Co-directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch’s award-winning 2024 Off-Broadway production of Cats: The Jellicle Ball at Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), which imaginatively reinterpreted Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1981 musical theatre classic by placing it in the world of New York’s Ballroom scene, blew me away. It was the talk of the town that summer and remains one of the most thrilling and memorable nights I’ve ever had at the theatre. (You can read my rave review here.) It was therefore with a mix of excitement and trepidation that I took my seat at the Broadhurst Theatre to experience the long-awaited Broadway transfer of the show. It had a lot to live up to.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that not only has this inspired version of Cats retained what made it so special in its move up to 44th Street, but it has in fact been enhanced and elevated at every turn, with its original vision now even sharper. Over the intervening months, every performer, creative and technical department has stepped their pussies up to create musical theatre catnip that deserves to snatch trophies at the Tonys.
Among the reasons for such a successful Broadway transfer is getting the stage and seating configuration just right so that we feel like we are part of the show. The runway is still the focal point of Rachel Hauck’s scenic design that announces a real sense of occasion, while the removal of the front orchestra seats, the creation of on-stage seating and the addition of cabaret tables all contribute to making the house feel genuinely intimate. Levingston and Rauch frequently place cast members close to the audience, including on the floor of the orchestra and mezzanine, with the house remaining at least partially lit as part of Adam Honoré’s immaculate lighting design. It is impossible not to get immediately involved in the action and rather than simply being passive audience members, Cats: The Jellicle Ball warmly invites us in, asking us to be spirited participants. The enthusiastic crowd that I was part of needed very little encouragement. At a Ball, the community reaction to everything happening on the runway is a vital part of the event, and so it is at the Broadhurst Theatre.
As DJ Griddlebone (Ken Ard) gets his LPs in order for the night ahead, he picks up a copy of Beyoncé’s homage to Ballroom culture, Renaissance, before dusting off the original 80s cast recording of Cats and taking it for a spin, leading us into Lloyd Webber’s spine-tinglingly familiar overture with musical direction by William Waldrop. The scene is set for a Ball as we meet T.S. Eliot’s array of idiosyncratic cats, now in human form as predominately Black and Latine LGBTQ+ members of the Ballroom community. They will compete in various cat-egories until the wee hours as they vie for the approval of Old Deuteronomy (André De Shields) who will make his monumental decision about who he will chose to send to the Heavyside Layer to be reborn. Before his arrival, the judges table is filled by two surprise guest judges bringing another layer of pleasure to the proceedings along with a sense of one-night-only uniqueness to each performance. Since the show opened on Broadway, Legendary’s Dashaun Wesley, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Eichner, Lea DeLaria, and Jeremy Pope (one of the show’s producers) have all made appearances.
With over twenty Broadway debuts being made in this production, many cast members are reprising their roles from PAC, including Ballroom Hall of Famer “Tempress” Chasity Moore as Grizabella and the icon and pioneer Junior LaBeija as Gus The Theatre Cat alongside Broadway royalty André De Shields, who celebrated his 80th birthday earlier this year. With gag-worthy casting by Victor Vazquez and Sujotta R. Pace of X Casting, the new additions to the company follow that same blending of experience from the worlds of musical theatre and Ballroom, with Saturday Church stars Bryson Battle and B Noel Thomas among those joining this clowder of kitties alongside the Wonder Woman of Vogue herself, Leiomy Maldonado as Macavity, who not only stuns with her moves but has a magnetic stage presence, bringing an infectious exuberance to the floor.
The result is an explosion of on-stage talent with some breathtaking solo moments—with spectacular scene-mopping moves by Robert “Silk” Mason as Magical Mister Mistoffelees, Baby Byrne as Victoria and Primo Thee Ballerino as Tumblebrutus—as well as exhilarating ensemble movement and transcendent group vocal numbers. Not only is Sydney James Harcourt serving swagger and body-oddy-oddy-oddy for days as Rum Tum Tugger, but he has Elvis-esque smooth vocals to match his heartthrob looks. Jonathan Burke and Dava Huesca make for a great comic pairing as audacious cat burglars with babydoll voices, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, and their duet is a riot.
Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons’ vibrant choreography feels spontaneous and is imbued with individuality tailored to each character and performer who all own what they are doing with every fibre. Their choreography, like the production itself, honors the rich legacy of Ballroom while making it feel immediate, electric, and unpredictable. Revering the Old Way while welcoming in the New. Across the board, the vocals have real clarity and bite, matched by Levingston and Rauch’s precise direction that harnesses the busyness and vibrancy of what’s happening on stage to build momentum and energy, yet still draws our focus to where they want it with ease.
André De Shields’ exquisitely drawn-out and appropriately regal entrance as Old Deuteronomy is pure theatre and had me tingling with pleasure. He captivates with the slightest of gestures and has the audience in the palm of his paws every moment he is on stage. His performance is Broadway history—that will no doubt be talked about for decades to come—being made before our eyes. It feels like a culmination of a legendary 55-year career, and the awe and respect from his fellow cast members, not just for the character but for the man himself, is palpable. That same reverence is coming from the audience too.
