Original London Production: Elaine Paige
Original Broadway Production: Betty Buckley
Video Production: Elaine Paige
Age: Queen (older)

Song or Dance Solos: Performs “Memory” and “Memory: Reprise”

Name: “Griz:” similar to “grizzle,” meaning to become gray. “Bella:” Italian for beautiful.

Quotes:
“ ‘She haunted many a low resort, near the grimy roads of Tottenham Court.’ And of course for Eliot, Tottenham Court Road still meant a prostitute area. So the idea of a once-beautiful creature who now only appears at night in a hooker’s district is something that is very, very evocative. Who’d have ever thought that that--that unrecognizable thing--was once Grizabella, the Glamour Cat?” --Trevor Nunn, director

“Grizabella…. well, she’s really an old, dilapidated Cat who’s had a very good life indeed, and has been in a few scrapes in her life. I think she has a few regrets, and I think she may now, at this point in her life, feel a little tired and lonely, and certainly feels rejected in this piece, because every time she appears, poor thing, they all shun her, and she just wants to be loved and to be involved in the life of the community of these Cats, and they don’t want her around.” --Elaine Page, original London and Video Grizabella.

Thanks Lady Jemima of Lady Jemima's Costume Corner for this profile!