A "radical reimagining" of Cats, directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch and choreographed by Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles, premiered in New York City at the Perelman Arts Center (PAC NYC) in June 2024 under the name Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Produced by arrangement with the Really Useful Group, it was stylistically a departure from the original London and Broadway Production staging. This production reframes the musical through the lens of ballroom culture, popular in African-American and Latino LGBTQ+ communities in cities such as New York. The titular Jellicle Ball thus becomes a drag ball, something that came into prominance around when the show opened on Broadway in 1982.
Besides using new choreography and direction, the production foregoes depicting the characters as cats, though without changing the libretto. It also uses new arrangements of Andrew Lloyd Webber's score by William Waldrop, emphasizing synthesizers.
Popular interest in the show began to form with the release of a rehearsal video of the cast performing "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats" in May 2024, demonstrating Lyons and Wiles' ballroom-inspired choreography complete with voguing.[1] The production began previews on 13th June 2024 and opened on 20th June 2024. The production was extended three times, with a final closing date of 8th September 2024.
Development Background[]
Cats: The Jellicle Ball is considered part of a trend of recent attempts to reimagine Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals, such as the revival of Sunset Boulevard directed by Jamie Lloyd. Zhailon Levingston, the show's co-director, had been introduced to Cats from watching the 1998 recording as a child. During the pandemic, he and his roommate were thinking of potential post-lockdown projects and played with the idea of a production of Cats where the characters were "cats" in an "older, slangy sense".[1] Levingston felt that there was an "inherent queerness" to Cats in that the musical, despite a commercial hit, had always existed in an unconventional and experimental space, and he wished to see a production that exemplified that.[2]
Bill Rauch, the artistic director of PAC NYC, had coincidentally also been considering a production of Cats through a queer lens: namely, he imagined a production where Grizabella was portrayed by an older gay man, singing "Memory" alone in a gay bar. As he spent more time with the material, however, he realized "that of course it's not a bar. It's a ball."[1] Rauch brought on Josephine Kearns as dramaturg and gender consultant, alongside Omari Wiles. Wiles has extensive background in ballroom and was already known for his vogue dancing and choreography: he was immediately intrigued by Rauch's concept, and could see all the connections within the Cats text that could be applied to ballroom.[2] Wiles brought on fellow ballroom performer Arturo Lyons as a co-choreographer, feeling it was important to feature representation of different dance styles. Levingston caught wind of Rauch's plans and directly asked to join as a co-director during a Zoom meeting, to which Rauch quickly agreed.[1]
Rauch and Levingston eventually jettisoned the original idea of Grizabella as a gay man, as well as the central concept of competing to ascend to the Heaviside Layer originally conceived by Trevor Nunn over 40 years prior. Instead, the characters are competing for ballroom glory. The directors found the concept connected with the lyrics, such as the cats being described as "queens of the night" who "come out tonight" for the ball. This allowed them to include some ballroom references but otherwise not cut or replace any material from the musical.[1]
As with other productions of Cats, casting was a difficult process due to the inherent physical and vocal demands of the musical, complicated moreso by the production's added element of ballroom which the team acknowledged could easily be fumbled by musical theater performers. During the audition process, some auditioners misread the term "ballroom" as "ballroom dance" and prepared material accordingly. The final cast includes a mix of musical theater artists and ballroom performers: Tony winner André de Shields performs as Old Deuteronomy, while Gus the Theater Cat is portrayed by Junior Labeija of Paris is Burning fame.[1] Lyons and Wiles later mused on The Wrong Cat Died Podcast that for every one rehearsal the ballroom-trained dancers needed, the musical theater dancers needed two.
Ballroom dancer Chasity Moore, who was eventually cast as Grizabella, was initially concerned that the show risked veering into cultural appropriation territory, but came to appreciate the production's metaphor for her character: an icon of the old ballroom scene who comes back only to find herself isolated from the community due to her lost youth.[1]
Andrew Lloyd Webber made a public statement on the production, commenting "Cats and Ballroom culture both emerged in the same era and I am delighted that, all these years later, they are intersecting once again."[3]
Cast[]
| Character | June 2024 | August 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Bombalurina | Garnet Williams | |
| Bustopher Jones | Nora Schell | |
| Cassandra / Skimbleshanks | Emma Sofia | |
| Demeter | Bebe Nicole Simpson | |
| Electra | Kendall Grayson Stroud | |
| Grizabella | “Tempress” Chasity Moore | |
| Gus | Junior LaBeija | |
| Jellylorum | Shereen Pimentel | Jenny Mollet |
| Jennyanydots | Xavier Reyes | |
| Macavity | Antwayn Hopper | Rodrick Covington |
| Mistoffelees | Robert “Silk” Mason | |
| Mungojerrie | Jonathan Burke (Fight Captain) | |
| Munkustrap | Dudney Joseph Jr. | |
| Old Deuteronomy | André De Shields | |
| Rum Tum Tugger | Sydney James Harcourt | |
| Rumpleteazer | Dava Huesca | |
| Sillabub | Teddy Wilson Jr. | |
| Tumblebrutus | Primo | |
| Victoria | Baby Byrne (Dance Captain) | |
| DJ | Capital Kaos | |
| Booth/Police Officer/Server/Understudy | Tara Lashan Clinkscales | |
| Booth/Police Officer/Server/Understudy | Bryce Farris | |
| Booth/Police Officer/Server/Understudy | Phumzile Sojola | |
| Booth/Police Officer/Server/Understudy | Shelby Griswold | |
| Booth/Police Officer/Server/Understudy | Dominique Lee | |
| Booth/Understudy | Frank Viveros | |
| Understudy | Ivy Mugler | |
| Understudy | Zachary A. Myers | |
| Understudy | Kai B. White | |
| Ensemble | Jovan E'Sean | |
| Ensemble | Kendall Grayson Stroud | |
Covers
- Baby Byrne covers Jennyanydots (extension) and Skimbleshanks.
