Andrew Lloyd Webber marked the closing of “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” on Saturday with a mix of grief and warning, calling on Broadway to confront production costs he described as unsustainable. The ballroom-inspired revival of his 1981 musical played its final Broadhurst Theatre performance after a run of just over four months.
“I’m gutted that the wonderful Broadway production of ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ is closing today,” Lloyd Webber wrote on Instagram, praising a cast and creative team he said broke new ground and gave 17 performers their Broadway debuts. He said the closing might become the moment that forces the industry to reckon with what it now costs to mount any new show, daring or otherwise.
The production opened April 7 to strong reviews after an acclaimed Off-Broadway run that began in June 2024, and it entered the Tony Awards in June with nine nominations. It won three, for direction, choreography and costume design, but lost the top prize for best musical revival to “Ragtime,” a defeat that theater analysts have since pointed to as a turning point in its commercial fortunes. Grosses topped $1 million a week heading into the ceremony, then slid steadily through the summer, bottoming out at just over $691,000 during the week that included the July 4 holiday before recovering only slightly.
Industry observers have framed the closing as a symptom of broader financial strain across Broadway rather than a verdict on the show itself. The production carried an $18 million capitalization, a typical figure for a modern musical, and had been running at nearly 93 percent capacity through early July with an average ticket price around $109.
Even so, weekly grosses were not covering the show’s running costs. Analysts have pointed to theater rent structures, which combine flat fees with a cut of box office receipts regardless of a production’s profitability, as one pressure point producers are increasingly citing in these decisions.
Lloyd Webber has clashed with Broadway’s economics before, having voiced similar frustration when he brought a reworked version of “The Phantom of the Opera” to New York. He has won seven competitive Tonys over his career, along with a lifetime achievement award in 2018, for shows including “Evita,” “Phantom” and “Sunset Boulevard.” No replacement production for the Broadhurst has been announced.
