On April 7, Cats: The Jellicle Ball made its debut on Broadway. The show, a musical revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats (1981), was received with positive reviews from fans and critics, scoring nine Tony Award nominations. However, it will soon be making its final bow.
Cats: The Jellicle Ball will make its final performance at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City on Aug. 8. Starring André de Shields as Old Deuteronomy, the show reimagines Webber’s classic musical. Instead of cats in a junkyard, the show finds the cast portraying members of competing houses in an underground LGBTQ+ ballroom scene.
“Three years ago, Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch began the remarkable process of reimagining Cats for a new generation. They assembled a visionary creative team that fused their passions for Ballroom and theatre to create something thrillingly new,” Michael Harrison and Mike Bosner said in a statement obtained by Parade. “With a truly superhuman cast bringing this vision to life, New York has once again discovered the phenomenon that has become Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats: The Jellicle Ball.”
Harrison and Bosner continued, “The joy that radiates from the stage each night is unlike anything we’ve experienced in our careers. It has been a true honor to help bring Ballroom to Broadway.”
Since the show previously premiered at Off-Broadway’s Perelman Performing Arts Center, fans quickly took to Playbill’s Instagram to suggest that the show return there.
“Ok, if there is any show we need to rally behind to try to save it from closing, it’s this one,” one user commented.
Cats: The Jellicle Ball won three of the nine Tony Awards it was nominated for this year. The production won for Best Choreography, Best Direction of a Musical, and Costume Design of a Musical. New York Theatre Guide said that the new take on the musical “imbues the show with care, pathos, drama, starlight, and explosive jubilation.”
Tickets for Cats: The Jellicle Ball are on sale now through Aug. 8 via Broadway.com.