CONFIRMED: CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL to close on August 8th — Page 7

I think it is unfortunate that this is closing so soon after the great reviews and awards.  That said, I hated this show from its third minute or so.  Why?  It is still CATS and I hated CATS.  I thought the Jellicle CATS song was never going to end, and I didn't like any of the score.  For 45 years, I referred to CATS as 'an hour of total boredom, 5 minutes of goosebumps (Memory), intermission, an hour of total boredom, 5 minutes if goosebumps (second Memory), exit.  Seeing it 45 years later, I didn't even get the 10 minutes of goosebumps, since the person who sang it did not induce goosebumps.

I agree with those who said it was also too niche.  I am a straight, white person who enjoyed the show Pose (so I was aware of the ballroom culture, but this is still CATS.  I didn't care about a single character any more than I cared about the cats; I didn't enjoy the numbers any more;

I did like the costumes, but I felt the direction was very much 'throw everything against the wall and see what sticks' and I thought the choreography was repetitive.  By the third time the character in the jockstrap snapped his jock, I thought they had to be kidding.. I also squirmed every time Andre de Shields was on stage, since I kept expecting him to fall any second, because he was so unsteady on his feet.

Bottom line...what were they thinking?  Did they really believe this show ever had a chance of catching on with a broad audience.  If they did, they were fooling themselves.  They should have extended off-Broadway, and they probably would have had a lengthy run.

As for me, no matter what the reviews, I will NEVER see any version of CATS ever again.

 

 

'm saddened...... but so so grateful.

 

Looking forward to catching another Ball or two before then

Kad said: "Andre DeShields is not “unsteady on his feet”- he’s still enviably spry. He is clearly playing up his age for much of the show and then cuts loose during the curtain call/encore."

"My Legs may tottery...

I Must go slow...

And be careful of Oldddddddddddd   Deuteronomy"

If Andre wasn't spry there was no way he could finish out being the last moment of the show and then be back out on stage in an entire new grandiose costume for the curtain call in under 2 minutes.

Plus he's only missed... 3-4 performances from the run?

Updated On: 7/13/26 at 09:55 PM

I think the unsustainable nature of casting, more than anything, is what’s leading to closing. The cost of hiring more and more performers and having to rehearse them en masse while your show is already bleeding money had to be the ultimate nail in the coffin. Hiring 8-10 swings is something you have to earn by proving profitable longterm and justifying having so many people out at a time (something like Wicked or Lion King where whole groups of ensemble can go on vacation together at the same time and still have coverage). But for a show like The Jellicle Ball, you’re largely dealing with a niche group of performers not used to dancing 8x a week in this kind of repetitive nature.

I wholeheartedly agree that, like it or not, it was an audacious revival of material we all thought we knew to varying degrees and were nevertheless surprised by. It will and should be remembered for a long time for how outside the box you can think when it comes to revivals, akin to the Mendes Cabaret, Doyle Sweeney Todd, and Lloyd Sunset Blvd.

Gonna go search for the original announcement thread of this production to remember how we all responded when this was first announced. I bet it’s fascinating.

ColorTheHours048 said: Gonna go search for the original announcement thread of this production to remember how we all responded when this was first announced. I bet it’s fascinating."

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/thread/The-first-look-inside--CatsThe-Jellicle-Ballexclusive-photo

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/thread/CATSThe-Jellicle-Ballat-PAC-reviews

TheatreFan4 said: "Kad said: "Andre DeShields is not “unsteady on his feet”- he’s still enviably spry. He is clearly playing up his age for much of the show and then cuts loose during the curtain call/encore."

"My Legs may tottery...I Must go slow...

And be careful of Oldddddddddddd Deuteronomy"

If Andre wasn't spry there was no way he could finish out being the last moment of the show and then be back out on stage in an entire new grandiose costume for the curtain call in under 2 minutes.

Plus he's only missed... 3-4 performances from the run?"

He missed the week of the Tony nominations - 7 in total, because of a vocal injury. (Puma did 3 performances, Ken did 4). But Andre was out there throwing ass in ways you would never expect to see from an 80 year old man and hitting his long notes - one time at a record 33 seconds

When it comes to principals who never missed a show I think it's Junior, Dudney, Garnett and Ken (latter two only missing their roles when they were covering another one).

The numbers this show was running were awful...  I'm surprised it went on this long.

Broadway is a business.  Too many people here with no skin in the game make it ridiculously personal.

lots of monday morning quarterbacking going on here

but what some of u have mentioned is true

the economic model of broadway is broken

the cost of mounting a musical has increased at a rate well beyond inflation

i find it interesting that no one has published actual figures to see precisely where the costs are spiraling out of control

but that is because the ones who are getting an outsized piece of the pie dont want this to change

and now everyone is scrambling to get their piece of what is becoming a rapidly shrinking  pie

in the past musicals didnt have to sell out for five years before becoming profitable

its time to pin this down and demand accountability