The thing that jumps out at a visitor to theatre producer Marlene Smith's condo is an oil portrait of a dapper gent in pin-striped suit and chocolate-brown fedora, holding a smoldering cigarette.

It could be a Damon Runyon character straight out of Guys and Dolls. But it is Smith's late father, George Deller, co-owner of the legendary Palais Royale dance hall on Lake Shore Blvd. W. Deller and his partner, Bill Cuthbert, were concessionaires at Sunnyside Amusement Beach and then went on to purchase the Palais in 1932.

“He did Guess Your Age and Guess Your Weight at Sunnyside,” says Smith. “He also raised thoroughbreds at Thunder Beach near Penetang, the furthest north breeding ground in Canada.”

Smith, who has been producing for 30 years, says, “I call myself the Hazel McCallion of musical theatre.”

She is also the Cat Lady of musical theatre. She mothers 20 felines, stars of the all-Canadian cast of the new production of Cats running through July 28 at the Panasonic Theatre.

Smith produced the initial incarnation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber blockbuster in Toronto at the pre-renovated Elgin Theatre on Yonge St. in 1985.

The new show is the first resident-Canadian production of Cats to be staged in Toronto in 28 years and this time around Smith is collaborating with her son, Geoffrey Smith, executive producer of Nu Musical Theatricals.

There is no shortage of Cats memorabilia in her two-bedroom condo located on the top floor of a building in lower Forest Hill.

Her 1,100-square-foot home features a kitchen, dining area, living room and two balconies brimming with plants.

One of the bedrooms is her den/office and in it hangs a huge collage of Cats cast members — topped with a cat mask hanging over it.

A Cats tote bag lays on the bedroom floor; a glass Cats paperweight rests on a living-room side table.

A producer clearly lives here — a producer with a serious needlepoint habit. Smith has been doing needlepoint for 20 years and it is everywhere, including bricks covered in needlepoint used as door stops. One brick is done as a crococdile.

A needlepoint kit sits on a settee in the living room; needlepoint comedy-and-drama masks adorn the dining room chairs; books on needlepoint and Broadway await on the coffee table.

A Playbill notebook sits by the phone on a side table made using a carousel pony as its base and circular glass on top. Smith had it specially made.

“I think carousels are fun,” she says with a smile as sunny and warm as her condo. “I also needlepointed a carousel cushion.” Of course she did.

The dining area features an armoire with a violin painted on it by Canadian artist Sara Nadeau.

“It came from up north,” Smith explains. “She also did the side table in the bedroom with Mickey Mouse whistling off to The Elgin with his suitcase.”

A landscape painting in the living room is by Canadian artist Anthony J. Batten.

“He lives up the street,” she says. “I know him because he used to paint my sets. The Queen has some of his paintings.”

In the hall, a framed sketch of Smith as 8-year-old Marlene Deller at Thunder Beach, by iconic artist Jack Bush.

The 2009 Silver Ticket Award — presented to Smith by the Toronto Alliance of Performing Arts in honour of her lifetime achievement in Canadian theatre — is in a grouping that includes a framed photo of Smith encircled by a gaggle of Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.

On the living room walls: framed posters from Bat Boy: The Musical and the variety benefit for Gilda's Club, It's Always Something. Framed stamps of Broadway songwriters hang in the kitchen.

In the den: a framed poster of the seminal 1972 Godspell company, where she was company manager.

Smith stays in touch with Canadian stars Victor Garber, Martin Short and Andrea Martin. Short recently called to rave about Martin's show-stopping performance on Broadway in Pippin. He is sure she will bag the Tony award.

But turn from the stage to her home and her focus is less determined. Her “I don't know if I have a décor,” she demurs. “If I like it, I leave it. If not, I move it.”

Smith lives in the condo with her husband, Dr. David Smith, whom she calls “Doc.” They have been there for six years.

“We moved here because it had the light and we downsized after our four kids moved out,” she explains. “We had a big house on Roxborough St., in Rosedale, but the move wasn't expensive because the kids had taken everything — by the time everyone collected things, we spent $500 moving.

“The light is fabulous to needlepoint,” Smith continues about her top-floor condominium. “When you needlepoint, the light should be on the left or your hands give off shadows if you are right-handed.”

In the den, a collage shows off her favourite, incorporating tickets and a program from My Fair Lady starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison in the original 1956 Broadway cast.

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“It commemorates when I got engaged,” she recalls.

“I was en route to Europe on a boat with four other girls and we were going for three months. He got on our plane — unbeknownst to me — and surprised me at the hotel in New York because we were sailing from New York.

“We got engaged in the bathroom of the hotel,” says Smith. “The tickets were $7.50; they were orchestra tickets — sixth-row aisle seats. His mother made sure he went to the theatre.”

She caught the theatre bug herself as a teenager living in Toronto at Jane and Bloor Sts.

“I went to a school matinee of Brigadoon at the Royal Alex,” she recalls fondly. “I fell in love with it. I was 14 or 15 and it was very romantic. I skipped school the next week and went back.

“Every time someone mounts Brigadoon, I go and see it. But I have never done it.”

Her first job in showbiz was doing group sales for Hair at the Royal Alex in 1970. She had previously worked for the comptroller at Toronto Western Hospital in the internal medicine department.

It is where she met her husband David, the doctor. They have now been together 56 years.

“I got married and had started my family. I answered an ad in the paper for the show Hair,” she recollects.

“I said, ‘I have four kids under 6, I can't come in every day. I could do it at home.' Phone lines were put in my home at Roxborough St. It was my worst nightmare! People think the box office is open 24 hours a day and I was married to a doctor who still did house calls.

“Some guys connected with Hair did Godspell and I did group sales and PR, and I ended up being company manager.”

Her first producing gig was What's a Nice Country Like You Doing in a State Like This? at the Theatre in the Dell. It starred Martin Short, Andrea Martin and Trudy Desmond — and it was a huge hit.

Smith estimates that she has headed upwards of 59 productions.

“I loved doing Godspell and Damn Yankees at the Royal Alex,” she says. “I enjoyed Piaf with Louse Pitre and Cathy Michael McGlynn.”

And of course, Cats.

She initially did Cats at the suggestion of theatre critic Gina Mallet.

“I said, ‘A bunch of humans playing cats? Really? What a weird concept.' But I said ‘OK, but we'd never get The Elgin.' ”

But they did get the storied theatre. So Smith went to New York to get the rights from the formidable Shubert Organization, a theatrical producing company and major owner of theatres in New York City.

“They had never released a show playing on Broadway because they were afraid they would take away their business.”

Somehow she got the rights and the financing, and from there it was theatrical catnip.

Cats came back. Why the homecoming to Toronto?

“I was getting a little bored,” she admits. “And the fact that it is an all-Canadian cast got me interested. There is a huge buzz.”