From Ballroom to Broadway: How ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ Defied the Odds
Few musicals possess the resilience of Cats. After transitioning from the West End to Broadway and eventually to film, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic production has found a new, vibrant lease on life. The latest iteration, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, has captured lightning in a bottle, earning nine Tony Award nominations by trading traditional feline prosthetics for the high-octane energy of Harlem’s ballroom scene.
This bold reimagining, rooted in T.S. Eliot’s original poetry, sheds the dated makeup to celebrate a subculture that is inherently theatrical. When the show debuted off-Broadway at PAC NYC in 2024, co-director Zhailon Levingston expressed a deep-seated desire to see the work reach a broader, queer-led audience. Today, that vision is a Broadway reality, with sold-out performances at the Broadhurst Theatre.
We sat down with co-director Bill Rauch to discuss the two-decade journey of bringing this vision to fruition, the hard-hat tours of construction sites with Andrew Lloyd Webber, and the creative friction that ultimately sharpened the show’s identity.
The Genesis of a Vision
Rauch recalls his first encounter with the original musical in the late 90s, where he found himself transfixed by the tragedy of Grizabella. “I began to imagine a queer context for the story—what if Grizabella were an older gay man performing ‘Memory’ in a bar? It felt like a story about how our culture fetishizes youth and beauty,” he shares. For years, the idea remained a dream, hampered by the belief that the rights would be impossible to secure.
The path forward opened when Rauch took the helm at PAC NYC. Challenged by the board to present a familiar title he felt passionate about, he revisited the libretto. “It was a lightning-bolt moment,” he explains. “The text constantly references an annual competition. It wasn’t meant for a bar; it was meant for a ball.”
Navigating the Path to Broadway
The road to approval was long and complex, involving multiple workshops and intense collaboration with gender consultant Josephine Kearns and ballroom icon Omari Wiles. When it came to the music, Rauch hit a wall with Lloyd Webber’s team, who were understandably protective of the score. The breakthrough arrived during a two-day retreat in London.
“It was a compromise that became a gift,” Rauch notes. “We decided to keep the original music but only utilize it when characters were in active competition on the runway. It was a major dramaturgical shift that turned a restriction into the very foundation of the show’s success.”
A Celebration of Identity
For Rauch, the heart of this production is not just the spectacle, but the resonance of the material. “The story deals heavily with names—secret names and the respect afforded to those who speak their truth. For the trans and nonbinary communities, and in a broader sense, this is a story about the strength found in self-expression and identity.”
As the production continues its successful Broadway run, Rauch remains focused on the impact of the show’s existence. “Reclaiming these classics through a queer lens isn’t just about entertainment; it’s an act of cultural importance,” he says. “Great art is born from limitations, and in this case, we found a way to honor the past while defining our own future.”
