By Matthew Wexler
Cats was never subtle. When it opened on Broadway in 1982, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s feline junkyard musical (based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats) brought a new level of maximalism to the stage. But as the kitties say from the get-go in a wildly inventive reimagining, “This is a ball, darling!”
With a dip and a fan clack, co-directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch catapult Cats into the world of ballroom with the kind of unrelenting, fierce attitude that shakes the dust from the Broadhurst Theatre’s rafters.
Category is: radical queer joy
“For me, the spectacle of this production is humanity,” Levingston said of Cats: The Jellicle Ball when it premiered Off-Broadway at PAC NYC in 2024. The Broadway transfer amplifies the sentiment, incorporating a montage of historical photos from New York City’s ballroom scene and LGBTQ+ nightlife.
But Cats: The Jellicle Ball isn’t merely a loosely conceived concept. Co-choreographers Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, and the fiercest costumes of the season by Qween Jean, create a world of radical queer joy.
The cast—including Tony winner André De Shields (Old Deuteronomy), ballroom legends Junior LaBeija (Gus, the “theater cat”) and “Tempress” Chasity Moore (Grizabella), and a clowder of powerhouse singers and dancers—invite the audience into their sequin- and faux-fur competition, where everyone gets tens across the board.
Does this Cats make more sense than the original? Mostly. Cat burglars Mungojerrie (Jonathan Burke) and Rumpleteazer (Dava Huesca) are now from Victoria Grove, New Jersey, and Skimbleshanks (a scene-stealing Emma Sofia) is now your bilingual MTA operator. But we can’t fully escape Eliot’s original London locale.
Similarly, Moore’s Grizabella may resonate more with those who know the Ballroom hall of famer’s real-life story, despite scenic designer Rachel Hauck’s smartly conceived ascent to the Heaviside Layer.
Still, this is a Cats worth clawing for tickets over, and proof positive that Broadway can still turn a lewk.
Is ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ worth seeing?
4 out of 5 stars
A ballroom-world reimagining of Cats that earns its swagger: fierce, joyful, and nearly everything it wants to be.
- Broadhurst Theatre, 235 West 44th Street, New York City
- Notable performers: André De Shields, “Tempress” Chasity Moore, Junior LaBeija, Emma Sofia, Jonathan Burke, Dava Huesca
- Running time: Two hours and 25 minutes, including one intermission
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