Matt Koplik (0:13)

Thank you very much. That's all. But we have a great dramatic finish.

Matt Koplik (0:16)

Oh, I'm sure you do, but, Mr. Greg, hit it.

Matt Koplik (0:23)

Broadway. Broadway. We've missed it. So we're leaving soon and taking to to star her in a show.

Matt Koplik (0:37)

Hello, all you theater lovers, both out and proud and on the deal. And welcome back to Broadway Breakdown, a podcast discussing the history and legacy of American theater's most exclusive address, Broadway. I am your host, Matt Koplik, the least famous and most opinionated of all the Broadway podcast hosts. And we've got a review today. We've actually got a bunch of reviews today. Not a bunch of reviews today, but a bunch of reviews this week. I misspoke. Sorry. It's been a very long couple days. We've been seeing a whole bunch of theater. Today we are going to be reviewing Cat's the Jellicle Ball. I got to see it downtown at Pac, and then I got to see it on Broadway at the Broadhurst. I actually saw it twice through circumstances, so I wasn't entirely confident I was going to be able to get in for a press performance. And so I kind of kept my eyes open for any tickets that would be available leading up to press night. And a seat became available for what was the show's first Wednesday matinee. And I went and it was an onstage seat. I subsequently then switched to a seat in the audience during intermission as there was a seat available. And I spoke to a friend of the pod, Cooper Howell, who is on the production team for Cats, and he told me, get back here in a few days, because we're making a whole bunch of very small but important changes, literally after your performance. So we would like you to see the Frozen One. This is all a lot of buildup for this review. I apologize. But seeing it a second time with those incremental changes, I think really helped me see how this team has been focused on making this production fit in the Broadhurst, because to the cynical eye, one could say that they just sort of plopped it in from pack. The design is very similar. You could argue a lot of the staging is similar, but there are actually a lot of very small changes throughout that I think have actually made it fit very nicely into the theater. And overall, the changes from my Wednesday matinee to my press performance a week and a half later, I think really were all for the benefit of the show. Before we get to any of that, I forgot we actually have a new review that I would like to read. This is a new review. Apple Podcast I want to also pre apologize to anybody who might have written a review on other platforms and I haven't read it. I really only check Apple podcasts and because of stipulations I can only see the ones that have been written in America. So if you're from Canada or the UK and you've written one and I haven't read it, that's why I have to go through like secondary sites to find those reviews and I don't look for them every day. But nonetheless, if we could cue the lightning the Piazza Overture please. 5 stars Theater nerd's delight As a self proclaimed theater nerd, this podcast is a guilty pleasure. Guilty pleasure. Why are you feeling guilty about it? Getting to hear Matt deep dive into obscured Broadway topics and adding thoughtful insights to those topics makes me smile knowing I'm not alone. As a theater savant, his incredible ability to conjure up casts and dates from the history of the Broadway musical is quite impressive. Thank you Matt for taking such wonderful care of the old Broadway. I will continue to listen and share with all my theater loving friends. Also, have you seen Masquerade yet? I just did and would love to hear your thoughts. Yes, I did see Masquerade. I like to call it Masquerade. I saw the beta run of Masquerade, which was essentially their dress rehearsal. They did like one run through of everything in front of Andrew Lloyd Webber the day before I went and he demanded a bunch of changes, allegedly. And so the run I saw was not only their final dress, but their first run through of the Andrew Lloyd Webber approved version. So I didn't feel comfortable reviewing it on the podcast because I knew that things were going to get finessed and work themselves out. But I will say overall I found it to be a really fuck ton of fun. Some things were kind of campy fun. I found the way that they did the title song to be kind of hysterical. But I mean that song is hysterical. It's the only song in that show that sounds like an 80s pop song and so how you stage it I think aligns with how that song sounds. It is overall very impressive feat. What they do. It's not really. People have called it like Sleep no More meets Phantom of the Opera. It's not. You're not really interacting all that much. You also don't get to choose your own adventure like you do on Sleep no More. You're very much told where to go, which I think is a good thing. The downside you would have is you are on your feet a lot. There are Moments where you get to sit but you are on your feet a lot. And you also could be with a group that is very slow moving and masquerade runs like clockwork. They