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How Creators of ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ Are Figuring Out a Future Life for the Hit Show
Three members of 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball's' creative team discussed mashing up the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with ballroom culture.
Now playing in an extended run at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in downtown Manhattan, “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” mashes up Andrew Lloyd Webber ‘s long-running 1982 musical with the colorful and very queer ballroom culture seen in “Paris is Burning” and “Pose.” Audiences and critics alike have fallen for the unexpected pairing, turning the show into one of the breakout hits of summer theater season. Rauch was the originator of the idea, which stemmed from a 20-year-old impulse he had about an older gay man singing “Memory.” But the concept really took shape in collaboration with Kearns, Levingston, co-choreographer Omari Wiles and others, and as the production’s ballroom setting developed, the creative team did everything they could to ensure authenticity. Also on the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Kearns, Levingston and Rauch discussed the show’s surprisingly faithful musical orchestrations, the process of matching individual “Cats” songs to “cat-egories” of ballroom competition, and a recent visit to the production from Lloyd Webber himself.
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