'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' gets 10s across the board

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the latest revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, there are no singing cats. The actors have basically ditched the furry ears and velvet tails and reimagined the characters as competitors in the ballroom scene, vying for trophies and a new chance at life. This week, host Brittany Luse talks to Cats: The Jellicle Ball star Chasity Moore and co-director Zhailon Levingston about ballroom, spectacles and memories.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Christian nationalists want to turn America into a theocracy, a government under biblical rule.
0:07.0	If they gain more power, it could mean fewer rights for you.
0:12.0	I'm Heath Drusen and on the new season of Extremely American
0:16.0	I'll take you inside the movement. Listen to Extremely American from Boise State Public
0:21.2	Radio, part of the NPR Network.
0:24.0	Hello, hello, I'm Brittany Loose and you're listening to
0:30.0	It's been a minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. This week we're talking about one of the hottest tickets in New York City right now.
0:49.0	A revival of Andrew Lloyd Weber's hit musical, Cats.
0:53.0	Cats, the seven-time Tony Award winner,
0:56.0	the once in a lifetime experience,
0:58.0	the most exciting family.
1:00.0	But Cats, the Jellicle Ball,
1:02.0	doesn't look like the musical fever dream of the 80s and 90s.
1:05.0	It's been reimagined through the lens of the ballroom scene.
1:09.0	The actors are no longer cats doing ballet and leotards and full faces of
1:17.5	cat makeup but people in the ballroom subculture who compete for trophies in
1:22.0	different categories like runway, face, or
1:25.1	vogue performance. categories that gain global attention in the documentary
1:29.8	Paris is burning in 1990. Can we have Antit, I spell I got done?
1:37.0	In this revival, no lyrics have been changed.
1:40.0	And it works surprisingly well.
1:42.0	Even if the people still have names like Grizabella, Mungo Jerry, and Jenny Annie dots.
	...

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