SerpApi.Org
Where's that conjuring cat when you need him? Ever since Cats: The Jellicle Ball posted a closing notice last week, Broadway creators and insiders alike have been pondering why the Tony-winning revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's signature musical is going to the Heaviside Lair on Aug. 8, well ahead of schedule. The famed composer took to social media to express his fears about the future of his beloved industry.
"The painful truth is that, with things as they are, bringing almost any new show to Broadway makes little financial sense," Webber wrote, adding: "Without action, Broadway risks rivalling Hollywood's empty soundstages: increasingly dark theatres where bold new work once lived."
During a recent press day for Hadestown: The Musical - the filmed version of Anaïs Mitchell's blockbuster musical that's opening in theaters on Friday - Gold Derby took the matter up with Old Deuteronomy himself, André De Shields. Asked whether he'd like to see The Jellicle Ball captured on camera for post-Broadway big screen posterity like Hadestown, Hamilton, and Merrily We Roll Along, the musical theater icon gave a surprising response. (For the record, The Jellicle Ball will be filmed by the New York Public Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive and added to that collection.)
"I don't hope that all, because we aren't anywhere near the maturation that Hadestown has achieved," says De Shields, who previously received a Tony statuette for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Hermes in Hadestown. Earlier this year, he scored a nomination in that same category for playing a new version of the Cats patriarch, who now oversees a ballroom filled with singing and dancing Jellicles who represent a thrillingly diverse and blended cross-section of gender, sexual, and racial identities.
"The Jellicle Ball is being cut off at its knees because of our old friends, hate and intolerance," the actor continues. "However, we cats have planted the seed of cultural revolution with that show. So it's not going to die, per se. By Aug. 8, it'll simply leave the Broadway stage, but enough people have seen this show that they will continue to make the changes that are necessary if we're going to move forward as a people, as a nation, as a culture, and as a global event. So we're good, as they say."
But De Shields does agree with Webber that the industry's current status quo is unsustainable in the long run, especially for shows like The Jellicle Ball that award center stage to communities that are too often marginalized - even in an industry that's as accepting as Broadway.
"Broadway needs to embrace something more than democratic capitalism," he emphasizes. "Broadway also needs to create a space where we can question sexual sovereignty. In Hadestown - as miraculous to production as it is - there's no question about sexual representation. The young men identify with Orpheus, the young women identify with Eurydice, the mature women identify with Persephone, and the mature men identify with Hermes.
"With Cats: The Jellicle Ball, everything is up for grabs," the actor continues. "Sovereignty has to do with being your most distinctive and authentic self. I am who I am because I say who I am, and you must see me as who I am. The question that both of these productions ask is, 'Should you look over your shoulder for your reality?' And I think the answer is no. You have to live outside of the realm of doubt; otherwise, your life isn't going to be forward moving - it's going to be repetitive or, even worse, regressive."
Hadestown has been able to enjoy the kind of lengthy, profitable run that many hoped The Jellicle Ball would have. Since bowing on Broadway in 2019 - and dominating that year's Tony Awards with eight wins from 14 nominations - the musical version of the Orpheus myth has toured the country and launched multiple overseas stagings, including the West End production that was filmed for Hadestown: The Movie with members of the original Broadway cast reprising their roles. Joining De Shields in London were Patrick Page as Hades, Reeve Carney as Orpheus, and Eva Noblezada as Eurydice.
"I think the reason that Hadestown has lived as long as it has is because it engages people in a way that they feel is necessary and meaningful," Page observes about the musical's success. "When Broadway shows do that, they find their audiences. As virtual experiences become more and more common, being in a room with people and seeing being made in front of you is exciting. Each audience changes the performance, as does the performer's temperament on any given day. The combination of variables between all of those people creates an event that only happens once."
Both Carney and Noblezada are mourning The Jellicle Ball's early closing as well. "My hope - and I don't have any inside information - is that they find another theater to mount it again," says Carney. "I know the economics of Broadway are so tough right; finding the right house that's the right size for the right audience, and all that stuff. But I hope this isn't the end of the line for that production, because it's such a beautiful show."
"I genuinely hate that Cats is closing," echoes Noblezada. "It's one of the most profound things I've ever seen with one of the most loud and proud casts of queer, Black and brown bodies. I understand that this is an industry that needs capitalism in some way, but while we have equity it still doesn't feel equitable throughout the building. There's still hierarchal aspects of being in this industry."
Both stars agree that filmed versions of shows are one way to reach New York audiences who can't afford Broadway tickets or audiences from further afield who can't fund a trip to Times Square. "Even for Broadway actors, we go to see a friend's show, and we're like 'How much?!'" notes Noblezada. "There are rising costs for everybody. With this movie, I think it's amazing to be able to tell someone who could never making it to Broadway, 'Broadway's coming to you, baby.'"
