Pets of Broadway aims to highlight Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional productions while inspiring audiences through positive tales of pet owners in the business. We’ll be sharing the brand’s stories every other Thursday, so check back to read more about your favorite actors and actresses and their amazing animals!
Kristen Martin, currently playing Nessrose in Wicked on Broadway has two cats, Audrey and Lucy.
“Ten years ago I was living in Washington Heights and went to my corner deli on 181 and St. Nicholas and there was a beautiful cat and she was pregnant. I asked the owners what they were going to do with the kittens and they asked if I wanted them. They said if people don’t take them, they would just stay there or become strays.”
“At the time I was working at the Bay Street Theater so I was in the Hamptons that summer. I came back when the contract was over and the mom had given birth. They had a ladder that went up to a storage unit in the deli so I went up and there were seven tiny kittens. I kept coming back and checking on them and two weeks later all the kittens were gone except two. I asked where the other ones were and no one gave me any answers. They were very young still and not old enough to leave their mom so I panicked and climbed up the ladder and took the two that were left. I didn’t know what I was thinking because as an actor, I move around so much but I couldn’t leave them!”
“Lucy was the runt. She was very malnourished. Audrey was pretty healthy but I immediately took them to the vet. They had fleas and worms. They were not well. I had to put them on a special formula and I had to feed Lucy with a syringe.”
“I wanted to name them something really weird but the person I was dating at the time picked Lucy and Audrey and I could see it. Lucy is the cuter quirkier cat and Audrey has the most beautiful cat model face. She has big almond eyes. She has the perfect little cat face like her mom. She always acts like she’s worked so hard all day. She’s exhausted. They’re really personable. I could tell Audrey could have been skittish so I had people come over a lot and hold them. I don’t know if it helped but they’re so loving. Lucy will jump on anyone who comes in.”
“They’ve been amazing and such a constant in my life. I’m constantly moving around and doing things so they’ve forced me to create a home. Sometimes I’ve thought ‘how am I going to do this!’ But I’ve brought them with me on some contracts. They came with me to Goodspeed and Cleveland Playhouse. They’re ok in the car so we took road trips. I’m from Michigan so I took them there to get spayed because it was so expensive in New York. It cost less for me to rent a car and drive to Michigan to have it done at our cute little hometown vet than to get it done in New York.”
“I flew with them once and I will never do it again. I tried to give them the drug to sedate them and they just became two screaming cross-eyed cats. It was mortifying. I had a note saying they were my service cats but they would actually give them someone a reason to need a service animal. They would not be helpful at all. I was by myself and it was awful. I will never put them through that again or put myself through that.”
“I want them to know that I love them and they’re safe. Sometimes I feel bad because it’s not natural for cats to be inside all the time. They want to hunt and climb and scratch and we’re constantly telling them to stop scratching things. I feel bad when I tell them to get off the counter because they want to do cat things. So I wish I could explain that I’m keeping them safe. If they were to play outside they wouldn’t be safe. I want them to understand that they have a better life than what they would have had. I would tell them, ‘I know this place is really small and there isn’t a lot to do but it would have been way worse.’”
“I would ask them so many questions. ‘What do you think about all day? Do you actually love me?’ I always wonder that because people always say cats don’t care about you so I would ask them ‘do you actually love me?’ It feels like they do but I want to know how they actually feel. I want to know if we are as connected as I think we are.”
See Kristen Martin in Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre.
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