history until it was surpassed in 2006 by Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. The original Broadway production closed on September 10, 2000 and is currently the fourth longest-running show in Broadway history.

Cats returned to Broadway in July 2016 in a stunning revival at the Neil Simon Theatre, where it ran through December 2017. “I actually grew up watching the 1998 movie version on VHS,” Elana said. “When I was 10 the Cats tour came to Burlington.”
Tickets issued for previously postponed performances will be honored.
For ticket info go to: https://placedesarts.com/en/event/cats

By Mike Cohen