Faaaaabulous is too drab a word, really, to describe the mad, kaleidoscopic experience that awaits at Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Opening on Tuesday at the Broadhurst Theatre, following extended prowls downtown at PAC NYC, which developed this spectacle, Cats: The Jellicle Ball is an audacious reimagining of the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber-T.S. Eliot musical salute to cute kitties.
Just don’t expect Cats. Instead, The Jellicle Ball version delivers a gala series of dance and glamour competitions among various drag artistes, who render the musical’s sung-through score pretty much in its original order. A dynamic 24-member ensemble sings, dances up a storm and strikes poses as LGBTQ+ individuals immersed in what’s known as the ballroom scene. With their sexy attitudes and astonishing couture based upon Cats prototypes like Macavity and Bustopher Jones, they compete for trophies in specific categories such as “Virgin Vogue” for newbies and “Realness” for the identities they project.
A queer performance concept rather than an actual rewrite of Cats, scarce detail about ballroom culture is provided other than visually in the show directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch. Evidently, the makers expect viewers to have some notion in advance of the Paris Is Burning-type milieu their staging represents. At the top of the second act, sepia images show key individuals and festivities associated with ballroom history, but one wonders what clueless spectators will make of them in future weeks should the ultra-queer crowd wane. God help any busload of fundie tourists who get booked into this event by mistake, although the show’s pansexual doings are not so terribly naughty. Inserting an explanatory page about the culture and its competitive rules into the Playbill would be helpful and provide reading material during the 20-minute intermissions. At a preview last week, a very dressy crowd stressed the bathroom and concession facilities.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★★ review here.]
Throughout the show, spectators are encouraged to express themselves, be it vocally or clapping along or by snapping the large fans distributed gratis outside the theater by the management. Inside, the Broadhurst has been revamped somewhat to suggest the dance halls such drag competitions often use. Always a strategic scenic designer, Rachel Hauck projects a short runway beyond the lip of the proscenium, behind which 80 spectators sit in stadium tiers affording them a special view of everybody else whooping it up (or maybe not) in the orchestra and mezzanine sections.
The auditorium appears untouched otherwise, unlike the environmental décor enhancing Moulin Rouge on Broadway. Up on the stage, night-clubby velvet ropes, fringe curtains, a large, underutilized projection screen at center and a delightfully unexpected way for Grizabella to ascend to her final reward (no spoiler here!) further mark Hauck’s environs. Illuminated by pinpoint shafts and sharp beams of colorful lighting – such myriad shades of magenta! – by designer Adam Honoré , the show is ramped up even more by the loud sound design by Kai Harada. Often it is hard to know who is singing. Most of the lyrics drown in the rich orchestral mix, anyway.
That’s okay because there is little need to comprehend words to appreciate the glitter box of mad visuals created by the designers, choreographers and directors. Amid the many distractions of this gorgeous chaos, the key actors’ pantomimed actions generally convey the musical’s essential dramatic arc regarding a shabby glamour puss who manages to enjoy a final triumph at the ball. Lloyd Webber’s ever-vibrant score, performed by an unseen 12-musician orchestra, packs a rhythmic collection of exuberant numbers powerfully culminating in the evergreen “Memory.”
Of course, dancing is integral to The Jellicle Ball and choreographers Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons unleash the ensemble through frequently high-flying combinations of social, club, showbiz, hip-hop, ballet, sensual, acrobatic and feline-characteristic movement. Watching all that, bow down to Qween Jean, the costume designer who dreamed up a wildly catty mélange of vivid colors, prints, fabrics, textures, shapes, fashions, styles, uniforms, silhouettes, accessories, footgear and chapeaux to be worn by dancers who rarely cease moving. The stunning hair/wig creations by Nikiya Mathis and makeup design by Rania Zohny contribute to some gasp-making looks. It’s a pretty glossy production when some grittiness might lend these matters more authenticity, but let’s not quibble subtleties.
Several artists provide tons of authority. A very grand Old Deuteronomy as regally depicted by André De Shields lords over the proceedings like Louis the Fourteenth, who he curiously resembles in his voluminous tresses and purple military garb. Dudney Joseph Jr. is a hearty presence as Munkustrap, the emcee who keeps the ball rolling, as does Ken Ard (a veteran of the Broadway original) whose Griddlebone is an ever-energetic force. A quietly touching, sweetly humorous figure as Gus, the theatre cat, is Junior LaBeija, an iconic pioneer of the ballroom scene. The Grizabella created and sung very well here by “Tempress” Chasity Moore evokes all those bleary dames who lived along the back streets of 1940s detective flicks.
Unable to cite everyone in the enthusiastic company, let’s briefly note how Sydney James Harcourt’s sizzling Rum Tum Tugger is a major crowd-pleaser, Emma Sofia’s sleek Skimbleshanks is quite a saucy authority figure and probably there’s a blazing star of tomorrow glowing among the corps who goes unmentioned here. It appears to me that Cats: The Jellicle Ball may become one of those legendary Broadway shows that someday you will tell others you were lucky enough to see.
Cats: The Jellicle Ball opened April 7, 2026 at the Broadhurst Theatre. Tickets and information: catsthejellicleball.com
