Actor Harry Groener is really "Cats" Meow
by Mary Campbell
Associated Press
Cincinnati Inquirer, Sunday December 12, 1982
NEW YORK-- The lean, keen tabby jumping around, introducing characters and songs, keeping the pace brisk-- the veritable master of ceremonies of Act I of "Cats"-- in under that gray, elastic skin, really mild mannered dancer-actor Harry Groener.
Groener has been on Broadway before, in the short-lived "Oh Brother!" and "Is There Life After High School?" and, for eight months, as Ado Annie's long suffering "feller" Will Parker, in a revival of "Oklahoma!".
"Cats" was his first hit Broadway opening. The Winter Garden Theatre box office opened Aug. 23 and had sold nearly $8 million worth of tickets, two thirds of that before the opening Oct. 7. Backstage stairwells were lined with flowers on opening night. There were cases of champagne, tons of telegrams and gifts galore.
While talking with a reporter between matinee and evening shows, Groener leaves on his cat face and puts on shirt and jeans and one treasured gift-- a gold pendant with Cats written on it. He can't wear it during the show because it would interfere with his wiring for sound.
Another opening night gift was a Cats carrybag with a Cats sweatshirt inside. There was cat food and litter boxes with fans inside to air them out. The two cats-- Rum Tum Tugger and Alonzo, known as Terrence V. Mann and Hector Jaime Mercado in the human world-- who share a tiny dressing room with Groener don't have cats at home and gave him all their cat equipment. Groener and his wife, partly inspired by the show, have acquired a kitten, Blissit.
Groener met his wife, actress Dawn Didawick, when both were in "The Matchmaker" at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 1976. She's performing there this season again but came to the big opening night.
In "Cats", Groener's name is Munkustrap. The audience doesn't identify him with that name because he doesn't have a solo with his name on it as do some of the others. But he's listed as Munkustrap in the program.
All the cats are names and director Trevor Nunn told each one his personal history. "That's primarily for the actor's own purpose," Groener says, "so you're not just a cat. It helps you be an individual cat. But the audience doesn't know."
"I'm second in command to Old Deuteronomy, the leader and protector of the pack. I fight when need be. And I will take over when Old Deuteronomy leaves us forever.
"That's why I'm the one keeping things going, rounding up all the cats to perform there numbers so that Old Deuteronomy can choose one to go to the Heavyside Layer, which is the best place to be."
Though Broadway has seen him only in musicals, Groener has played Shakespeare in Seattle and modern drama in Los Angeles. He was in repertory at the Old Globe in San Diego, doing the one-man "Billy Bishop Goes To War" and Algernon in "The Importance of Being Earnest" when he heard about auditions for "Cats".
He says, "I didn't want to leave there but it was pretty well known that 'Cats' was going to be a hit, even before it came over from London. And I wanted to work with Trevor."
As a child, Groener wanted first to be a dancer. He says, "Around the last year of junior high, I got into acting; dancing took a secondary position. I acted and acted and danced once in a while. My dancing has suffered because of that. It I took as many classes as I needed to take and still need to take, I'd be a better dancer.
You get sad about it. There's a time limit on dancing. There isn't one on acting. Sometimes I wish I had the last five years back again so I could put in some heavy training. Still, I'm glad I'm doing this show. My body is getting back into shape again. I can still do some of the things I thought were lost forever and keep up with some 18-year-olds in this show, so I guess it's not as bad as I thought it was."
Groener was born in Germany, his family moving to San Francisco when he was 2. His father was a concert pianist and his mother studied opera. Both also danced. In San Francisco, his father worked as a dancer and quick-change artist in cabarets.
"I got a lot of my training from them," Groener says. "They didn't pamper me and say everything was wonderful. For that I'll always be grateful. There's no way you can talk to a child about what he should feel when acting. They gave me criticism that was tangible-- you're talking too fast, stand up straight, don't make so many faces.
"My mother used to help me with tap in the kitchen. We had a linoleum floor of yellow and green squares, each one-by-one foot. She told me a time step and told me to do it within one square and make all the sounds. What a great lesson. I didn't have metal taps. You had to make all the beats with your feet. I wish we'd go back to practicing like that. If you were barefoot and able to make the beats, the muscles in your feet would be developed. "
Groener's catface makeup takes him an hour and a half to apply. "Putting it on is very relaxing. We put the radio on and have a cup of coffee. It helps to get into the show that way, not rushed and frantic, which I can't stand."
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