{"id":765168,"date":"2026-07-15T22:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/765168\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T22:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:58:16","slug":"cats-the-jellicle-ball-closing-spotlights-broadways-risky-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/765168\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ Closing Spotlights Broadway’s Risky Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSara Ramirez calls it heartbreaking, Ben Platt says it\u2019s a travesty and Rachel Zegler offered a succinct WTF. <\/p>\n

\n\tThey and other Broadway<\/a> performers and fans are reacting to the closing announcement of Cats: The Jellicle Ball<\/a>, the critically lauded reinvention of Andrew Lloyd Webber<\/a>\u2018s now-and-forever musical that moves the feline action from the alley to Harlem\u2019s Ballroom culture. <\/p>\n

\n\tNo one, though, seems angrier or sadder than Lloyd Webber himself, who took to Instagram<\/a> to lament the closing.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat is happening in front of all who care about the Great White Way breaks my heart,\u201d the composer wrote after the announced closing. \u201cOne of the last things Hal Prince said to me was that it broke his heart that it was impossible for new or daring work to be originated on Broadway anymore. The truth is that, for any show, it makes practically no financial sense to come to Broadway with things as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSurmising that even the original West Side Story couldn\u2019t survive Broadway\u2019s current financial climate, Lloyd Webber griped that \u201ccreators, writers and directors have been forced to take minimal royalties from new shows, often surviving on a fixed weekly fee rather than a royalty. It makes it impossible for young creatives to make a living from theatre alone. Investors count themselves fortunate indeed if they see a portion of their money back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued, \u201cAs someone who is still as in love with Broadway as I was when I was a teenager, I beg the theatre owners, unions and producers to come together urgently to address what is a crisis coming to a head. Broadway is in dire danger of rivalling Hollywood\u2019s empty soundstages with increasingly dark theatres.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Jellicle closing, announced Tuesday, means the show will play its final performance at the Shubert Organization\u2019s Broadhurst Theatre on Saturday, August 8, five months before its previously announced extension of January 17, 2027. <\/p>\n

\n\tNews of the closing caught much of the Broadway community off-guard. Although the production was not the runaway hit that might have been predicted following an earlier and much-praised Off Broadway run that, in its Broadway incarnation, received nine Tony Award nominations, winning three (for Qween Jean\u2019s costume design, the choreography of Omari Wiles & Arturo Lyons and Best Direction of a Musical for Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch).<\/p>\n

\n\tBut, crucially, Jellicle lost the coveted Best Musical Revival Tony Award to Ragtime, and, grosses-wise, it\u2019s literally been downhill ever since. The musical, which began previews on March 18 and opened April 7, peaked at the box office during the final week of May, grossing $1,033,755. The following week \u2014 the week ending June 7, the night of the Tony ceremony \u2014 saw a gross of $1,027,555. It would not break $1 million again.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith some relatively minor fluctuations, the production\u2019s grosses steadily fell to the low-$900,000s and upper-$800,000s, sinking to an engagement low of $691,071. Granted, that nadir was for the week that included the July 4 holiday, a traditionally dismal time for Broadway, but even as most shows rebounded the following week, Jellicle rose only to a disappointing $766,808, with about 18% of the Broadhurst\u2019s seats empty, even with a modest (by Broadway musical standards) average ticket price around $100.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the $18 million production\u2019s weekly operating costs have not been disclosed, it\u2019s safe to say they were in excess of even the $900,000+ grosses the show seemed initially likely to settle into. Lloyd Webber, while decrying the overall costs of Broadway, did not disclose figures for Jellicle. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd this isn\u2019t the first time the composer beefed with Broadway over a closing: When he brought the revised, newly immersive Phantom of the Opera musical, titled Masquerade, to New York City last year he posted numerous social media messages in the guise of the Phantom<\/a>, still disgruntled over being booted from the Shuberts\u2019 Majestic Theatre in 2023 following a 35-year run.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile naysayers might point to the failure of Jellicle Ball as some statement on the marketability of queer content, beat-heavy house music, musical revisionism or all three, the current popularity of the LGBTQ+ landmark The Rocky Horror Show and, of course, the rap-based Hamilton might suggest something else at play. As evidenced by Lloyd Webber\u2019s statement, that something else would be the indisputably high cost of staging untested Broadway musicals in 2026. <\/p>\n

\n\tLloyd Webber\u2019s latest missive drew both praise and brickbats from commenters and Instagram followers. \u201cYou\u2019re exactly the person to say this to help drive the change that\u2019s needed,\u201d responded Nicole Scherzinger, who starred in the composer\u2019s Sunset Blvd. last year. <\/p>\n

\n\tOther commenters weren\u2019t quite so complimentary. \u201cSo have the audacity to call out out Shubert Organization which has a monopoly on almost half the Broadway theaters,\u201d wrote one of Lloyd Webber\u2019s followers. \u201cCall out their greed. They want producers to cover the rent and the entire operating costs. They want to keep the telecharge fees which they own. How is this allowed?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEmma Blake, a costume crew member with Broadway and Off Broadway credits, responded to Lloyd Webber: \u201cLeave the union workers out of this we deserve to be paid fairly for our work. if you can\u2019t afford to pay us fairly then you can\u2019t afford to produce a show right. Very dangerous to include the unions in this to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Neil Haskell, a stage actor and dancer whose credits include Hamilton, Tuck Everlasting and Death Becomes Her, and who competed in 2007 on So You Think You Can Dance, also took Lloyd Webber to task.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMost Broadway actors can barely afford to live in the city,\u201d Haskell wrote. \u201cThe costs associated with continued training (dance class, voice lessons, acting class, gym memberships, self tape equipment, studio rentals, college loans etc) on top of trying to survive in NYC, drives most performers out of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued, \u201cI\u2019ll die on this hill; the @broadwayleague NEEDS to look inward at its own members and realize that the landlords who own the broadway theaters are the problem. The owners of broadway real estate will NEVER point out that they are the issue. They will blame the unions, tourists, and anything other than the fact that they have a MONOPOLY on broadway. Until the @broadwayleague removes theater owners from its ranks, they will never have the ability to bring down the costs associated with producing a broadway show\u2026My plea to the @broadwayleague, stop punching down at the people who bring your shows to life 8x a week. Start fighting with the landlords who are holding you hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs of now, producers have made no announcements regarding future stagings of Cats: The Jellicle Ball. They did note, however, that the Broadway production will be filmed by the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and added to its collection, a fairly routine development that will do little to assuage the show\u2019s devoted following.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their statement announcing the closing, Jellicle Ball producers Michael Harrison and Mike Bosner said, \u201cThree years ago, Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch began the remarkable process of reimagining Cats for a new generation. They assembled a visionary creative team that fused their passions for Ballroom and theater to create something thrillingly new. With a truly superhuman cast bringing this vision to life, New York has once again discovered the phenomenon that has become Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s CATS: The Jellicle Ball. The joy that radiates from the stage each night is unlike anything we\u2019ve experienced in our careers. It has been a true honor to help bring Ballroom to Broadway.\u201d<\/p>\n