Review Roundup: CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL Opens On Broadway

CATS: The Jellicle Ball has officially brought its runway to Broadway! The musical revival opens tonight Broadhurst Theatre. Did the critics have a ball at this innovative new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical classic? Find out in our review roundup!

CATS: The Jellicle Ball, is directed by OBIE Award winners Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch and choreographed by Chita Rivera Award winners and New York City Ballroom icons Omari Wiles (House of NiNa Oricci) and Arturo Lyons (House of Miyake-Mugler). CATS: The Jellicle Ball has music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and is based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot. 

The Broadway cast includes Tony Award® and Grammy Award® winner André De Shields as ‘Old Deuteronomy,’ Ken Ard as ‘DJ Griddlebone,’ Kya Azeen as ‘Etcetera,’ Bryson Battle as ‘Jellylorum,’ Sherrod T. Brown, Jonathan Burke as ‘Mungojerrie,’ Baby Byrne as ‘Victoria,’ Tara Lashan Clinkscales, Bryce Farris, Sydney James Harcourt as ‘Rum Tum Tugger,’ Dava Huesca as ‘Rumpleteazer,’ Dudney Joseph Jr. as ‘Munkustrap,’ Junior LaBeija as ‘Gus,’ Leiomy as ‘Macavity,’ Robert “Silk” Mason as ‘Magical Mister Mistoffelees,’ “Tempress” Chasity Moore  as ‘Grizabella,’ Primo Thee Ballerino as ‘Tumblebrutus,’ Xavier Reyes as ‘Jennyanydots,’ Nora Schell as ‘Bustopher Jones,’ Bebe Nicole Simpson as ‘Demeter,’ Emma Sofia as Cassandra’/’Skimbleshanks,’ Phumzile Sojola, Kendall Grayson Stroud, B. Noel Thomas, Kalyn West, Donté Nadir Wilder, Garnet Williams as ‘Bombalurina, and Teddy Wilson Jr. as ‘Sillabub.’

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s worldwide phenomenon CATS is reimagined in a production that smashed records, won awards, and left New York City purring. And now CATS: The Jellicle Ball ascends to Broadway in a kaleidoscope of glittering spectacle, iconic music, and electrifying ballroom choreography.

Helen Shaw, The New York Times: *CRITIC'S PICK* For the 40 or so minutes before it comes fully into itself, “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” is merely wonderful. The theme is: Youth. The category is: Fabulous. The directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, along with the dramaturg Josephine Kearns and the choreographer Omari Wiles, have revived and reappraised (not to say rescued) Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1981 musical, “Cats,” by shifting it out of the wasteland of London’s alleyways and into New York’s queer ballroom scene.

Frank Rizzo, Variety: In Rachel Hauck’s magnificent design of an industrial space repurposed as a makeshift ballroom, a catwalk extends from center stage into the orchestra (and shortened from its previous run to accommodate Broadway balcony sight lines.) But the vibrancy and hearts of these characters whose new identities and senses of self are on the line is just as thrilling.

Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: It seemed as though the show had been condemned to obsolescence, humbled and disavowed like its own once-grand Grizabella the Glamour Cat. But now along comes a thrilling reconception that not only rescues Cats from the oversize junkyard but lifts it, like Grizabella herself, to unexpected heights. After an already-legendary Off Broadway debut at the Perelman Arts Center in 2024, this production—under the chosen name Cats: The Jellicle Ball–has now re-inhabited Broadway, where it remains a categorical triumph.

Melissa Rose Bernardo, New York Stage Review: If Broadway was a ballroom competition, Cats: The Jellicle Ball would sashay away with the grand-prize trophy. Because there’s simply no topping the sheer euphoria onstage at the Broadhurst Theatre. It’s an open-invitation, come-as-you-are party—in the seats, in the aisles, and on West 44th Street afterward. And who couldn’t use a party right now?

Michael Sommers, New York Stage Review: 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.

Johnny Oleksinki, The New York Post: Without fail, the best Broadway shows are the off-the-charts inventive ones that could not have possibly originated anywhere else but the five boroughs. This season, that’s “The Jellicle Ball.”