will not wait for you to get to the next room. Like, they have to start at a specific moment. I know they, they have moment, they have certain scenes that they pad for time to try to get everyone in the room all at once. But once they hit that limit, if not everyone's in there, they're. They are going to go. So you want to make sure that you are, you know, booking it to the next. But I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot. It's a wild time. Speaking of Andrew Lloyd Webber, back to Jellicoe Ball. So if you listened to my review from 2024, you'll know that I adored this production when it was downtown, and I was eager for it to transfer to Broadway, but also concerned for how it was going to fit on Broadway. I know that there was some. They had some struggles in terms of what theater they were going to go into, what timing they were gonna get. There were one or two theater they really wanted that they almost got. And then the productions in those theaters didn't close when they said they would. So they're now opening on Broadway over a year and a half after their Off Broadway run, which is. That's a significant amount of time. It's very easy to lose momentum. You can lose momentum in nine months, let alone over a year and a half. And so I was concerned that maybe the moment had passed and the memory would not live again. But I guess I should say up front, cast, the Jellicle Ball fucking rules. It's so delightfully wonderful and creative and joyous and just spellbinding almost. And it's hard to explain it without sounding like a shill, and I'll do my best not to. So I guess what we can do is we can sort of break this down a little bit because there's also a lot of baggage that comes along with this production of people who are trepidatious about seeing it. You have the people who hate Cats, have always hated Cats and are like, I don't want to see this production because at the end of the day, it's Cats. And even some of the rave reviews for this production have been like, yeah, it is still Cats, but like, the production's good. And then you have people who are die hard fans of Cats and only want it to be the original Trevor Nunn staging, the one that, you know, took the world by Storm. And I find frustration with both sides, and I'll get to that in a second. But that's sort of, I think, what makes this production even more impressive of what they achieve, considering the prejudice going against it from both sides. The show, as we all know, is Based off of T.S. eliot's book, Old Possum's Book of Cats. I think that's the full title. And, you know, the book of poetry. There's no plot. Each poem is about a different cat and talks about Jellicle Cats, which is his own little cute gimmick, because his niece, who was, you know, three or four, couldn't say dear little cat, and so she said, jellicle cat. And she couldn't say poor little dog, so she said, poor little dog. And he used those words for his book of poems. And Weber, of course, you know, takes these poems, creates this half review, half musical, half horny dance piece. Cats was not awfully received. It was just sort of coldly received. The critics are sort of like, I don't know what this is. It clearly works for people. But, like, this is. I don't think that this is high art. And it ultimately goes to become the longest running show in Broadway history up until that point, overtaking A Chorus Line. It wins numerous Tony Awards, including Best Musical. And I think Cats might be the only Broadway and West End hit to be such a sensation and such an international joke. At the same time. There are shows that, you know, opened and were very successful the first time around. And over the years, as time has gone on, looking back on them, we. We look at them and go, what were we thinking? And never even a show that's as big a hit as Cats was. I think a lot of musical theater people look at, say, kismet and go, oh, geez, that's a. That's a weird one. And it'll never have a revival again. And it shouldn't. Not just because it's. The politics are off, but the book is a mess, but the score is fantastic. But Cats, like Cats, was this anomaly of. It became so popular so quickly, and yet there was also the narrative of. But it's also stupid and. And people who actually have taste don't really like it. And it was openly mocked in various forms of pop culture jokes about it and in other plays like Six Degrees of Separation and Angels in America, you can see jokes about it in. In film at the time, from the late 80s, early 90s TV shows. Even after Cats close on Broadway, TV shows still making fun of it, like in Family Guy, and in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Crazy Ex Girlfriend. And I think part of it is Cats is as a musical, a very earnest musical, a very weird musical and a very horny musical. And it's difficult to balance horny, weird and earnest all at the same time. Especially when you're not talking about human characters, you're talking about Cats. And when the plot isn't even complicated and dense. So people can think of it more like as a puzzle. It is truly a two sentence