Eight times a week, a miracle happens at Broadway's Broadhurst Theater — Andrew Lloyd Webber's famed musical Cats actually makes sense.
Since its premiere in 1981, the musical has built a reputation for being notoriously nonsensical. Loosely based on TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Catsthe show accelerates this state of confusion by adding in fantastical human-cat hybrid costumes. There's plenty of feline choreography, like crawling, meowing, and hissing. Oh, and there's also the plot following a community of junkyard pussycats competing in a talent show to decide who is allowed to die and be reborn in the Heaviside Layer — cat heaven. Now, the infamous competition has been reimagined into Cats: The Jellicle Ball, a Broadway revival of the show that leaves the world of catfights behind and places the story — and human characters — in the world of New York's queer ballroom scene.
While there's a historical record of drag culture and queer balls as early as the 1800s, modern ballroom culture was defined in the 1970s, when New York drag queens, trans women, and queer activists popularized house ballroom. These balls were themed competitions prioritizing excess in costumes, dancing, voguing, and runway presences where the winner was decided by a panel of judges. But the major innovation was the house system, a team structure run by a mother that gave the subculture an underlying framework of support, community, and mentorship — a lifesaving mission at a time when public queerness was illegal and forced many LGBTQ+ people into poverty and homelessness.
We're well past the informational era of Paris Is Burning and Poses — ballroom is no longer a mysterious subculture for the average American. But Cats: The Jellicle Ball ties its nature as a Cats revival with a well deserved mission for ballroom: honoring the legacy of its creators, many of whom were never recognized for their achievements while they were alive. And no ball is complete without esteemed judges; which is why roughly an hour before showtime, comedian Michelle Buteau and drag queen Miss Peppermint are in the upper dining room of Sardi's prepping for their short — but long awaited — turn with the scorecards.
“I feel like I'm serving light-skinned realness at a Nigerian wedding,” Buteau says. She's wearing a puffy chartreuse dress that billows around her elbows, which she constantly readjusts while working swiftly to rid Peppermint's hair of her bobby pins.
Peppermint's outfit is both festive and on theme, a custom red suit set by Bronx designer Angel Ayala paired with a “feline touch” of an animal print blouse and shoes. But she's more focused on convincing Buteau to share the catwalk with her when they ascend the stage at judging time.
“You have to,” she says, hands grasping Buteau's as her voice turns pleading. “Laverne [Cox] set to previous. Girl, you can't be in this and not walk.”
Michelle Buteau and Miss Peppermint (center) pose with Elliot Page and the cast of Cats: The Jellicle Ball
LUIS SUAREZ*
Since its March transfer from downtown PAC-NYC, Jellicle Ball has sweetened the deal for audiences by having different guest judges every performance, combining both Broadway legends like Cynthia Erivo and Kara Young with queer icons like MTA voice Bernie Wagenblast and ballroom vet Michael Roberson. Buteau and Peppermint — a comedy maven and queer Broadway legend, respectively — fit squarely into both categories. But the duo's time in the judges' seats also coincides with preparations for the third and final season of their show Survival of the Thickest.
Co-created by and starring Buteau, Survival of the Thickest follows plus-sized New York stylist Mavis after a surprising breakup forces her to reinvent her life — one shitty Brooklyn sublet at a time. The show's main storyline follows Mavis' attempts to retake the reins of her love life. But the series' thrumming heart is the friendship between Mavis and a fictionalized version of the real-life Peppermint, buoyed by a comical but heartfelt exploration of queer community. Together, the two grow into a bonafide brain trust on how to celebrate achievements and mature in relationships. And in Season Two, Survival of the Thickest went all out on a dream wedding for Peppermint, an idea Buteau was adamant about making it on screen.
“After talking to [Michelle] about some of my trials and tribulations with dating, she took it upon herself with the writers to make sure there was a beautiful storyline for trans people in this show,” Peppermint says. “This is my Good Judy, honey.” So who better to be guest judges than two people celebrating the final season of a scrappy streaming series that also puts queer joy at its center?
“I hate Cats. Going to theater school here, all your teachers are also in the show. So I've seen Cats 100 times. But this production is totally different,” Peppermint says. “We saw it together opening night. And this feels like this is how this show was meant to be.”
