“Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” the ballroom-inspired reinvention of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s megamusical, will end its Broadway run at the Broadhurst Theatre on Aug. 8, four months after its April 7 opening.
The announcement landed like a thud across the theater community. “The Jellicle Ball” had earned rave reviews and three Tony Awards, and tickets had previously been released through January 2027.
The disappointment reflects not only affection for the production but anxiety over Broadway’s increasingly unforgiving economics. Although the show briefly grossed more than $1 million a week, those seemingly respectable numbers were insufficient to cover its substantial capitalization and weekly running expenses.
Following the announcement, Lloyd Webber warned on social media that Broadway is “in dire danger” and urged theater owners, unions and producers to work together before its theaters begin to resemble Hollywood’s “empty soundstages.”
“Broadway is more than a street or a collection of buildings,” Lloyd Webber wrote. “It is an idea — and one of the greatest cultural ideas America has given us.” He added that young theater artists “cannot live on goodwill alone.”
‘Drag Race’ favorite Valentina joins ‘Rocky Horror’ on Broadway
Valentina, the Mexican American drag performer and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” fan favorite, made her Broadway debut Tuesday as Columbia in the Tony-nominated revival of “The Rocky Horror Show” at Studio 54.
Her arrival follows another recent cast change, with three-time Tony nominee Sherie Rene Scott beginning performances as Magenta in late June.
Valentina, who hosted the first season of “Drag Race México,” has also appeared as Angel in Fox’s “Rent: Live,” in “La Usurpadora: The Musical” and in the film adaptation of “In the Heights.” The production bills her as the first transgender Mexican American featured in a principal Broadway cast.
She joins a company led by Luke Evans, Stephanie Hsu, Andrew Durand, Amber Gray, Harvey Guillén, Josh Rivera and Rachel Dratch.
Kennedy Center-canceled ‘Finn’ to receive New York premiere at Atlantic
“Finn,” the children’s musical whose planned national tour was called off amid the Kennedy Center’s abrupt political transformation, has found a new home at Atlantic Theater Company.
The musical will receive its New York premiere as part of Atlantic for Kids, running Dec. 12 through Jan. 31, 2027, at Atlantic Stage 2.
Set beneath the sea, “Finn” follows a young shark who dreams of continuing his family’s tradition by joining the prestigious Shark Guard but discovers that his own interests and identity may lead him elsewhere.
The musical premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2024 and was scheduled to embark on a national tour before its cancellation became public in February 2025, just after the institution’s newly reconstituted board elected President Trump chairman.
The Kennedy Center called the cancellation a financial decision and later contended that it had been made before Trump’s takeover. The writers disputed that timeline and suggested that the musical’s themes of identity and acceptance had made it a target.
Sam Rockwell, Marin Ireland and Alfred Molina to lead ‘A View from the Bridge’ at La MaMa
Sam Rockwell will return to the New York stage this fall as Brooklyn longshoreman Eddie Carbone in a starry Off-Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge.”
Marin Ireland will play Eddie’s wife, Beatrice, with Alfred Molina as Alfieri, the neighborhood lawyer who serves as narrator and moral observer. Neil Pepe will direct.
The production will play for 13 weeks at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre beginning Nov. 27.
The choice of venue is particularly unusual. Rather than returning to Broadway, where the play received major revivals in 2010 and 2015, the staging will unfold at La MaMa, the East Village institution best known as a haven for experimental artists.
The announcement arrives amid renewed interest in Miller. Joe Mantello’s Tony-winning Broadway revival of “Death of a Salesman,” starring Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf and Christopher Abbott, is playing at the Winter Garden Theatre through Aug. 9.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.amny.com ’