Richard Lawson, The Guardian: It was my viewing partner’s first time seeing any version of the show, and it sits perfectly well with me that the Jellicle Ball will forever be his Cats. It is a mighty testament to what is possible when producers look past the traditional scope of Broadway and bring in fresh talent to widen the aperture of commercial theater’s gaze. What those outsiders have achieved with The Jellicle Ball is a revival in the fullest sense of the word.

Dan Rubins, Slant Magazine: Cats: The Jellicle Ball radiates, too, in its particular interest in honoring queer elders. That’s baked into this version of the story, with projections of real founding house mothers from the ballroom scene that includes the fictional Grizabella and her own House of Glamour. Her legacy, Old Deutronomy reminds the next generation, must be venerated. And that extends to the presence of de Shields and LaBeija, meta-theatrically embodying living history in both their on-stage relationships and off-stage bios. There’s a generous spirit here, one that Nunn and Lloyd Webber didn’t quite conceive of

Patrick Ryan, USA Today: “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” is overflowing with so much unbridled joy that you may sometimes catch yourself shedding tears, for no other reason than you simply don’t want it to end. It’s a transcendent, glitter-drenched revival that breaks all the rules of what Broadway can be – and in turn, creates something that is utterly extraordinary.

Jackson McHenry, Vulture : But to The Jellicle Ball’s credit, that tension is also fundamentally what the show is about, more so than just singing cats. And that is a great subject for a musical. As in the original, we spend much of the production watching the fate of Grizabella, the once-fabulous Glamour Cat now sidelined and made to pace the side of the stage. Here, played by “Tempress” Chasity Moore, initially with a busted face of makeup, Grizabella is a former house mother whom the other cats offer passing respect and pity but are unable to give much help. That is, however, until she is recognized by a newbie and given her chance to return to the stage, delivering The Jellicle Ball’s most extravagant ballroom-plus-Broadway moment as she belts “Memory” full-out: key change! Costume change! A fusillade of spotlights! The gesture is sentimental, showy, and, in all its glitz, moving in a way that haunts me. The terms may be compromised, and the moment may be brief. But given any kind of stage, some talent, and enough attitude, a person can transform into whatever real thing they want to be.

Brian Scott Lipton, Cititour: Admittedly, there are moments when this eye-and-ear-popping production lives up to the idea that too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing. And even at the end of this lengthy extravaganza, you may still not really understand what a “jellicle cat” is! But really, who cares? You’ll still have a wonderful memory to hold onto!

Thom Geier, Culture Sauce: How times have changed. The ballroom kitties now elicit whoops and the audible opening of fans from theatergoers who no longer have to be dragged to cross-dressing performances. Cats itself remains a lightweight bit of fluff and most of the large cast blends together into an indistinguishable clutter of furry limbs and puffed-out wigs. But there’s no denying how much fun this production is – and how even a flawed show can find a path to rebirth via Eliot’s vaunted Heaviside Layer. These old cats might just have a tenth life in them after all.

Kyle Turner, New York Theatre Guide : Cats: The Jellicle Ball’s nervy fun, total sincerity, and embrace of over-the-top theatricality are already reason enough for the curious cat to check it out. But that it turns Cats into an electrifying community that audiences get to join makes The Jellicle Ball the must-see show of this or any season, and the bar against which revivals of canon shows should be measured against.

Juan A. Ramirez, Theatrely: Under William Waldrop’s musical direction and supervision, a perfectly modulated band blasts Webber’s score (re-orchestrated to perfection by Webber and David Wilson, with some skillful help from beats arranger Trevor Holder) while never overwhelming the performers. And the already perfectly ostentatious costumes by Qween Jean have gotten a welcome upgrade for Broadway—over 500 looks, each as breathtaking as the last.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: That’s the production that’s opening tonight at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theater. Its transfer to Broadway from downtown makes it a different experience, given the symbolic importance of the Great White Way. But the new venue also makes it a different experience in more practical ways, for better and for worse.

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: They’re unleashing quite the Broadway bacchanal in a space that provides a warmer and, surprisingly, far more intimate setting for their Jellicle Ball, now amped up, tuned up and ready to give queer ballroom fans their summer in the sun. At the same time, though, this wildly entertaining show is skillfully and inclusively calibrated to offer Mr. and Ms. America a just-edgy-enough experience while sweetly comforting them with every last note of those catchy Lloyd Webber tunes from, gulp, 45 years ago.

Average Rating: 90.6%