plot that gets stretched out for two and a half hours. And so then people go, oh, well, the show doesn't make sense. No, actually the show makes perfect sense. It's just like there's nothing beyond that. It really is just that bitch or that cat, I guess. And so for decades the show has had this reputation. And so for this production which takes all of the material and applies it to ballroom culture, meaning the Harlem ballroom scene, not ballroom dancing, but Vogue and Runway Paris is burning pose, it gives the show another life and gives permission for a lot of people to appreciate what Cats always had going for it without having to say, I like this musical. I think that that is the first miracle of this production that it allows cats to have this kind of new reputation again. Because the thing about this production is they don't really change anything material wise. There are, they cut two songs. They cut the Peaks and the Pollicles which is, you know, hello and goodbye, who cares? And they cut Growl Tiger's Last Stand, which also I'm like, okay, bye bye, snip snip. If you don't know those songs Peaks in the Pollicles, you can watch a video of it on YouTube. They, they performed it for the 1998 live capture video. And then if you don't know Growl Tiger's Last Stand, that was the performance within the performance of Gus the Theater Cat's flashback to his heyday as a, as a performer. And it' it's an 11 minute long operetta and it really, when I saw it as a kid, when I saw it when I was 10 years old, the thing I remember most about it was how the set for it came out from the back of the wall like a pop up book. And that was really cool. And then it was 10 minutes of faux Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. And it has its fans. It absolutely has its fans. I am not one of them and I would argue there are more of us who are not fans of Grell Tiger's Last Dance. So it's not a, it's not Sacrilege that either song got cut. Those are really the only edits made to it. Everything else is there. There are a couple of ad libs, you know, during entrances and exits, because the way that Ballroom works. If you're unfamiliar and if you're unfamiliar, please watch the documentary Paris is Burning. It is one of the greatest documentaries of all time. And if you are a queer person, you will be shocked how many phrases from our queer vernacular come directly from Paris is Burning. But ballroom is a competitive field. And so in ballroom, you have various categories, which you better believe they emphasize to the nth degree. Catagori is. And so whenever there's a new category in Jellicle Ball, that is when there's a little bit more of, like, improv, but beyond the improv and, you know, I guess a couple of club beats in those transitions. This is ultimately Cats, which for some people is a hindrance. People have gone to see it and they've gone, yeah, I saw it. At the end of the day, it's still Cats. And to which I say, yeah, and isn't that amazing that it's still Cats and yet they're able to make this. Ultimately, it's just such a wildly creative production, the kind of revival that we should always be applauding because it's such a bold swing. And they. And it works. And this is not something that necessarily you would do with a more narrative driven show like, say, a Showboat or a Dreamgirls. You can't really set Dream Girls in Ballroom. Dreamgirls is set in a very specific decade and has a very specific storyline. But Cats, you can do this. I'm not sure how you can be a Cats fan and be so precious to a strict idea of what it needs to be, because it's already such a weird piece. In order for it to live on, it kind of needs to get broken apart and rebuilt again, like this production does. In terms of major changes between Broadway and Off Broadway, not much. There are a couple small casting replacements. Fun fact, the original Macavity from the original Broadway production of Cats is the DJ in this production. His name is Ken Ard. He also plays it's DJ Griddlebone is how they call him. So there's nice symmetry there. Without giving too much away, how they do the Heaviside Layer reveal for Grizabella at the end of the show is different, more effective, in my opinion. And some costume changes, some spacing differences. They do use as much of the Broadhurst Theater as they can. The Broadhurst at the end of the day is a proscenium house with a very low mezzanine. So the overhang, you know, blocks off the top of the theater for the last five or six rows of the orchestra. If you are in the last five or six rows of the mezzanine, while you have a good view of everything, you are kind of far away. And the company cannot reach every single row, but they do make it through to the boxes and to the mezzanine and into the house. And so it doesn't just feel like it's all proscenium bound. And from my first time seeing it on the stage to my second time seeing it in the audience, I noticed that the staging, through small tweaks, allowed people on stage to see more of the performances. Because when I saw it the first time, a lot of it felt like it was played out with occasional