As Grizabella, the forgotten and dismissed former House Mother and Glamour Cat who has been living on the streets, “Tempress” Chasity Moore somehow manages take things even deeper and richer than in her acclaimed Off-Broadway portrayal. As talented an actress physically as she is vocally, her storytelling and stagecraft are exceptional and the tone immediately shifts as she makes her first appearance as a diminished figure attempting to sell off a tarnished old trophy. She brings a lifetime of experience to her reading of “Memory”, and its new Ballroom context gives the ballad added poignancy while making its lyrics and melody feel fresh despite it being a perennial musical theatre standard. Moore’s performance is intensely emotional, drawing us in as she captures the character’s pain, resilience and hope in a way that is profoundly affecting. The combination of that emotional potency and her vocal prowess is nothing less than spellbinding. It is an indelible performance. Amidst the fast-paced high jinks and hilarity of much of the rest of the show, Grizabella’s stillness and the stripped back simplicity of the staging is arresting and grounds the whole production.
The musical’s inherent thematic and melodic blend of the high-spirited and uplifting with a tone of mournful nostalgia works particularly well in the Ballroom setting. Junior LaBeija’s standout number as Gus The Theatre Cat is both a lot of fun and deeply touching as he recalls his glory days on the stage to a mix of rapt attention and skepticism from the gathered youth. It is one of several powerful intergenerational scenes that reverberates with Ballroom’s honoring of the past while looking out for the upcoming generation. Every real-life Ball begins with an acknowledgment of who is present in the room, with the MC giving prominent figures their flowers. One of the show’s most powerful moments comes as De Shields as Old Deuteronomy gives a sublime performance of “The Moments of Happiness” accompanied by a stirring video (with projection design by Brittany Bland) that chronicles the origins of Ballroom and culminates in a tribute to the original House Mothers of New York Ballroom.
One of the stars of this production is its wardrobe, Qween Jean’s showstopping costume designs which aren’t only opulent but are filled with intentional, richly meaningful details. Like the patch depicting the face of late Black trans activist, organizer and community leader Miss Major that is sewn onto the denim jacket worn by DJ Griddlebone, alongside a host of trailblazing Black trans and queer ancestors. For the initially disheveled Grizabella, Qween told The Queer Review in our recent interview, that she wanted to acknowledge “the severity of the pain that the character has had to endure”, bringing in “a worn, withered quality” to her look while wanting to “celebrate” that “she’s still attempting to show up every day”. When it comes to her transformation later in the show, when we see Grizabella as the true Glamor Cat she is, Qween delivers one of countless jaw-dropping creations including a ravishing leopard print coat over a dazzling reflective dress, which Qween says signifies a mirror being held up to the audience “which asks, ‘What do you see when you see me?’”
That kind of deep thought and purpose when it comes to Qween’s costume design is evident everywhere on stage, but that doesn’t mean her creations aren’t also a source of outrageous fun. The extravagantly oversized purses that Macavity sports are a blast, and the playful feline elements (look out for a peek of some Hello Kitty underpants, cat ear-tipped headphones, and much more) are a treat. Qween’s costumes are works of art that honor the creativity, passion and audacity of the Ballroom community to bring it to the runway with legendary lewks. Though it is difficult to pick a favorite, the jewel in Qween’s crown is perhaps the golden-headed ancient Egyptian-inspired wonder that brought down the house.
Tony Award-winning hair and wig designer Nikiya Mathis’ exceptional work adds rich character detail while contributing to the vibrancy of the production. DJ Griddlebone 80s-flavored flattop is a thing of beauty, Grizabella’s transformation through her hair alone is breathtaking, while Old Deuteronomy’s majestic mane is a masterpiece.
This version of Cats will likely cut deeper for LGBTQ+ audiences, but “come one come all” isn’t just a tagline, this production offers a welcoming embrace to everyone and is so committed to its purpose that no one witnessing it can fail to be drawn in, moved and uplifted. It doesn’t over-explain what a Ball is, it just throws us right into the midst of one and invites us to join in the fun. The sense of sadness that pierces through proceedings when Grizabella is on stage (T.S. Eliot excluded his poem about her from his 1939 book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats because he thought it was too sad for children) reminds us of the pain in life amidst all the joviality.
The reason Ballroom and its Houses exist is as a refuge from societal stigmatization, familial rejection, racism, transphobia and homophobia, with young Black and Latine LGBTQ+ people forced to find chosen families and to celebrate themselves. Many audience members on Broadway might feel like this is a world away from their own lives or what they are used to seeing on stage, but Cats: The Jellicle Ball doesn’t just humanize its feline characters, it humanizes those who make up the Ballroom community and those who look like them. With this in mind, Old Deuteronomy’s words in “The Ad-Dressing Of Cats”, including “You should need no interpreter / To understand our character” and “A cat’s entitled to expect / These evidences of respect” are profoundly meaningful and moving.
When the Off-Broadway production ran, although there was an alarming amount of anti-LGBTQ legislation being proposed or passed on a state level, the federal administration was vocally supportive of our community. As the Broadway transfer opens, times are very different with a White House and its machinery that is particularly hostile towards trans people, while the Pride flag was summarily removed overnight from the Stonewall National Monument, and the words diversity, equity and inclusion have become taboo. In this context, the unapologetic joy and defiance of this show that celebrates a community that was forged out of being marginalized and maligned, and which captures the vibrant, healing and empowering spirit of Ballroom, is given an added urgency.
This is an electrifying, unmissable theatrical phenomenon that deserves not just to be seen but to be cherished and celebrated. You will be gagged and gooped and moved to your feet. It’s 10s 10s 10s across the board for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway.
By James Kleinmann
Cats: The Jellicle Ball, officially opened on Tuesday, April 7th at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street) and is currently booking through Sunday, September 6th, 2026. For more details and to purchase tickets head to catsthejellicleball.com.
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