Ahead of tonight’s final “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” show, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is speaking out about how producing on Broadway has become “unsustainable.”
“I’m gutted that the wonderful Broadway production of ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ is closing today,” Lloyd Webber wrote on Instagram. “I’m immensely proud to have been a part of an incredibly daring production whose cast and creative team broke new ground on Broadway and gave 17 actors their Broadway debut.”
He also took the opportunity to call out the larger issues affecting the industry: “Maybe the show’s closing just might be remembered as the moment that caused everyone involved with Broadway to come to their senses and address the unsustainable cost of producing and running any new show now on The Great White Way, let alone doing new work.”
“The Jellicle Ball” breathed new life into “Cats” by restaging the popular show as a fierce competition between drag performers. Webber’s original show premiered on Broadway back in 1982 and ran through 2000, winning seven Tony awards. In 2019, it was infamously turned into a critically panned film from “The King’s Speech” director Tom Hooper.
But despite the Tonys awarding “The Jellicle Ball” three awards for best costume design, best direction of a musical and best choreography, strong reviews and online buzz didn’t stop the show from closing five months before planned at the Broadhurst Theatre.
“The Jellicle Ball” started as an off-Broadway production in June 2024. When it premiered on Broadway back in April, the show was initially earning between $900,000 to $1 million a week. But those numbers dropped sharply after “The Jellicle Ball” lost the best revival of a musical Tony Award to “Ragtime.”
This isn’t the first time Lloyd Webber has spoken out about the show’s premature end. In July, he wrote on Instagram: “Without action, Broadway risks rivaling Hollywood’s empty soundstages: increasingly dark theatres where bold new work once lived.”
“The painful truth is that, with things as they are, bringing almost any new show to Broadway makes little financial sense,” Lloyd Webber continued. “The costs are immense. Creators, writers and directors are often forced to accept minimal royalties simply to get work staged.”
Next up, Lloyd Webber and “Sunset Blvd.” director Jamie Lloyd are working on bringing “Evita” with Rachel Zegler to Broadway after its successful West End run.
