The category is…joy.
If Broadway was a ballroom competition, Cats: The Jellicle Ball would sashay away with the grand-prize trophy. Because there’s simply no topping the sheer euphoria onstage at the Broadhurst Theatre. It’s an open-invitation, come-as-you-are party—in the seats, in the aisles, and on West 44th Street afterward. And who couldn’t use a party right now?
This dazzling glitter ball of a revival, directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, first sparkled in summer 2024 at downtown’s Perelman Performing Arts Center and nabbed audiences’ attention—and a pile of awards—with its vision: Cats, but make it ballroom.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical premiered on Broadway in 1982 (and ran until 2000), but New York City ballroom culture—a creative outlet and safe haven for Black and brown LGBTQ+ artists—has even deeper roots, going back to the Harlem Renaissance and hitting its peak in the 1970s. In ALW’s Cats, a litter of mixed-breed felines strut their stuff at an annual event, the Jellicle Ball, to see which one will be reborn. In ballroom, competitors from various houses—read: chosen families—vie for trophies in categories such as Realness, Runway, Face, Vogue, and more. You can see why Levingston and Rauch’s Broadway-ballroom crossbreed concept instantly caught fire. And they can count on theatergoers having some familiarity with the scene, most recently thanks to Ryan Murphy’s 2018–2021 drama series Pose, which featured theater actors including Billy Porter, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez (now in The Rocky Horror Show), and Jeremy Pope (a producer of Cats: The Jellicle Ball).
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★★★☆ review here.]
This Jellicle cast is a terrific, carefully chosen mix of veterans of both worlds. Among them: two-time Tony winner André De Shields—perhaps the only performer who can get away with calling himself a “Broadway deity” in his bio—as the seemingly immortal Old Deuteronomy, resplendent in regal purple velvet and a majestic mane of a wig (and did we spot multiple lion-shaped rings on his fingers?); ballroom legend Junior LaBeija of the House of LaBeija as Gus the Theater Cat, the heart and soul and emotional epicenter of the story; Ken Ard—who originated the role of master criminal cat Macavity in 1982—as DJ Griddlebone, the character who starts the show by opening a Cats LP and releasing a cloud of colorful confetti; ballroom icon “Tempress” Chasity Moore as the faded Grizabella the Glamour Cat, serving the most viscerally moving rendition of “Memory” you might have ever heard (no shade to Betty Buckley).
The moves lean more ballroom than Broadway—Madonna would steal these gestures and poses in a hot minute—but Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons’ choreography features plenty of sinuous feline-esque steps. And if you’ve ever heard a cat described as “liquid,” you have some idea of these performers’ agility. Especially Robert “Silk” Mason, absolutely enchanting as the Magical Mister Mistoffelees.
If we’re handing out trophies, as one does in ballroom, let’s be sure to save one for Nikiya Mathis, whose gravity-defying hair and wig design is both fabulous (see: Skimbleshanks’ tabby-striped wig) and functional, holding up during the fiercest choreography. And another for costume designer Qween Jean. The details are astounding: tone-on-tone tiger stripes; leopard prints galore; a mini Venetian cat carnival mask rendered as a belt buckle; the structured bodysuit worn by Leiomy as Macavity, with an ornamental snarling cat head on her right breast (Schiaparelli could never!). And, of course, feathers and fur at every turn.
Don’t be surprised if you see audience members in animal prints, sequins, and cat-ear headbands. And if you really want to get into the spirit of Cats: The Jellicle Ball, bring a hand fan to clack and pop. As Junior LaBeija says in the pre-show announcement, quoting his iconic line from the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning: “O-P-U-L-E-N-C-E. Opulence. You own everything. Everything is yours.”
Cats: The Jellicle Ball opened April 7, 2026, at the Broadhurst Theatre. Tickets and information: catsthejellicleball.com