- Kendall Grayson Stroud covers Jennyanydots, Mungojerrie, Rum Tum Tugger, and Sillabub.
- Garnet Williams covers Bustopher Jones, Grizabella, Jellylorum, and Sillabub's vocals.
- Shelby Griswold covers Demeter, Electra, and Victoria, as well as Sillabub's vocals.
- Tara Lashan Clinkscales covers Bombalurina, Demeter (extension), Jellylorum, and Rumpleteazer.
- Bryce Farris covers Electra (extension), Mungojerrie (extension), Mistoffelees (extension), Sillabub, and Tumblebrutus.
- Dominique Lee covers DJ, Macavity, Mistoffelees, and Tumblebrutus.
- Phumzile Sojola covers Gus, Munkustrap, and Old Deuteronomy.
- Jovan E'Sean covers Booth Singer/Police Officer/Server (extension), Macavity (extension), Old Deuteronomy (extension), and Rum Tum Tugger (extension).
- Dava Huesca covers Victoria (extension).
- Ivy Mugler covers Electra, Rumpleteazer, Skimbleshanks, Tumblebrutus, and Victoria.
- Zachary A. Myers covers DJ, Grizabella, Gus, and Sillabub.
- Primo covers Macavity and Mistoffelees.
- Nora Schell covers Munkustrap.
- Kai B. White covers Bombalurina (extension), Booth Singer/Police Officer/Server (extension), Bustopher Jones (extension), and Demeter (extension).
Gallery[]
_PAC_NYC.jpg "Rum Tum Tugger (Sydney James Harcourt) PAC NYC.jpg (213 KB)")
_PAC_NYC.jpg "Old Deuteronomy (André De Shields) PAC NYC.jpg (204 KB)")
Discussion[]
Though the production is an intentional creative departure from the original West End and Broadway stagings, it frequently echoes elements of those productions for nostalgic purposes: the production begins with the DJ uncovering a record of the original cast recording, and a program from the Broadway production is used as a prop during "Gus: The Theatre Cat". The cat's eye logo used to market the original production is projected at the start of the overture, followed by a projection of a dancer in silhouette performing some of Gillian Lynne's original choreography and ostensibly wearing a costume from the original production, only to gradually shed the costume and begin voguing in a symbolic transition into the production's new take on the material. Lyons' and Wiles' choreography also includes occasional references to Lynne's choreography: for example, while Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer perform new choreography for their titular song, Victoria and Tumblebrutus (who are competing with the pair during a "Tag Team" contest) perform the tandem cartwheel from the song's original choreography.
Additionally, the musical's ballroom setting leaves room for some solo improvisation by the performers during the competition scenes, with some performers changing their movements at different performances. Uniquely, this allowed covers for the different roles to add their own movement choices differing from the principal performer: Baby Byrne includes a headstand in her performance of "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat", while Primo incorporates Mr. Mistoffelees' conjuring turns from the original choreography.[4]
Unlike many non-replica productions, The Jellicle Ball changes much of the story to fit its theming. Being set during a Ballroom competition, most of the songs becomes less about highlighting an individual cat to be chosen for the Heaviside Layer, and more used to showcase the individual categories, and why certain cats end up winning or losing those categories. "The Old Gumbie Cat" is for the category "Virgin Vogue", "The Rum Tum Tugger" is for the category "Realness", Bustopher Jones is for the category "Body", Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer is for the category "Tag Team", "The Jellicle Ball" is for several categories, including "Up in Pumps", "Hand Performance", "Old Way" and "Bizarre", "Gus: The Theatre Cat" is for "Opulence", "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat" is for "Old Way vs. New Way", "Macavity: The Mystery Cat" is for the category "Labels", and Mr. Mistoffelees is for the category "Runway". Rather than kidnapping Old Deuteronomy, Macavity is discovered to have stolen his, Demeter, and Bombalurina's costumes from the store, and is tracked to the Russell Hotel by the police; Old Deuteronomy makes the three give up the clothing, and when the police arrive he elects to take the blame in order to protect the rest of the performers.