Will Kerry Ellis Purr in London? West End & Broadway Fave Rumored to Replace Nicole Scherzinger in Cats

Broadway.com Audience Choice Award winner Kerry Ellis may just be heading to the Heavyiside Layer. According to The Daily Mail, rumors are swirling that the Broadway and West End alum could step into the role of Grizabella in the current West End revamp of Cats, replacing current star Nicole Scherzinger. The Trevor Nunn-helmed production is scheduled to play a limited engagement at the London Palladium through February 28, 2015, with Scherzinger taking her final bow on February 7.

In addition to starring in Wicked on Broadway and in the West End (where she originally served as a standby for Idina Menzel), Ellis has also appeared in the West End's We Will Rock You, Les Miserables and Oliver! She has collaborated with Queen member Brian May on two albums: Wicked in Rock and Anthems. Ellis won a Broadway.com Audience Choice Award in 2009 for Favorite Breakthrough Performance for her turn in Wicked.

Cats, featuring a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by T.S. Eliot, Trevor Nunn and Richard Stilgoe, ran for 21 years in London and 18 years on Broadway. It won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Based on Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the tuner tells the story of the Jellicle cats and each cat's individual quest to be selected as the lucky one who will ascend to "the Heaviside Layer."

Broadway.com recently attended the production’s opening night to chat with Lloyd Webber; check out the video below of all the feline frenzy!