turns to us. And granted, while you're in onstage seating, you shouldn't feel entitled to have the whole thing be played to you, but you should feel a little more included. And I felt within those couple of days, the team really did tweak it enough that the staging felt more inclusive of everybody. And even though you might miss a cat here or there in the house, depending on where you're sitting, the team has also wisely put screens throughout the theater. So any major projections that you need to see, like which category is happening, the projections during Moments of Happiness, which I will get to, you see, you get to see all that no matter where you're sitting. So that's very important. I don't know if this isn't any nuanced changes that they did. Cooper, if you're listening, please DM me and tell me if this is true. But the whole Macavity storyline in this production, off Broadway, it was a little confusing to me. I wasn't quite sure what they were doing with Macavity, what the whole point of that song was. And with the disappearance of Deuteronomy and on Broadway, it's much clearer to me what is going on. It's basically, without giving too much away, it's the first scene of pose, but with genuine consequences. Leiomy, who's a new addition to the company, as Macavity, really helps sell first the fun and the Anais thinker attitude of Macavity. And then you actually see the weight of their actions, the consequences of their actions hit them at the end of the song. The thing about this Jellicoe ball is, like, yes, it is a party, and it is a celebration, and it is a celebration of the expression of queer and bipoc splendor and artistry and excellence, which is so, so magnificent to see. It is not about victimhood, it is not about tragedy. It is about persevering and not just surviving, but thriving. If you've watched Trixie Mattel and Katya on YouTube, do their Netflix we like to watch series, this is them watching Netflix content for Netflix and reacting to it. And they are watching the America's Next Top Model documentary, which I refuse to watch, but I know everything that went down in it because I've watched way too many YouTube YouTube essays about it, because I am. What a loser Trixie talks about when Ms. J is talking about their stroke and their medical diagnosis. Afterwards, Trixie gets very choked up and explains. There's something really magical about being fabulous, about being this fabulous creature, because it's something that is innately within you that maybe doesn't come out immediately when you're born, especially with queer male presenting figures, society doesn't necessarily want you to be fabulous. And so the fact that you're able to come into your fabulosity, own it and thrive in it, there's a magic about that. And it's not something that can be taught either. And that's why it's so potent and it's tangible. But you can't. You can't grab it. It's. It's either you have it or you don't. And it's. I think that's sort of where the magic of this cat's comes in, of channeling that fabulosity. I mentioned this in the Wild Party review of sort of the difference between Tonya Pinkins and Eartha Kitt in their performances as Dolores as Tonya Pinkins was very anti mame on ketamine of I'm Fabulous Darling and Eartha Kitt also had that. But Eartha Kitt's fabulousness came from being a survivor and thus she was fabulous. But she was also furious because she had to survive and she hated that this is what she had to do. Angelica Ball is the same narrative as Eartha Kits Dolores, but without the anger. Because anger, I guess you could say, is allowing those who suppressed you to get the better of you. Obviously, when you are having to fight in the moment, anger is important. It's what. It's what drives a lot of us to, you know, keep going and to push back. But once you've done that and when you have moments to yourself where you have to just live having anger in the moments where you're supposed to have joy or where you should have joy. It is sort of an acknowledgment that those who want to hurt you have gotten to you. And by letting go of it, you were proving to your suppressors. Suppressors, oppressors, I guess. Oppressors, suppressors, prepressors. I'm going down a rabbit hole now. A cat hole, a K hole. By letting go of all that, you are proving to those people that ultimately what they do to you doesn't matter to you. They cannot tell you who to be. They cannot tell you how to act. They cannot tell you how your life should go or what you can and cannot have. Only you can do that. And so when you fight back to prove and justify your space in this world, once you've done that, then you can decorate your space and decorate yourself and enjoy. And that is sort of Jellicoe Ball is majority of the time. That moment of now I'm enjoying myself. That said, there are also moments where it acknowledges what it took to get to this moment. And again, not for a moment of pain, not from a moment of anger, but acknowledging the past. The Top of Act 2 is a song called Moments of Happiness, and it's sung by old Deuteronomy, as played by Andre de Shields. And it has