“Acting, performance — whether it's a drag show, stand-up comedy, singing, whatever the crap, is [about] taking ownership and license,” Buteau says. “Really trusting your creative company to fucking have fun.”
Just before curtain call, Buteau and Peppermint take their seats in red leather booths on opposite sides of the auditorium. “I'll miss you,” Buteau mouths dramatically, arms flung outstretched. But they're not alone. Marouane Zotti, who plays Luca, Buteau's love interest in Survival of The Thickest, has flown in from Italy to join the group, while Peppermint gabs with Odyssey actor and close friend Elliot Page. Then DJ Griddlebone (Ken Ard) steps onto the elevated stage with a crate full of classic records and the story begins.
Jonathan Burke, who plays Mungojerrie in 'Jellicle Ball,' with Miss Peppermint
LUIS SUAREZ
The Jellicle Ball keeps the cats' names and the same music and lyrics as the original Cats, but this show is about humans through and through. The entire cast is part of an underground ballroom competition, going claw to claw in matchups that rank the best poses, death drops, outfits, name brands, and choreography. The end goal is the grand prize and a trip to the Heaviside Layer, granted by the leader of the troupe, Old Deuteronomy (André De Shields).
The music is an electric revitalization of the original Cats soundtrack, layering the traditional musical-theater pop with synths and house beats. It feels like only moments before emcee Munkustrap (Dudney Joseph Jr.) takes the stage and calls up Peppermint and Buteau, clearing the way for the two to strut the runway. The crowd claps and cheers, screaming wildly when Buteau drops it rather politely before strutting with Peppermint to their seats on stage. The competition begins, Jellicle cast members sing, flit, and duckwalk down the runway with competitions like Virgin Vogue, Realness, Body, and Tag Team. Peppermint and Buteau hold up glitter signs emblazoned with the phrases “10” and “Meow.”
At one point when Rum Tum Tugger (Sydney James Harcourt) jumps on the judges table to finish his solo, pausing to caress their faces, Buteau gets so distracted she forgets to hold up her paddle. “Oh shit!” she mouths, when Peppermint gets her attention. There are flips and dips and so many costume changes it whips the audience higher and higher. But when the ground shakes, the lights flicker and the dancers feel the coming of Old Deuteronomy, Buteau and Peppermint are escorted offstage to spend the rest of the show snapping their fans as audience members.
That energy continues after the show as Buteau and Peppermint make the rounds, greeting cast members as they exit backstage sans cat ear wigs and makeup. “I can't stop smiling!” Peppermint shrieks, embracing character after character. Ard, who was in the original company of Cats in 1982, he added their names to his growing signature book for the show's guest judges. The strongest aspect of Jellicle Ball is the time the musical takes to give the elders and titans of ballroom culture the spotlight, highlighting the legacies of the queer trailblazers cherished by the Jellicle Cats who take the stage every night. After intermission, a golden backdrop rises from the floor, displaying archival photos from the first ballroom competitions and the legends who created them, even listing the names of the founding mothers of New York's famed Ballroom Houses.
Buteau, Peppermint, and this cast all know what it's like to push for something a bit bigger than oneself. So when asked what makes the show special, Peppermint doesn't focus on the music, or the costumes, or the crowd of white faces snapping their fans in uniform. She knows the magic is in the people on stage.
“That's my family,” Peppermint says. Harcourt is her drag daughter — the ballroom term for a beloved mentee — which she says makes his performance even more exciting to watch. “If you're not with this, you're missing out.”
With her time in the judge's chair over, Buteau's next focus is Survival of the Thickest's premiere. (Ever the business woman, she has the cast make a TikTok shouting out the series' finale on July 2.) But it's clear that she keeps fixing on the idea of legacy.
“What I really love about [Jellicle Ball] is the mirroring of the young and the old and showing so much wisdom and hope,” she says. [With Survival]what I really hope is that I've recorded some sort of knowledge and wisdom to people and how they can see the future in front and behind the camera. I know how hard this shit is. So let's fucking fly.”
After all, the Heaviside Layer awaits.
