“In 1982, I walked onto a Broadway stage in the premiere of ‘Cats’ as Grizabella, a faded glamour cat lit by a single shaft of moonlight, and I sang about memory,” Betty Buckley, who originated the role of Grizabella on Broadway, writes in a guest essay for Times Opinion. “We in the cast knew we were part of something exciting. Something great even. We didn’t know yet that we were stepping into a cultural phenomenon.”
“A few miles uptown, unknown to many sitting in the Broadway audience, another fantastically costumed ritualistic form of pageantry was underway known as ballroom. It’s where the competitive dance form called ‘voguing’ was first developed,” Betty continues. “Members of the Black and Latino L.G.B.T.Q. communities built a dazzling cultural world entirely their own.”
More than 40 years later, as Betty watched the latest iteration of the musical — “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” which is currently in previews at the Broadhurst Theater — “I thought it was more than a reimagining,” she writes. “By intertwining two extraordinary traditions that were blooming in the same city at nearly the same moment, ‘Jellicle Ball’ revealed something to me about New York as a crucible of self-expression in all its forms.”
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“In 1982, I walked onto a Broadway stage in the premiere of ‘Cats’ as Grizabella, a faded glamour cat lit by a single shaft of moonlight, and I sang about memory,” Betty Buckley, who originated the role of Grizabella on Broadway, writes in a guest essay for Times Opinion. “We in the cast knew we were part of something exciting. Something great even. We didn’t know yet that we were stepping into a cultural phenomenon.”
“A few miles uptown, unknown to many sitting in the Broadway audience, another fantastically costumed ritualistic form of pageantry was underway known as ballroom. It’s where the competitive dance form called ‘voguing’ was first developed,” Betty continues. “Members of the Black and Latino L.G.B.T.Q. communities built a dazzling cultural world entirely their own.”
More than 40 years later, as Betty watched the latest iteration of the musical — “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” which is currently in previews at the Broadhurst Theater — “I thought it was more than a reimagining,” she writes. “By intertwining two extraordinary traditions that were blooming in the same city at nearly the same moment, ‘Jellicle Ball’ revealed something to me about New York as a crucible of self-expression in all its forms.”
Read the full piece [here, for free](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/opinion/cats-musical-ballroom-culture-broadway.html?unlocked_article_code=1.YVA.OK8n.6qkFiSLnYbL6&smid=re-nytopinion), even without a Times subscription.