always been a skip for me. Dawg. There are a few songs in Cats that have always been a skip for me. This is one of them. And yet in this production, God bless them, they have managed to make it not only a skip, but an ability to incredibly powerful moment when Deuteronomy is singing to Syllabub. Syllabub. Do you ever find yourself sometimes saying a character name in Cats and feel like you're having a stroke? Bumblerina. Syllabub. Monka strap. It's just T.S. eliot, man. You're a weirdo and an anti Semite. But we'll get more into that when we talk about Giant in a few days. Deuteronomy is singing to Syllabub the song Moments of Happiness. And as Deuteronomy is singing, there are projections all over the theater of all of the different founders of ballroom, of all the different houses. House of Labeija, House of Extravaganza, I believe, the House of Ninja. And it is recognition and a thank you to those who fought the fight so we could be here now. Because our existence isn't an accident. Somehow different parts of our species were able to game the system and become the deciders for the rest of us of how our lives are going to go. And so by having our predecessors move the earth for us, it allows us to rise up. And that is very important. And that is what makes that song not a skip. That said, there are also those who get forgotten as through the inevitable process of progress and moving forward, characters like Grizabella. In the original versions, original iterations of Cats, Grizabella has always been the princess track. It's Betty Buckley, Elaine Page, J. Hud in the movie, and you know, she's the old slutty whore cat who everyone doesn't like for reasons that are kind of hard to understand for an audience. But there's a whole bible that tells you, like, she went off with Macavity and she became a sex worker and everyone was like, no to the sex work. And she eventually pleads her case with memory and gets accepted into the Jellicle Clan and gets to go to the Heaviside Layer. And in this production, it's more that Grizabella is so stuck in the past with her painted makeup and her clothes that are way too old and run down. She shouldn't be wearing them anymore. And it's almost like she's an embarrassment to the present day Jellicles, because you mirror her with Gus, the theater cat played by Junior labeija, which talk about a song that for some people has been a skip. When I was a child, it was a skip. But as I got older and I rewatched John mills and the 98 video, I was like, oh, how could this ever be a skip? This is. This song breaks my heart and moves me all at once. And Junior labeija, not since John Mills has that song hit me quite so hard. So thank you, Junior labeija. But you watch Gus, the theater cat and you see how the Jellicles are not against older, you know, folks, and they're not against the past, but they want to dwell on the positives. Gus had a lovely past and they're still lovely today. While they can't perform like they used to, they still take care of themselves. Their fabulousness is still intact. Grizabella's fabulous is not intact, at least not to the Jellicles. And her memory at the end of the show is a reclamation of her fabulousness and of why. Of why she still deserves space in this community. Even if her heyday is behind her, even if she is kind of holding onto the ghost of who she was, she still deserves attention and she still deserves respect. She's not asking for the whole room 24 7. She's just asking for you. Know attention in this moment, and she gets it. And all of it is very, very powerful and shows you that these directors are not just these directors. By the way, being Bill Rauch. And Jalen Levingston is Roch Rouch. I think it's Bill Rauch is. How you say, Bill's last name. I know it's Jalen. Jalen Levingston. But their production, how they've put this production together, how they've sort of helms the whole experience, shows you that they're not just doing a campy, gay time. There is actual meat on the bone here. There is something to be said, there is something to feel. And I think that is what pushes this production off to an even higher echelon than it would have been at the start. Because the show begins with such a powerful and supercharged high. Jellicoe Songs for Jellicoe Cats has always been a bop for me and a fantastic opening number. It's even more so in this production. And it just keeps pushing and pushing with energy and ingenuity. And if you can make one ding against it is like that. Where the cats of it all comes in is like by being so review like, of each cat, you know, competing for the ultimate Jellicle choice. After an hour, it becomes a little repetitive, but because in this production, everyone is such d. Dynamic personalities, it doesn't. It's not as repetitive as it could be, because rather than going, oh, God, another song about another cat, you're excited to see what this performer brings to the table. Like Nora Schell as Buster for Jones. Another song that has been a skip for me in the past. And because of what Nora does with it, it becomes this explosion of genuine body positivity and sensuality