NEW YORK (AP) — A DJ with a high-top fade and a crate of vinyl records begins “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” on Broadway. He picks out two LP sleeves, blowing off dust, before settling on a familiar cover with a pair of glowing yellow cat eyes against a black background — the original 1983 cast recording of “Cats.”
It’s a clever way of connecting the past iconic musical theater show with its reimagined, cooler sister now playing at the Broadhurst Theatre. But there’s an even more thrilling connection between these two shows:
That DJ? He starred in the original cast.
Ken Ard is making a triumphant return to Broadway after being away for 25 years in the same show where his career exploded in the early 1980s, now dancing with performers 40 years his junior.
“It’s amazing to have this full circle moment in my life,” he says from his dressing room. “I knew it was right for me then and I knew it was right for me now.”
‘The most spectacular reinvention’
Ard’s return to “Cats” is a story of redemption and resilience, echoing the recovery of New York after the 2001 terror attacks. Ard lived close to ground zero, and the horror of that day left him with PTSD and dented his confidence. He went from an It boy to deeply shaken. “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” is his first Broadway show since the attacks.
“My first audition after 9/11, I burst into tears and left the room because I had no idea what to do or how to feel,” he recalls. “I just was not getting booked anymore. And before that I was getting booked all the time.”
Ard, who grew up in California, studied dance and tried his luck in New York, inspired by shows like “The Wiz” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and by performers like Ken Page and Andre De Shields, the latter who is now his co-star.
He made his Broadway debut in the chorus of “Marlow” in 1981, and “Cats” was his third show. “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” is actually his fourth production for Andrew Lloyd Webber, following “Starlight Express” and “Song and Dance.”
“His music does speak to me in a certain way,” he says. “There’s something about his shows that are whimsical and fun, and I guess I just have been able to fit into them.”
The original “Cats” — for which Ard played Macavity as well as Plato and Rumpus Cat — was a cultural phenomenon, attracting celebrities, soaring ticket sales and a devotion that’s hard to explain. It was the “Hamilton” before “Hamilton.” Ard recalls meeting Diana Ross and Cary Grant.
Ard wasn’t a big fan of the 2016 “Cats” revival — “It was a museum piece,” he says — or the 2019 movie — “a debacle,” he declares — so he didn’t have much hope when he checked out “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” last year at the Perelman Performing Arts Center, which just happens to be at ground zero.
“I went in and I saw this show with my arms crossed, like, ‘What are they going to do with ’Cats?’” he says. “I had not gone back downtown in years and years and years. ‘Cats’ was what got me down there.”
What he saw was a show that transports viewers into the Black and Latino queer ballroom scene of Harlem, which was the inspiration for “Paris Is Burning” and later “Pose.”
“It’s really just the most spectacular reinvention of a show I have ever seen,” says Ard, who says he bawled his eyes out and returned to see it two more times. “All of that trauma was washed away by this show.”
No more peeling potatoes
The music remains the same — albeit with thumping house beats — but the show has a fabulous energy. It’s directed by Zhailon Livingston and Bill Rauch, with choreography by Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons.
The original musical — based on poems by T.S. Eliot — is about felines competing to get into kitty heaven. Ard says the new version is about people competing for a prize. “It makes so much sense,” he says. “It’s not your grandma’s ‘Cats.’”
When he heard it might transfer to Broadway, Ard reached out and was offered the now-enlarged role of DJ Griddlebone, the ball’s sort of hype man, a trickster who pops up in various costumes and dances.
“Having Ken Ard in rehearsal was a magic portal to the original production,” Rauch says. “He gave us thrilling perspective on the original staging and the artists’ intentions from 45 years ago. At the same time, Ken was completely present in every sense of the word, helping us to shape our radically new revival.”
Ard calls the show a celebration of gay and trans joy without any preaching: “I think it’s going to introduce a whole new generation to ‘Cats’ and musical theater. People who haven’t seen themselves on stage are really going to be inspired.”
The show that changed his life once has now done it again. Ard had been working in corporate kitchens for the past decade but hopes his time peeling potatoes is done.
“I think those days are over, really,” he says. “I’m going to manifest that they are because, basically, I’ve been wanting to get back to Broadway ever since my last show.”
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