Omari Oricci Wiles on Facebook
To everyone who has laughed, cried, danced, and found a piece of themselves at Cats: The Jellicle Ball,
This letter comes from a place of deep love.
Love for theater. Love for ballroom. Love for Black and Brown artistry. Love for queer brilliance. Love for every performer, musician, designer, stagehand, dresser, usher, producer, and dreamer who made this production possible.
First, thank you.
Thank you for creating something that so many of us never imagined we would see on a Broadway stage. You didn’t simply reinterpret a classic—you built a world where Black and Brown culture, ballroom history, and queer excellence were not hidden in the margins, but celebrated under the brightest lights. You honored a community that has spent generations creating beauty, family, resilience, and art, often without recognition.
Winning three Tony Awards is an incredible achievement. It is proof that excellence rooted in authenticity deserves the highest honors. But awards alone cannot keep a show alive.
That is the difficult truth.
Broadway is expensive. Mounting and sustaining a production requires enormous financial support, and too often the shows that expand the culture, amplify underrepresented voices, and create space for communities that have historically been overlooked are expected to survive on passion alone. Passion is powerful—but it doesn’t pay theater rent, salaries, costumes, musicians, or operating costs.
That reality should concern all of us.
If we truly believe representation matters, then we have to support it beyond applause. We have to buy tickets. We have to bring our families. We have to recommend the show to friends. We have to celebrate it loudly. We have to invest in the stories we say we want to see.
Because when productions like Cats: The Jellicle Ball struggle, it sends a message far beyond one show. It raises questions about whose stories are considered sustainable and whose artistry is viewed as a risk.
We cannot allow Black history, Brown history, queer history, and ballroom history to become trends that are celebrated for a season and forgotten when the economics become challenging. These histories are living. They are breathing. They continue to shape art, fashion, music, dance, and culture across the world.
This production is more than entertainment.
It is visibility.
It is affirmation.
It is preservation.
It is joy.
It is resistance.
It is a love letter to communities that have always created extraordinary art, even when the world refused to see it.
To everyone involved in this show: thank you for your courage. Thank you for trusting your vision. Thank you for showing audiences what happens when Broadway opens its doors wider and allows authenticity to take center stage.
And to everyone reading this: if you believe in diverse storytelling, this is the moment to prove it. Support the work while it is here. Celebrate artists while they are creating—not only after the curtain has closed.
Let’s not wait until something beautiful is gone before we recognize its value.
May Cats: The Jellicle Ball continue to thrive. May it inspire the next generation of Black, Brown, and queer artists to dream bigger. And may Broadway continue moving toward a future where these stories are not considered exceptions—but essential parts of American theater.
With gratitude, hope, and love!
==> this board is a nest of vipers <==
"Michael Riedel...The Perez Hilton of the New York Theatre scene"
- Craig Hepworth, What's On Stage