and comedic sensuality. I guess I. I feel like I'm repeating myself, but, like, it's a. It's a sensuality that is both a proud ownership of oneself with also a sly wink to those who might be uncomfortable with being so brazen. You know, it's having a little bit of both ways, which I appreciate. And so I think even with that ding against it of the cats of it all of the repetitiveness, this production, I think, pushes back against that by having each performer be so different from each other. Right. Skimbleshanks is so unique from Mungo Jerry and Rebel Teaser, which is so unique from Buster for Jones, which is so unique from Gus and from Macavity. It's really hard to get bored. I think the only other ding I can imagine for this, and it's not Enough to really make a huge difference for me. But it's something that I know people have spoken about and I want to acknowledge it because I see where they're coming from and I do sort of agree. Tempis is the performer who plays Grizabella and Tempus is a major presence in ballroom culture both today and years past. And Tempress is a trans woman. And she's beautiful and she actually has a really lovely quality to her voice. It's very rich and thick, Nice thick folds. I do wish she were like 15% of a better singer. Not because her performance of Memory is bad. What she puts into it is really powerful and she doesn't sound bad on it. I want that to be very clear. But because she's not as strong of a singer as we are used to on that song. Not of Betty Buckley or Elaine Paige, Jennifer Hudson, what have you, Mamie Paris, Liz Calloway, Lillias White, I could go on. We are used to performers of that level really kind of selling the end of that song. The Touch me, It's so easy to leave me. We're used to long held out notes and these melismas on the song that Tempuris can't really do. The song also is placed in a way so that way when we get to that final chorus, it really is in her sweet spot and she sounds good on it. You want her to actually hold the notes longer because she sounds so good. And that is partly what I mean by wishing she was a slightly better singer. That I don't know if she's able to do that, or at least not yet. But also because it's placed so that way she can really sell the end of it. The beginning of the song is actually a little low for her. And so she's actually quite sharp on the first verse or so of Memory. Not in a way that's painful, but in a way that subconsciously puts the whole audience a little on edge of. Oh, if she's a little sharp right now, does she have what it takes to. To get to the end of this? And she does, she does. Having seen her twice now, she does get to the end of it and does it nicely. But there is that little like little thing about it. It's not a bad vocal performance and I want to make that abundantly clear because I'm sure that there are cats purists out there who are like ride or dies for Elaine or Betty or what have you. And I get it. Betty Buckley is a, you know, very unique Voice and talent. And same with Elaine Paige. Like, those are genuinely stellar theater voices. And Tempress is not that. But Tempress is a good singer and has a very wonderful quality to her singing. So it's not that you are being shortchanged with memory, but it is not the vocal memory that people have been used to for the last 40 plus years. So that's something to remember. But her performance is still very moving and wonderful. I mean, every performance is. Everyone's talking, of course, about Andre de Shields as old Deuteronomy. Andre, of course, is, you know, has this grandeur and this iconic epicness about him. He is 80 years old, should be noted, and is not the mover that he once was, nor can he be. It's actually very sweet to see Sidney James Harcourt as Rump Tum Tuggar help him on and off the stage. And as Andre walks sideways on the steps. That is sort of. That is moments of happiness in Gus the theater cat happening in real time in the show. And it's very beautiful. But it's not just that he still got it at 80. He is giving a genuinely powerful and engaging performance that really draws you in. Once he enters the show, the whole energy of the theater shifts and he's in control of the entire room. And I do want to make a note to the production team, if they're listening, just make sure that with Andre and with everybody, it is gonna be very easy for everyone in this show and to get a little indulgent because the theater is so electric and this production is so stellar and everyone is so on fire and having the time of their lives. It's very easy to let that get the better of you and start to take longer with things, especially Andre's entrance. And, you know, those slower moments, do not let that happen. Those will be the small paper cuts that will lead to a lighty bleeding out of this show. And the show has so much life in its blood that you don't want to let that happen. But at the. And Andre is very much in control of himself and his timing. And it's really phenomenal to see Sidney James Harcourt, as I said, also really phenomenal as Rum Tum Tugger. He's doing sort of like a Jason Derulo Rum