‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ Broadway Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Musical Gets Fresh and Fierce Update as an Ode to Queer Ballroom Culture
Why it matters: This production offers a vibrant cultural reinterpretation of a classic musical, bringing queer ballroom culture to a mainstream Broadway audience.
- 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' is a refreshed Broadway production that transforms Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical into an ode to queer ballroom culture, drawing parallels to 'Paris Is Burning' and 'Pose'.
- The production reimagines the music, choreography, design, and characters, with the score rearranged to reflect the percussive and synthesized heart of house music by Lloyd Webber and David Wilson, under William Waldrop's supervision.
- The show's concept is rooted in the real-life resilience of drag houses, which provided safety, acceptance, and glamour for queer predecessors who faced racism, poverty, and discrimination, giving the thin narrative a profound human dimension.
- DJ Jen Ard initiates the show by reverently placing the original 'Cats' cast album on a turntable, signaling the blend of familiar tunes with a new, live sound that sweeps over the theater.
Broadway's 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' reinvents Andrew Lloyd Webber's classic musical by transposing it into the vibrant world of Harlem's Black and Latino queer ballroom culture, offering a fresh, fierce, and deeply human update. This reimagining celebrates transformation, community, and defiance, setting the original kitty-littered junkyard in a magnificent industrial ballroom designed by Rachel Hauck.
