Jellicles Can And Jellicles Do: Meet Bombalurina

With a smokey belt, she purrs it out…that fiendish song about Macavity (who’s not there!) Yes, the feline feature we’ve all been waiting for…miss bombastic, miss dance-n-sing…well…you know. Meow!

Lindsey McCumber at a rehearsal for Cats.

Thank you so much for giving us a moment of your time! Tell us who you are and who you play in Cats.

Lindsey McCumber: My name is Lindsey McCumber and I play Bombalurina.

Tell us about Bombalurina.

Lindsey: I’ve played roles like Bombalurina before, most recently ‘Extraordinary Girl’ (Street Lamp Community Theatre’s production of American Idiot), the saucy, the sexy. But I really like Bombalurina because she has something unique to her. She’s very protective over her sister-like-figure, Demeter. And that’s a role that I haven’t gotten to play before in someone like Bombalurina. So she’s very fiery and passionate, she’s an orange and black striped cat with a lot of ‘rawr’ to give. But she doesn’t play around when it comes to Demeter. If she feels like Demeter is getting into trouble or being manipulated by other people, Bombalurina is right there. I really like that side of her character.

Why did you want to be a part of Cats?

Lindsey: I have always been a singer and actor who moves. I’ve been trying to challenge myself to take on my dance-heavy roles, especially in Bambi shows. I really wanted to play a role in Cats because I knew I was going to be challenged as a dancer and because I recently played an ape in Tarzan, when I wasn’t understudying Jane, for Bambi. I knew that an animal role in a Bambi show was going to be super immersive and cool. The song “Memory” is just so captivating and enchanting, I needed to be in a show where that was going to be performed.

What does it mean to you to be a Jellicle Cat?

Lindsey: For me it means being part of a community and to also not sacrifice who you are as an individual within that community. Bombalurina isn’t just one of the crowd. She’s very much her own cat-person. But she obviously feels a pull and a tie to those around her, especially Demeter. For me, I take that as my own message for myself. I’m a part of the theatre community but I’m also my own individual person.

We learn that all cats have three names. Bombalurina is your cat’s ‘more dignified name’ and while we can never know the ‘secret name’ that she calls herself, what do you think her ‘family daily use’ name is? What are the humans calling her every day?

Lindsey: I think they would call her Bomb, which is how she’s affectionately called in the cast too. Whenever Bambi wants to put me somewhere she says, “Bomb, here.” And I also like that because if she was an emoji she’d be the bomb emoji but with cat ears. That really captures everything that she is. When she hops onto the scene, she’s an explosion. So she’s the Bomb.

Do you have cats?

Lindsey: I do have cats! I have an orange tabby cat named Ronald Swanson Weasley. He’s like a Skimbleshanks kind of cat. And then I have another cat, her name is Claire. She just gets one name. She’s like a silvery-blonde tabby cat. She’s much more skittish and she actually reminds me a lot of Demeter in that way. But they are inseparable and they always lay together like a yin and yang. They are a year apart. I love them so much. No matter what they’re not going to bite you and they’re not going to claw you, unless you’re Claire. Because she doesn’t have full control over her retractable claws. So she doesn’t try to, but she does get stuck on things. I have a dog too, but he’s irrelevant right now. His name is Chris.

If you had to sum up the Cats experience in one word, what is the word that you would use?

Lindsey: Magical.

Cats plays September 16^th 2022 through September 25^th 2022 with Tidewater Players, in residence at the Cultural Center at The Havre de Grace Opera House— 121 N. Union Street in historic downtown Havre de Grace, MD. For tickets call the box office at 667-225-8433 or purchase them online.

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