Tum Tuggar, but like Jason Derulo in real life, not Jason Derulo in the movie version of Cats. And so again, for some Cats purists, they might be a little underwhelmed because what Sidney's doing is these very R and B heady melismas. That are stunning but are not the musical theater comedy that we're used to from, say, like a Terrence Mann or Whoever did the 98 live action. And his sexuality as Rum Tum Tucker also is played less for laughs and less like Mick Jaggery and much more like a genuine no, no, no, I be fucking once I get off this stage. And he and Mistoffeles have like, a genuine oh, no, we've absolutely fucked. And there's no doubt about it vibe, which I appreciate. Junior labeija as Gus, the theater cat. So moving. And I wouldn't say heartbreaking like, as like John mills is in 98, but it is. It's just a very powerful moment and also is important to show you that this is a production that knows when to sit still. There are a lot of revivals that do not know when to sit still. This revival understands that once Gus is sitting down and this number is happening, there is no pyrotechnics. There is no gimmick. It is sitting and listening to your elder speak of the past so it can inform your present and your future. And it's so lovely. I also want to give. I do want to give a shout out to the performer playing Jelly. Is it Jelly Rollum? Jelly Jelly Lorem, T.S. eliot. These names. Can you help a bitch out? Jelly Lorem is played by Bryson Battle. Lovely voice. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful voice. Wonderful soprano. Well done. I mean, I could go on forever talking about everyone in this show and who's and what everyone brings to it, but these are the performances that really stood out to me. I also do want to shout out our Skimbleshanks, who is played by Emma Sophia in this production. Skimbleshanks is an MTA cat. And the way that Emma Sophia holds her MetroCard between her two fingers and just commands the stage with a look, with a bevel. I went with my friend Patrick and he didn't even realize that Emma Sophia plays a different role, or rather say has a different look for act one, because when she comes out with her very long hair for Skimbleshanks, he was like, has she been off stage this entire time? And I went, no, bitch. She wore a bob in act one. That's. That's a, you know, an actress playing two different parts. And he was. He was so blown away. So congrats, Emma Sophia. You have the range. I also would like to give a shout out to Demeter, BB Nicole Simpson voice that shows up to work and has no sick days. Godspeed. God bless. This is also a show by the way that makes you go, we really should have a wig design category at the Tony Awards. Really? Really? Really. The wigs are stunning and foolproof. Tens across the board. So with all this said, is this Jellicle Ball worth seeing? Absolutely. Absolutely. I will tell you where it fits in my official rankings of the season at the end in May before we get to the Tony Awards. But I will say I have a few shows left to see. Only three musicals left, but I. Or four. Four musicals. I can't imagine any of the last four musicals besting Jellicoe Ball for me on this list. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the Jellicoe Ball is my number one musical production this season. It's just I've had a back and forth relationship with Cats. I fell in love with the show when I was a kid. I loved the music. I loved the 98 video. I got to see it on Broadway right before it closed. It blew my mind. And then as I got older and my tastes expanded, I started to discard it and I thought less of it. And I also did let the world's mentality about the show get to me. And I saw the revival in 2016, I. And for the first three or four songs, I was like, why is everyone shitting on this show? It's so fun. And then we get to. I think it's old Deuteronomy, maybe. Or maybe it was. No, I think it was Buster for Jones and Buster for Jones happened in 2016. I was like, oh, right. It's just this for two and a half hours. And the length of the repetitiveness got to me. And then the movie, of course, came out, which made the show internationally ridiculed. And then this production by giving it a new viewpoint. But the same heart allowed me to remember how really strong this score is. Webber gets dinged a lot, as he should, for being repetitive, for being schmaltzy. And he gets dinged for his epic sweeping music that isn't always appropriate and for lyrics that are silly, even though he's like only just a co lyricist writer. And Cats is really, for me, the last time Webber was interesting. It was the last time he got weird. And he doesn't actually repeat that often because each song is a different cat. He can't really use the melody of Mungo Jerry and Rumble Teaser for Skimbleshanks. The only two melodies he really kind of uses frequently are Memory, which it's one and two, and then also the Heaviside layer melody, which is used in the Overture it's used in the Jellicle Ball and it's used when Grizbel goes to the heavy side layer. And I think it's used very effectively. It's really well done music. And