Macavity the Mystery Cat

The show's only real villain, Macavitya, a.k.a. the Hidden Paw or the Napoleon of Crime, is a red, orange, and black lightning-patterned cat who interrupts the Jellicle tribe's festivities twice before attacking and kidnapping Old Deuteronomy. After Demeter and Bombalurina sing to tell the other cats about him, he returns disguised as Old Deuteronomy, and after Demeter exposes him, he attempts to kidnap her as well, possibly trying to reclaim her as his mate. However, Munkustrap and Alonzo rescue her, and although Macavity fights and defeats Munkustrap, he is wounded and escapes from the other cats by causing an electrical short in the junkyard. (It is ambiguous in the 1998 film whether Macavity escapes using the short or commits suicide, but in other productions he does indeed use it as a device to escape.)

It has been said that Macavity, along with Munkustrap and Rum Tum Tugger (and possibly Mistoffelees), is a son of Old Deuteronomy. Macavity was originally (in T. S. Eliot's poem) a literary allusion to Professor Moriarty of the Sherlock Holmes series, but in the musical he has developed to become rather different.

Portrayal
Macavity is portrayed by Bryn Walters, who also plays Plato, in the 1998 film.