Meet Broadway's New Grizabella: 'Tempress' Chasity Moore Is Ready to See You Now in Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Hometown: Mount Vernon, New York

Current role: "Tempress" Chasity Moore is yearning for the Heavyside Layer as Grizabella in Cats: The Jellicle Ball, a reimagined production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic that takes place in the ballroom scene. She originated the role in the off-Broadway production in 2024.

Previous roles: Discovered by Tyler Perry, Moore is known for her time in the Ballroom and on screen. After joining the ballroom scene at Clark Atlanta University, Moore went on to walk in several categories and be invited into houses before becoming a founding mother of her own house. She has appeared on Pose and has her own talk show and podcast, FQ Crazy, Sexy, Cool.

A Family Affair 
Growing up, Moore was surrounded by music starting at a young age, thanks to her family's talents. "My father's side of the family, they could have been the Jackson Five," she says with a laugh. "My grandmother had five boys, three girls. On holidays they would be harmonizing and singing. I was so intimidated by them because I felt like they all had perfect pitch and perfect voices." Her family's passion for performing led Moore to find her own voice by singing at church starting at five years old, something Moore credits as being a pillar of her upbringing. "I grew up around music," she says. "My grandmother took me to my first [off-Broadway] show when I was younger. I didn't get to start seeing Broadway until I was a little older because, you know, money was a little different. I remember going, 'I have to do that.' And here I am." 

A Purple Encounter
Moore knew from a young age that she was destined for greatness. Her dreams of being on stage felt more like a promise than wishful thinking. "You couldn't tell me that I was not going to be a singer or an actress, or both," she says. "I was so sure of it. Then after my transition I felt like, 'Where do I fit in? Would anyone accept me?' I had that spell where life just took over and I got away from my dreams." Moore continued to find her path in the ballroom scene, but it was a well-timed trip to Broadway that reinvigorated her sense of self. "I remember going to see The Color Purple and Cynthia Erivo was singing her heart out up there and I was like, 'I have to do this. This is my calling. I have to get back. There's a purpose for me.' That's where I found my re-inspiration. I knew I had to do this." 

10s Across the Board
Broadway meets runway in Cats: The Jellicle Ball, where audiences see the beloved characters from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and Webber's musical phenomenon take on the ballroom scene. For Moore, this reimagined production is the "perfect alignment," and she's ready to rise to the occasion. "Ballroom is where I basically grew up," she says. "I became so deep in Ballroom because for me it was an audience, it was another way to entertain. I'm an icon in Ballroom and with [Cats: The Jellicle Ball] I'm able to carry on the legacy. I'm able to carry on the legacy of the women and Femme Queens who came before me who weren't able to live in their fullness and who were silenced. I'm carrying them on my back every day when I'm doing Grizabella." 

The Jellicle Choice
How does a casting team go about finding the perfect people to take on one of the most well-known musicals in a brand new production? The internet, of course. "People were tagging me on Facebook," Moore recalls. "The post said [Cats: The Jellicle Ball was] looking for a woman from Ballroom who could sing, and everybody was tagging me." Choreographer Omari Wiles took the advice of Moore's supporters and asked her to sing. Moore obliged and sang into her phone for the creative, which encouraged him to put her up for the principal role of Grizabella. "I got a call to do the workshop and we did that, then finally I got a callback to do the audition," Moore shares of her journey to Broadway. "I had already told myself if someone lets me come in a room and sing and act, I am going to give my all. I worked my butt off to get in there."

Finding Grizabella
The Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch-directed musical made its debut at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in downtown Manhattahn in 2024, and it quickly became the hottest ticket in town. The production won the 2025 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical and garnered seven Drama Desk nominations before transferring to the Great Bright Way this season. "There were inter-generations of people that I would meet after the show," Moore says of the off-Broadway run. "They would tell me it touched their lives in so many different ways that I started realizing that it was bigger than me. There was a purpose." Playing the role of Grizabella, a one-time "glamour cat" who has fallen into hard times, has allowed Moore to access parts of herself that had previously been left in the shadows. "I have lived the experience of Grizabella," she says. "I fell by the wayside, there's things that happened to me. I'm able to live that out and I'm able to celebrate a place that I came from. We're disenfranchised people and [Ballroom] was our underground Hollywood. Now for me to be able to celebrate that on Broadway? Oh my God, it's 'chef's kiss.'"

A New Day Has Begun
Now in performances at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre, Cats: The Jellicle Ball is preparing for its opening night celebration on April 7. "I'm elated. I'm excited. This is life-changing for me," Moore says. "There were a lot of times when I felt like I would get so close to things and they wouldn't happen. But I believe that I needed the experience and everything happens for a reason. I learned about how you need to get back into your dreams and I'm so thankful that I can carry on for my community, that I can be that possibility model. For so long I have lived in survival mode, and now I can relax and be my full self and potential and show the world who 'Tempress' Chasity Moore is."

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