Cats: The Jellicle Ball Is Coming to Broadway in Spring 2026

Cats: The Jellicle Ball, the drag and ball culture-inspired take on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that played downtown last year, is coming to Broadway in spring 2026. The venue and cast is yet to be announced.

The production, a thoroughly de-whiskered reimagining of the 1981 musical, was staged as an immersive competition with ballroom and club beats and runway-ready choreography. Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch directed, with choreography by Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles. It played at the Perelman Performing Arts Center.

The off-Broadway cast comprised performers hailing from both Broadway and New York’s ball scene. Broadway performers included Tony winner André De Shields as Old Deuteronomy, Jonathan Burke as Mungojerrie, Emma Sofia Caymares as Skimbleshanks, Sydney James Harcourt as Rum Tum Tugger, Antwayn Hopper as Macavity, Shereen Pimentel as Jellylorum, Nora Schell as Bustopher Jones, Teddy Wilson Jr. as Sillabub and Garnet Williams as Bombalurina. Ball community members included Junior LaBeija, the MC in the '80s ball-culture documentary Paris is Burning, as Gus, “Tempress” Chasity Moore as Grizabella, Baby as Victoria, Primo as Tumblebrutus,  Dudney Joseph Jr. as Munkustrap, Capital Kaos as DJ and Robert "Silk" Mason as Mistoffelees.

Cats, based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, has been adapted for the screen twice: a direct-to-video film in 1998 and a feature film, starring Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench, Taylor Swift and James Corden, in 2019.