{"id":33391,"date":"2026-08-08T22:58:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33391"},"modified":"2026-08-08T22:58:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:58:36","slug":"andrew-lloyd-webber-gutted-about-cats-the-jellicle-ball-closing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33391","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Lloyd Webber &#8220;Gutted&#8221; About &#8216;Cats: The Jellicle Ball&#8217; Closing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is \u201cgutted\u201d that the <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/broadway\/\" id=\"auto-tag_broadway\" data-tag=\"broadway\">Broadway<\/a> production of his <em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/cats-the-jellicle-ball\/\" id=\"auto-tag_cats-the-jellicle-ball\" data-tag=\"cats-the-jellicle-ball\">Cats: The Jellicle Ball<\/a> <\/em>is closing tonight at the Broadhurst Theatre, five months earlier than originally planned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an emotional message posted on Instagram, Lloyd Webber says he hopes the show\u2019s closing will serve as a warning about \u201cthe unsustainable cost\u201d of producing new shows on Broadway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m gutted that the wonderful Broadway production of <em>Cats: The Jellicle Ball <\/em>is closing today,\u201d he writes. \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He continues, \u201cMaybe the show\u2019s 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 saying new work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See the message below, along with a note of thanks to fans from the show\u2019s producers who teased \u201ca lot more Jellicle joy to bring to this world\u201d in the days ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today\u2019s message isn\u2019t the first time Lloyd Webber has expressed his disappointment about the early closing. Last month, when the August 8 closing date was announced, <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/07\/cats-jellicle-ball-broadway-closing-1236983195\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1236983195\">he wrote,<\/a> in part, \u201cAs someone who is still as in love with Broadway as I was when I was a teenager, I beg the theatre owners, unions and producers to come together urgently to address what is a crisis coming to a head. Broadway is in dire danger of rivalling Hollywood\u2019s empty soundstages with increasingly dark theatres.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That IG post drew both praise and harsh criticism among commenters. While <em>Sunset Blvd.<\/em> star Nicole Scherzinger commended Lloyd Webber as \u201cexactly the person\u201d to \u201chelp drive the change that\u2019s needed,\u201d others rejected his seeming equating of landlords and union members in sharing the responsibility of Broadway\u2019s financial uncertainties. \u201cSo have the audacity to call out out Shubert Organization which has a monopoly on almost half the Broadway theaters,\u201d wrote one of Lloyd Webber\u2019s followers. \u201cCall out their greed. They want producers to cover the rent and the entire operating costs. They want to keep the telecharge fees which they own. How is this allowed?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wrote a member of a costume crew, \u201cLeave the union workers out of this we deserve to be paid fairly for our work. if you can\u2019t afford to pay us fairly then you can\u2019t afford to produce a show right. Very dangerous to include the unions in this to be honest,\u201d while actor and dancer Neil Haskell wrote, \u201cMost Broadway actors can barely afford to live in the city.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tonight\u2019s closing will almost certainly have at least one immediate impact: A bump in final-week ticket sales. While the box office report for the week won\u2019t be out until Tuesday, last week\u2019s figures showed<em> Cats: The Jellicle Ball <\/em>posting its best box office numbers ever as last-chancers scrambled for seats. The production was at standing room only for the week ending August 2, grossing $1,405,709. That\u2019s an increase of $216,278 over the previous week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regarding today\u2019s message from the composer, at least one famous commenter and Broadway devotee had a suggestion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhy didn\u2019t alw just fund it himself,\u201d commented Rosie O\u2019Donnell. \u201che\u2019s a billionaire.\u201d A big fan of the show, O\u2019Donnell did add a \u201cLike\u201d to Lloyd Webber\u2019s message.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"\/>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is \u201cgutted\u201d that the Broadway production of his Cats: The Jellicle Ball is closing tonight at the Broadhurst Theatre, five months earlier than originally planned. In an emotional message posted on Instagram, Lloyd Webber says he hopes the show\u2019s closing will serve as a warning about \u201cthe unsustainable cost\u201d of producing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Andre-De-Shields-as-\u2018Old-Deuteronomy-from-CATS_-The-Jellicle-Ball.-Photos-by-Matthew-Murphy-and-Evan-Zimmerman-for-MurphyMade-1.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}