Bloomberg Businessweek 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' Co-Directors Bill Rauch & Zhailon Levingston
May 12, 2026
Bill Rauch, theatrical director and artistic leader at PAC NYC, talks reimagining Cats through ballroom culture. He and co-director Zhailon Levingston explore matching songs to ballroom categories, securing Andrew Lloyd Webber's blessing, translating an immersive Off-Broadway show for a Broadway stage, staging choices that break the proscenium, and plans for touring and long-term impact.
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Origin Story Of The Ballroom Reimagining
- Bill Rauch conceived reimagining Cats around an older Grizabella as a transgender woman singing Memory, which seeded the Ballroom concept.
- That initial personal image evolved into Cats The Jellicle Ball after collaborators reframed the setting from a bar to a ball and expanded the idea.
How The Creative Team Met And Aligned
- Zhailon Levingston describes imagining Cats without literal ears or tails and connecting with Bill through a casting director who saw they had similar ideas.
- Their conversations turned an offbeat downtown impulse into a collaborative proposal to Andrew Lloyd Webber's team.
Why Ballroom Fits Cats Naturally
- The structure of Cats maps naturally onto ballroom culture because both are non-linear showcases of characters presented one-by-one.
- Themes like family, tribe, competition, and pageant-style identity make the Ballroom lens feel organically aligned with T.S. Eliot's work.