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    Cats: The Jellicle Ball Tickets

    Broadway run ended Aug 8, 2026 · runway staging · 3 Tonys

    Lloyd Webber's cats walked the runway at a ballroom competition, built a catwalk into the Broadhurst and took home three Tonys before closing in August 2026.

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    The Jellicle Ball has left the Broadhurst

    There are no remaining Broadway performances of Cats: The Jellicle Ball. The production played its last show on August 8, 2026, at the Broadhurst Theatre, after previews from March 18 and an April 7 opening. Broadway News counted 21 previews and 143 regular performances; another tracker reports a smaller total. The end came sooner than planned: the run had been extended into January 2027 before a closing notice went up in mid-July. As of October 2026, no tour or new New York run has been announced, and any listings on this page would be for other productions of Cats.

    How the runway rewrote the seating chart

    The Broadhurst, a Shubert house opened in 1917, has 1,218 seats on an orchestra level and a balcony. For this show, set designer Rachel Hauck pushed a catwalk out from the stage into the audience, lined it with seats for close-up viewing and laid a sprung floor (a cushioned surface that absorbs impact) to protect the dancers.

    • Runway-side seats: the most immersive tickets in the house, with performers passing within arm's reach. The trade-off was a sideways view of much of the action.
    • Center orchestra, a few rows behind the runway's tip: the best overall view, facing both the stage and the catwalk head-on.
    • Front balcony: the full length of the runway and the ensemble's patterns in one frame.

    The lesson carries over to any future runway or thrust staging of the show: decide whether you want to be in the ball or watching it, because one seat rarely does both.

    Ballroom culture meets Lloyd Webber

    The production takes Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1979 Cats, set to T. S. Eliot's cat poems, and places it in ballroom culture, the Black and Latino LGBTQ competition scene where contestants walk categories (themed contests judged on fashion, attitude and dance, voguing included) and win trophies for their houses. The Jellicle cats become competitors, and the yearly Jellicle Ball, at which one cat is chosen for a new life, becomes a literal ball. Lloyd Webber's score stays.

    Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch directed, with choreography by Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles. It was the first major Cats to set aside the look of the original production.

    Downtown origins and three Tony Awards

    The show began in June 2024 at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in Lower Manhattan, where two extensions kept it running into September. That version was staged nearly in the round, with a long runway and cafe-style tables. André De Shields played Old Deuteronomy, the ballroom figure Junior LaBeija was in the company, and many of the downtown performers moved uptown with it.

    At the 2026 Tony Awards, the production lost Best Revival of a Musical to Ragtime but won three categories: Best Direction of a Musical (Levingston and Rauch), Best Choreography (Wiles and Lyons) and Best Costume Design of a Musical (Qween Jean). Broadway performances ran about 2 hours and 25 minutes with one intermission.

    Where Cats goes from here

    The original Cats is one of the longest-running productions in Broadway history, so long-running that Chicago the Musical did not overtake its performance count until 2014. The Jellicle Ball is a separate production with its own creative team, and as of October 2026 nothing has been announced about a tour, a London staging or a return. For dance-driven shows playing now, see Broadway, Musicals and Dance.

    Frequently asked questions

    When did Cats: The Jellicle Ball close on Broadway?

    On August 8, 2026, at the Broadhurst Theatre. It had opened on April 7, 2026.

    What were the runway seats at Cats: The Jellicle Ball?

    Seats placed along a catwalk that extended from the stage into the audience. They put viewers inside the action but showed much of it from the side.

    What does the Jellicle Ball have to do with ballroom culture?

    The production reimagined the Jellicle cats as competitors at a ball, drawing on the Black and Latino LGBTQ ballroom scene and its category competitions.

    Which Tony Awards did Cats: The Jellicle Ball win?

    Best Direction of a Musical, Best Choreography and Best Costume Design of a Musical, all in 2026.

    Will Cats: The Jellicle Ball tour or return?

    Nothing had been announced as of October 2026.

    Sources