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welcome to a joint review, recap and Grosses report episode of Broadway Radio. My name is Matt Tim and on today's episode I'm going to be bringing you all of the incredible reviews for Cats, the Jellicoe Ball, which opened at the Broadhurst Theater on Tuesday night and also running you through all of the data from the box office grosses for the week on Broadway. That ended on April 5th. But as I said, we are going to start with the reviews from the Cats opening night and while I expected this show to be very, very well received, it is now by far the most well reviewed show on Broadway this season. We will get to that here in just a minute. But of course, this is a show that is reimagining the classic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of Cats into a queer ballroom competition. It is directed by Zylon Livingston and Bill Rauch and choreographed by Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons. The scenic design by Tony winner Rachel Hauck features a catwalk that at the Off Broadway space at the Perelman Performing Arts center kind of was the entire stage and audiences were seated on all three sides of the stage. Now at the Broadhurst, the catwalk is sitting on stage and then goes out a little bit into the audience and there is some table seating on the stage, but a little bit of a different vibe. But I think from the reviews it still works. The cast is a mix of both Broadway names and icons from the ballroom community. Original Broadway Cats company member Ken Ard plays DJ Griddlebone Primo the Ballerino plays Tumble Brutus Bryson Battle plays Jelly Lorem. Jonathan Burke plays Mungo Jerry Baby Byrne plays Victoria. Tony winner Andre Deshields is Old Deuteronomy Sydney James Harcourt is Rum Tum Tugger, one of the pioneers of ballroom. Junior Labija plays Gus, star of the TV show Pose. Leomi plays Macavity Robert Silk mason is magical Mr. Mistoffeles Tempress Chasity Moore is Grizabella Xavier Reyes is Jenny Anydot. Nora Schell is Bustopher Jones BB Nicole Simpson is Demeter Garrett Williams is Bumble Arena. The cast goes on and on. Every one of them, according to the reviews, is spectacular. But let's talk about those reviews because as of recording time, did they like it? Has recorded 16 reviews, 15 were positive, one was mixed and I called the mixed one earlier this week. I actually all do credit to Robert Hoffler of the Rep. I did think that he would be negative, but he is just mixed so what can you do? But Helen Shaw of the New York Times was not only positive, but she made the show a critics pick, writing in part quote Livingston and Rauch recast the mega musical's Jellico Ball as a ballroom competition, an event that includes both RuPaul's Drag Race style walk offs and a series of voguing dance battles. The new approach infuses the kitsch of the original with queer communitarianism, sincerity and a spirit of ecstatic trans liberation. Sense emerges out of nonsense. A fanciful person might call this result a tenth life, Talking about all of the different incarnations over the decades of Cats, the original Cats might have been a bit fluffy in the meaning department, but Cats the Jellicle Ball is thinking about legacy and the structures of care that emerge from intergenerational performance. The text contains relevant echoes, so many that they seem to go beyond coincidence. Jellicle Cats are black and white. The not cats sing as she mentions. No longer are the characters actual literal cats looking at one another meaningfully, or they land a little heavily on the phrase come out tonight. Eliot's poems insist that cats keep a secret true name, and the Jellicles wander across a city that sometimes strokes them, sometimes starves and abuses them. In its most pointed, lyrical moments, the show insists on the right of these self possessed slinky creatures to be seen and admired, but also when they wish it to be left alone. Helen Shaw's New York Times review does go into a lot of the details about ballroom culture and who some of these people were and how this transition works. So if you want to get some information on that, I do highly recommend reading that. And there's also a great video of the show as well that the Times shot that corresponds with the article. But that is just one of the positive reviews. Jackson McHenry of Vulture was also positive, saying, quote, the production makes a thrilling number of choices to update and revise and comment on the bizarre musical entity born of a posh Brit's love of T.S. eliot's poems for children, but it retains the basic load bearing elements of the original show. There are cats portrayed air quote style by actors as ballroom performers. They are gathering for their ball and they sing all the songs you know. And yet, in placing new context and bodies inside the suit of 80s excess, the Jellicle Ball reinvents it. Arriving on Broadway, the Jellicoe Ball proves itself to be more than a fluke or a flight of fancy. It's spectacular. Frank Rizzo of Variety was also positive, saying, quote, broadway is burning, and that's something to celebrate. Cat's the Jellicle Ball, a refreshed version of the downtown 2024 hit, blazes anew, having made the trek uptown with its extravagance, pride and sense of joy intact. Shannon Russell of Entertainment Weekly was also positive, saying, quote, through it all, there's a euphoric energy pulsing through the theater, manifesting in several moving ways quiet weeping, dropped jaws, fervent applause, and the occasional attendee literally vibrating with excitement. Obviously, everyone sporting cat ears to the show knows they're in for a treat, but you need not come with a score already memorized. The spectacle of Jellicoe Ball is intoxicating for all who enter and give themselves over to the glamour. Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post, also positive, said, without fail, the best Broadway shows are the off the charts inventive ones that could not have possibly originated anywhere else but the five boroughs this season. That's the Jellicoe Ball. Only in New York, kittens. Only in New York. Joey Sims of Theaterly said, it works because the ballroom setting lends weight and specificity to a narrative world that previously felt airless, abstract to the point of nothingness. It works because Weber's songs translate easily to ballroom categories. Most of all, it works because it's a hell of a lot of fun, and on Broadway it somehow works even better. I did worry that something might get lost in the tighter confines of the Broadhurst. A flexible space at pack had allowed for both a long Runway on stage and bustling actions on all sides. Could the magic survive the transfer? I needn't have fretted. On Broadway, Cats, the Jellicle Ball has both sharpened in its staging and deepened in its significance. Zachary Stewart of Theatermania, also positive, said, this is a culture steeped in tradition and history. The Chosen Family is its bedrock, and elders hold a place of high esteem, though there are two few. This is not the story about queer people our detractors want told, but it is the truth, and it lives on Broadway eight times a week. This is how you do a revival. I will begrudgingly give you a little bit of Robert Hoeffler's mixed review because it is the only one that was not effusive. He wrote, quote, I'll get to memory in a moment, but every other song in Cats is rinky tank to the extreme. Only when William Waldrop's orchestrations riff by imposing a bump, stomp and grind rhythm to the original score does this cat spring alive to grow painted claws. When there's dancing, the musical soars. When there's singing, the musical shows its age. Fortunately, the cast really knows how to wear clothes and strut, with Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons choreography, giving the dancers ample room to show off their incredible extension and flexibility. I'll wrap with one last positive review before moving on to the grosses, and that comes from Greg Evans of Deadline, who said, quote, what wasn't preordained is just how beautifully executed the entire venture turns out to be. You'd have to be a real stickler for tradition to begrudge Jellicoe Ball its innovations, and one suspects even the stickliest will find joy in the tunes and story that remain in the show's DNA. It's all still here, fueling yet another life, familiar as an old tabby, yet fresh as a kitten. I personally am ecstatic that these reviews are as good as they were. I was worried about the transition, and not just because, like, it's in a Broadway theater, you know, might not work as well in that space. But I was also just kind of worried about the more stodgy approach that some critics take to what is happening on the mainstream, even if they enjoyed something off Broadway. We see so many shows that worked as downtown shows because they maintained that air of rebellion and reinvention that does so well in off Broadway spaces. And then when they come to Broadway, the critics want something a little bit more tried and true. They want something that looks like what they consider a Broadway musical. But I am very happy that all of the critics seem to not only think that the transition and the move uptown worked, but also seem to have embraced the show even more than they did off Broadway. So cannot wait to see this one in a few weeks. And I'm ready for this one to win a bunch of awards at the Tonys. All right, let's move over to the grosses for the week that ended on Easter. That will obviously play a pretty major part. April 5th. This was the 45th week of the 2025, 2026 Broadway season, and in total there were 40 shows on the boards, folks. That will be a high for the season because The Schubert is empty following the closure of Hell's Kitchen and nothing coming in to take that space during the spring. Spring in total they brought in $43,241,429. That is up 12% over the previous week and 2% over the previous year when there were 39 shows on Broadway. Total attendance was at 334,631 people, up 14% from the previous week and up 4% from last year. But interestingly enough, the average ticket price dropped to $129.22, down 2% from last week and 1% from last year. In total, not one, not two, not three, but four shows brought in north of $2 million last week. Three of the top five grossers last week were aided by a ninth show. The top of the list was the Lion King had nine shows brought in $2,823,250. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at just eight performances was pretty close at 2.8 million. Hamilton was just under 2.6 and Wicked again nine shows was at 2.1 million. Aladdin rounded out the top five with nine shows at 1.8. The rest of the shows north of seven figures in descending order are Stranger Things, The First Shadow, MJ, Moulin Rouge, Every Brilliant Thing, the Outsiders, the Great Gatsby, Chicago Giant in seven performances, Ragtime, Dog Day Afternoon, Hadestown, and maybe happy ending. Joe Turner's come and gone in its first week of previews it did do a full eight show week. It got pretty close to $1 million at 992,574 proof in its first week on Broadway did a total of $726,603 over a five show week. So if you extrapolate that to a full eight show performance week, that would be about 1.16 million. Schmigadoon also had its first performance on Broadway, just one preview. Last week it did $169,191. Again one show, you do that over eight. As my calculator tells me, that would be 1.35 million. The ballisters also began its performances on Broadway. It did six shows last week, but only brought in $158,188. Again that is a Manhattan 3 Theater Club production at the same O.J. friedman Theater. So not for profit. Rules and subscription house things obviously apply there. In total, 32 of Broadway's 40 productions played a 90 capacity or more. Ragtime Proof and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child were all at 100%. Then going up, we had Schmigadoon, Dog Day Afternoon, Hadestown and Hamilton between 100 and 101%. And the new leader in terms of capacity is The Outsiders at 101.28%. Obviously dethroning just in time following the departure of Jonathan Groff. But with Matty Morrison in the lead, still did very well at 98.74% capacity. They only did seven shows last week, so we'll see what a full week of Mr. Shu playing Bobby Darin looks like moving forward. As I said earlier, that was the 45th week of the 2025, 2026 Broadway season. In total, the main stem has been brought in during this season. $1,631,266,217, an increase of 7% year over year. Total attendance this year is up to 12,274,398 people, an increase of 3%. All right, everybody, that's all that I have for you today. Thank you so much for supporting Broadway radio. If you want more BroadwayRadio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio thanks for listening. This has been Matt Tammanini and I'll talk to you soon.
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Sam.