again, I can't stress this enough when you compare it to Phantom and Sunset and Starlight Express and School of Rock and even Bat Cinderella or Woman in White. Cats is a very unique piece. It's much closer to Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita than it is to Sunset and Phantom. And that's something that we should all be celebrating. I guess the last question you all have is Tony chances. Where do we see this going? I mean, I guess I've been showing my hand here. I think this is the lock to win for revival. I've honestly been saying it since they announced that they were coming to Broadway. I said, if they can make it work in the theater, then they have revival locked up. And spoiler alert, they do make it work in the theater. And so I think they have revival locked up, especially because this is absolutely for sure winning director. And only once has a revival won director and not one revival. And that was the John Doyle Sweeney Todd, which was a feat, but also was super divisive. I would also argue Sweeney Todd is a much more beloved show. So Jack Doyle, Jack Doyle, John Doyle. Fucking with it rubbed some people the wrong way. Not as many theater people have the same attachment to Cats. So it being fucked around with a little bit in this production is a little more accepted. Also, I would argue that while it is fuck just in terms of concept, it is still very true to the spirit of the show. And I think that'll be helpful to it in the. In the longer run. And it's just such as I said, an explosion of creativity and ingenuity and talent that I just think it can't be denied. So I think it's winning revival, it's winning director, it's winning costumes, it's winning choreography. I think we'll see it nominated for lighting and sound and set design. I think it's going to be eligible for orchestrations, where I do imagine it will be nominated, because, first of all, it's an orchestra half the size of the original, so that means new charts, which Webber has done. So there's that there is some clubbeat elements to it, not to all of it, but enough that it is distinct. And so I don't think it'll necessarily win orchestrations, but I do think they will get nominated. I think we will see Andre de Shields nominated for sure. I think Temperis will be nominated for Grizabella and then there are multiple options for featured as well. I think that Sidney James Harcourt and Junior labeija are absolutely in the conversation. I think Emma Sophia is in the conversation. You know, I mean, Leiomy, I think would be a wonderful featured actress nomination. I don't think it'll happen, but I do want to give her her roses for her macavity. They all deserve roses. Everyone deserves roses. Congrats to all of you. That's really all I have. Angelica Ball. I say all I have. I've been going forever right now. If you have more questions about Jellicoe Ball, about my thoughts on it, about specific moments or characters or whatever, feel free to join the Discord Channel and ask me there. You can also ask me on Substack. I'll have links for both of them in the description for this episode. If you are in town Sunday, May 3rd, make sure to get a ticket to see our next live show at Green Room 42. Reviewing the 20252026 season, our guest artists include former Broadway Breakdown guest Chelsea Williams. Some of you might have seen Chelsea on stage on Broadway in Mamma Mia. Or in Trans it across the country in Mamma Mia. Or across the country in Jesus Christ Superstar. She just did Octet in dc and our other guest is Nicholas Baron, who is currently in Ragtime. Some of you might have seen him go on for Mother's Younger Brother in that production. So they are our two guests for the May 3rd show. So the category is Vocal Opulence. I don't know what I am doing singing with the two of them, but it's gonna be a fun time. We are covering as much of the season as we can in 75 minutes. So come on in and see what it's all about. Yeah, again, if you've been liking the podcast, give us a nice 5 star rating or review. There will be another review coming out on Thursday. It's I think we're pretty much going to just be doing non stop reviews from now until Tony's, with one or two more Tony episodes coming out before the nominations. So just heads up, that's sort of what the next two to three weeks are going to look like. So Thursday is going to be Titanique and then Saturday is going to be Giant Death of a Salesman and Becky Shaw. And then after that will be Every Brilliant Thing, Dog Day Afternoon and fear of 13 and so on and so forth. But yeah, we're well on our way to seeing every show this season. So buckle up kid a Roos. Who do we want to close out this episode with? I think in the spirit of Grizabella, we haven't done Liz Calloway in a long time, and she was who I saw as Grizabella on Broadway. So I think we'll close out with Liz Calloway. Yeah, that's what we're gonna do today. All right, thank you so much for listening, guys. Sorry if I rambled at all, but. Well, this is the podcast. We know. We know how it all goes. We will see you in two days for Titanique. All right, take it away, Liz.