The Jellicle cats are ready to strut, spin, and vogue their way onto Broadway.
Four decades after “Cats” first prowled Broadway, its boldest reinvention yet is ready to hit the stage. “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” — the ballroom-infused reimagining that premiered at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in 2024 — will move to Broadway beginning March 18, 2026, at the Broadhurst Theatre.
Co-directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch have turned Andrew Lloyd Webber’s feline spectacle into an immersive runway competition inspired by New York’s ballroom culture. Gone are the leotards and junkyard sets; in their place are house beats, trophies, and fierce choreography.
T.S. Eliot’s verse and Webber’s familiar score remain, but the tone is celebratory, defiant, and vividly queer.
Tony Award winner André De Shields will return as Old Deuteronomy, presiding over the ball like a judge at the end of the runway. Joining him are Jonathan Burke (Mungojerrie), Sydney James Harcourt (Rum Tum Tugger), Baby Byrne (Victoria), Dava Huesca (Rumpleteazer), “Tempress” Chasity Moore (Grizabella), and Junior LaBeija (Gus).
“Cats,” which ended its Broadway run in 2000 as the longest-running show in Broadway history, quickly lost that title to “Phantom of the Opera.” A short-lived 2016 Broadway revival was an uninspired, tired rehash of the original production (not unlike what you would encounter on a non-Equity tour), and the 2019 CGI film adaptation was an epic embarrassment.
Jeremy Jordan to return to ‘The Great Gatsby’
It looks like the green light is shining again for “The Great Gatsby.”
Jeremy Jordan, who originated the title role in the splashy musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, will return to the Broadway production on November 10. Jordan steps back into the role that helped launch the show’s unexpected success after earning a Tony nomination this year for “Floyd Collins” at Lincoln Center Theater.
When “The Great Gatsby” opened in April 2024, it was met with polite but unenthusiastic reviews. Critics praised its dazzling design but found little to love in its jazz-pop score. Yet audiences had other ideas. The musical has since regularly topped box office charts, proving that spectacle, romance, and name recognition still sell.
Jordan will star opposite Aisha Jackson (“The Notebook”) as Daisy Buchanan. A music video featuring the pair performing a mashup of “My Green Light” from the show with the pop songs “Green Light” by Lorde and “Green Light” by John Legend was released to mark his homecoming.
Remembering Diane Keaton’s Broadway beginnings
Before she became one of Hollywood’s most distinctive and idiosyncratic movie stars, Diane Keaton, whose death at 79 was announced on Saturday, was a young stage actor carving out her path on Broadway.
Keaton made her Broadway debut at age 22 in 1968, as a member of the original Broadway cast of “Hair,” the countercultural rock musical that captured the chaos and exuberance of the late 1960s. Performers who appeared nude during the show’s first-act finale sequence received a $50 bonus, but Keaton declined.
A year later, Keaton shared the stage with Woody Allen in Allen’s romantic comedy “Play It Again, Sam,” which opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in 1969 and ran for more than 450 performances. Allen played the neurotic film critic Allan Felix opposite Keaton as the witty and alluring Linda Christie, who becomes Allen’s confidante and ultimately the object of his affection. When the play was adapted into a 1972 film, both Keaton and Allen reprised their roles, launching one of the most enduring creative pairings in American cinema.
