It’s monday morning and the show is friday night. The one year anniversary show of the Shadow Cats. One year since we first started shadow casting Repo! The Genetic Opera [and since that day we've done one show per month at the Bloor Cinema]. So it’s monday morning and this is when we get the news; Darren Lynn Bousman is coming. Darren. Lynn. BOUSMAN! Director of Repo! Director of this film which we have all spent so many hours watching, studying, recreating and performing. He’s coming to watch our show! Feelings of excitement, nervousness, and anticipation, which were already bubbling, are now at a full boil. And this is when we realize “oh my god, we have one week to pack the house!”
Rotti Largo in Gold, the original SC strip tease

Chaos ensues. Obviously. We are the fucking Shadow Cats, when is insanity not on the bill? tee hee. Anyways the pin-packs [which contained amazingly designed images by are very own, very talented Kim] which we were planning on selling are suddenly too few and a team is assembled to pump out more. In addition to the kick-ass pinage, we also have Shadow Cats logo stickers for sale and our kitten-assembly-line is stuffing bags with stickers and pins. Flyers are printed as well as programs. The press is alerted. The meter is set to full promotions mode. The anticipation grows further.
Genterns and a Mentern taking it off Aqua-style

By the time friday rolls round our cat ears are sitting crooked on our heads, we’re tired and nervous and to top it all off we get kicked out of the theatre before we have time to finish dress rehearsal. We only had time to rehearse the burlesque pre-show. Oh did I not yet mention the pre-show? Well if you have ever wanted to see genterns strip to Dr. Jones by Aqua, witness Pavi twirling her tassles to I Feel Pretty sung by Sarah Brightman, ogle Luigi ripping her pants off to Rammstein, or to see the gayest Rotti Largo ever sucking her on own balls in time to Sugar Lumps by Flight of the Concords, then I suppose you probably should have come to our show… The cast did an outstanding job of entertaining the crowd with hilarious, kinky and fucking sexy Repo-themed strip teases.
Luigi Largo after a very bloody (sexy) routine

Besides having Darren in the house we were also lucky enough to have Spooky Dan, Adam Smith, Alex Kavanagh and Jim Murray in attendance. These repo-celebs [and generally awesome human beings] made the night even more special simply by being there. Alex also brought a bunch of the original costumes to display in the lobby, something that everyone enjoyed and appreciated! She was also kind enough to host our costume contest. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we were blown away with the amazingness that was our costume contest contestants. Congrats to the winners and thanks to everyone who put in the effort to come in costume!
SC Pavi (Kim) and Alex Kavanagh during the costume contest

Doing our show for such an amazing audience really helped pump us up and in the end it was absolutely, without a doubt, one of our best and funniest shows ever! The amount of hilariousness, both planned and improved was unprecedented. We had a man-jina courtesy of Old Greg, a horse-henchgirl being butt-raped by Rotti, Conan O’Brien as Joan Jett, a Lady Gaga makeover, sexy Nathan in a long black slip dress, Sookie Stackhouse getting organs removed from her bum, drunk, nudie-Mag [duh] and the hottest live WSTOS gentern orgy that has ever been witnessed. Trust me, it really was. Oh and also nipples…. yes lots of exposed breasts.
A very unusual “limo” ride

Amber and Graverobber in Zyrdate Anatomy

Conan O’Brien and Nathan in 17

Another wonderful thing we planned for the anniversary show was to bring back a bunch of our alumni cast/cats to perform. We have had different cast members almost every show this year and it was really great to get some of our favourite characters back on stage! Thanks to Lorelei, Sary, Guicci, Caitlin, Acacia, Veronica, and Jon for being a part of our celebration.
Zydrate addicts attack Shilo, including a very drunk Mag

We Started this Opera Shit

And as for our guest of honour… I’m pretty sure that we gave Darren a night that he will not soon forget. How can I be sure you ask? Well every time Darren looks at the glowing blue penis hanging on his wall, he is sure to think of his time in Toronto with the Shadow Cats.
