Cats, Reborn as a Ballroom Spectacle, Pads Onto Broadway on April 7

Kendall Grayson Stroud. Courtesy Photo

Cats, Reborn as a Ballroom Spectacle, Sets Its Sights on Broadway

‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ — the voguing, glitter-drenched reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical that became a downtown sensation — arrives at the Broadhurst Theatre this spring with a cast led by André De Shields and ballroom icon Leiomy, aiming to turn a cult hit into a commercial landmark.

The ballroom-infused revival “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” which became a downtown sensation at the Perelman Performing Arts Center, has finalized its Broadway lineup — one that pointedly merges musical-theater veterans with stars of New York’s ballroom and LGBTQIA+ communities. 

The production begins previews on March 18 ahead of an April 7 opening at the Broadhurst Theater, where it will test whether the radical reinvention that packed houses and collected awards in Lower Manhattan can purr as loudly in the commercial heart of Broadway.

A cult hit moves uptown

First seen in 2024 at PAC NYC, the reimagined “Cats” — framed as an exuberant, late-night ball that folds voguing, drag-pageant flair and house culture into Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score — quickly became a must-see event, extending multiple times and collecting prizes from bodies including the Outer Critics Circle, the Obies and GALECA’s Dorian Theater Awards. The Off Broadway run earned accolades for both its kinetic ballroom choreography and its recalibration of T.S. Eliot’s feline anthology into a celebration of queer resilience and chosen family.

At the Broadhurst, producers Michael Harrison and Mike Bosner are betting that the show’s mix of nostalgia and subculture glamour — “Broadway meets runway,” as the marketing has it — will appeal to traditional theatergoers and a newer, younger audience that may know “Cats” more from memes than from memory.

Casting: from Macavity to “Wonder Woman of Vogue”

The Broadway company will feature a blend of returning cast members and new “Jellicles,” led by André De Shields, a Tony and Grammy winner, as the dignified Old Deuteronomy. De Shields, whose performance Off Broadway helped earn the production a Dorian Award for Outstanding Featured Performance in an Off-Broadway Production, again presides over the night’s ritual of selection.

Among the newly announced cast members is Ken Ard, who originated Macavity in the 1982 Broadway “Cats” and now returns as DJ Griddlebone after a 25-year absence from the Broadway stage, creating an intergenerational bridge between the show’s original megamusical incarnation and its ballroom makeover. Leiomy Maldonado, the “Wonder Woman of Vogue” and a judge on HBO’s “Legendary,” joins as Macavity, an emblematic piece of casting that puts a ballroom icon at the center of Lloyd Webber’s feline rogue gallery.

Other new additions include Kya Azeen, of FX’s “Pose,” as Etcetera; Bryson Battle, a Season 26 finalist on NBC’s “The Voice,” as Jellylorum; the performers Sherrod T. Brown and Bryce Farris, both swings with deep commercial and concert-dance résumés; Phumzile Sojola, who has appeared in “Cinderella” and “The Phantom of the Opera”; Kendall Grayson Stroud, B. Noel Thomas, Kalyn West and Donté Nadir Wilder, several of whom are making their Broadway debuts.

They join a returning ensemble that includes Jonathan Burke as Mungojerrie, Baby Byrne as Victoria, Sydney James Harcourt as Rum Tum Tugger, Dava Huesca as Rumpleteazer, Dudney Joseph Jr. as Munkustrap, Junior LaBeija as Gus the Theatre Cat, Robert “Silk” Mason as the Magical Mister Mistoffelees, “Tempress” Chasity Moore as Grizabella, and others stepping back into roles they originated at PAC NYC.

Key company snapshot

Role / Function – Artist – Notable background

Old Deuteronomy – André De Shields – Tony and 

Grammy winner, honored for the Off-Broadway run.

DJ Griddlebone – Ken Ard – Original 1982 Broadway “Cats” cast; returns to Broadway after 25 years.

Macavity – Leiomy – Ballroom icon, HBO’s “Legendary” judge, dubbed “Wonder Woman of Vogue.”

Etcetera – Kya Azeen – Bronx-born performer, seen on FX’s “Pose.”

Jellylorum – Bryson Battle – Season 26 Top 8 finalist on NBC’s “The Voice.”

Choreography – Omari Wiles & Arturo Lyons – Chita Rivera Award winners, leaders in the New York ballroom scene.

Direction – Zhailon Levingston & Bill Rauch – Obie-winning directors of the PAC NYC production.

Ballroom on a megamusical scale

Directed by the Obie winners Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, with choreography by Omari Wiles (House of NiNa Oricci) and Arturo Lyons (House of Miyake-Mugler), the Broadway transfer retains the creative brain trust that turned the Perelman production into a showcase for vogue, runway, and house styles. The design team, many of whom are returning, includes the Tony winner Rachel Hauck (sets), Qween Jean (costumes), Adam Honoré (lighting), Kai Harada (sound), Brittany Bland (projections) and Nikiya Mathis (hair and wigs), underscoring the show’s commitment to a visual language rooted as much in ballroom pageantry as in traditional Broadway spectacle.

The result, as one New York Times review put it during the downtown run, was “a lightning strike that sets joy free,” a sense of exuberance that producers clearly hope to reproduce for a larger house and a more tourist-heavy crowd. With its club-like atmosphere, the revival leans into the score’s pop and synth textures while reframing the Jellicle Ball as a joyous, defiant gathering where queer and trans performers are explicitly centered rather than coded.

Building new audiences, on purpose

Beyond casting, the Broadway production is formalizing its relationship with the communities that helped shape it, announcing a partnership with TDF that will create a special membership category and a dedicated ticket allocation for LGBTQIA+, ballroom, and other historically underrepresented audiences. That initiative builds on TDF’s long-standing work to reduce financial and access barriers to theatergoing, including its discount ticket booths, membership program,s and accessibility offerings.

For a commercial revival of “Cats” — one of Broadway’s most ubiquitous titles — such a targeted outreach strategy signals an attempt to shift who feels the show is “for,” positioning this version less as a family tourist staple and more as a party where newcomers, particularly queer and trans New Yorkers of color, can see themselves reflected onstage. It also aligns with a broader, if uneven, movement in the theater industry to reckon with representation not just in creative teams and casts, but in who fills the seats.

A familiar title, a different promise

Still present are the ingredients that turned “Cats” into a global juggernaut: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit-laden score, characters drawn from T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” and the premise of a mystical, moonlit gathering where one feline is chosen for a new life. What has changed, in this staging, is the frame: the Jellicle Ball as an explicitly queer, ballroom-rooted celebration where categories, identities, and genres blur in real time.

If the PAC NYC run suggested that this hybrid could be, in the words of one critic, “the most exhilarating fun that can be had in the theater,” the Broadway transfer will test whether that electricity can be sustained in a bigger, higher-stakes environment. 

For the moment, the producers seem confident: tickets are on sale through Telecharge, and the Broadhurst is readying itself for a spring in which the cats, once again, come calling.