The abrupt closing of Cats: The Jellicle Ball has sent shockwaves through the theater community, leaving producers grappling with the sobering reality that an avant-garde reimagining of T.S. Eliot’s feline poetry isn’t a guaranteed four-quadrant cash cow. Seasoned investors are reportedly devastated to learn the show's demographic did not entirely overlap with the Midwestern tourist market.
The sudden shuttering of the critically lauded Andrew Lloyd Webber reinvention has forced a top-to-bottom reckoning among New York’s theatrical elite. Following the announcement, talent reps and publicists scrambled to manage the fallout, with Broadway veterans Sara Ramirez calling the closure heartbreaking, Ben Platt labeling it a travesty, and Rachel Zegler offering a succinct WTF. Sources close to the production indicate the creative team remains baffled as to how a two-and-a-half-hour underground ballroom competition about cats introducing themselves before dying failed to consistently clear $1.2 million a week at the box office.
We looked at the internal tracking for a queer, runway-walking interpretation of 1980s alley cat lore and confidently projected a ten-year run. You simply don't expect a property this universally accessible to struggle with the Tuesday matinee crowd from Poughkeepsie.
Industry insiders note that the closure is already having a chilling effect on the development slate across the Rialto. Several high-profile theatrical packages have reportedly been put into turnaround this week, as risk-averse financiers pull backing from anything lacking a straightforward narrative. Reps for a planned immersive, site-specific Phantom of the Opera set entirely in a Bushwick warehouse are currently struggling to secure a green light, while a grim, dialogue-free reboot of Starlight Express has been quietly shelved.
The newly vacated theater has already been leased to a production with considerably more reliable box-office tracking. Producers confirmed Friday that the venue will house a $25 million jukebox musical built entirely around the B-sides of Richard Marx, which has already sold out its first six months of group sales.