There are solid reasons to celebrate the arrival on Broadway of this striking production, which recasts Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical as a Ballroom competition, with a cast of fabulously coiffured and coutured queer characters of color replacing the infamous felines in leotards and whiskers. Politically, their voluminous presence in such a mainstream entertainment feels almost like an act of resistance, given the current federal administration’s  official bigotry.  Artistically, the fresh interpretation not only offers the possibility of a renewed life and a new audience for this overly familiar 45-year-old show; it suggests how the art form as a whole can be reinvigorated.  Broadway “has the power to introduce new audiences to forms of expression they knew nothing about, and to provide stages for performers who deserve the spotlight,”  Betty Buckley, who originated the role of Grizabella on Broadway, wrote recently.  She had seen the Off-Broadway production of  “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” during its acclaimed debut run two years ago, the final production in the inaugural season of the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center site.

That’s the production that’s opening tonight at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theater.  Its transfer to Broadway from downtown makes it a different experience, given the symbolic importance of the Great White Way. But the new venue also makes it a different experience in more practical ways, for better and for worse.

“Cats: The Jellicle Ball” is still “Cats,” with the music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the lyrics by T.S.Eliot, taken from his whimsical doggerel in “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” But rather than prowling cats in a junkyard deciding which will ascend to the Heaviside Layer, the characters are vogueing competitors in a makeshift ballroom in the tradition of Harlem drag balls – a once-underground subculture that was chronicled in Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary “Paris Is Burning,” adopted that same year by Madonna in her hit “Vogue,” and popularized for a new generation by the FX series “Pose.” (They are all also still hoping to ascend to the Heaviside Layer.)

As in the production Off-Broadway, Qween Jean’s colorful costumes and Nikiya Mathis’ outlandish wigs are spot-on precisely because they are so fanciful – the fantasy that’s at the heart of ballroom subculture, an aspirational mirror of the rich and powerful as conjured up by the poor and powerless. The music is arranged to sound like house music and, perhaps most central to the transformation, choreographers Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles inject this dance-heavy show with ballroom’s exciting movement vocabulary – hand performances, catwalks (!), duck walks, spins and dips.

At the Broadhurst, some of the choreography is more noticeably at least to me) from the “Cats” tradition – balletic, athletic, cat-like – including a thrilling opening number of a performer dancing in silhouette on a balcony behind a scrim, taking advantage of the wider stage.

As Off-Broadway, each performer gets their time to shine, now to a larger audience.

 Tempress” Chasity Moore as ‘Grizabella” sings the show’s biggest hit, “Memories.” Her biography identifies her as an actress, singer and “Ballroom icon/Hall of famer,” founding mother of Maison Margiela. Part of the appeal of the production is the effective integration of authentic Ballroom veterans into the Broadway idiom.

Junior La Beija as Gus the theater cat is treated like an eminence — which is understandable, since as a member of the House of LaBeija he stood out appeared in the 1991 documentary “Paris Is Burning”.

The “Body” competition features:

Nora Schell as Bustopher Jones, who busts out of her top hat and tails to reveal, and revel, in her corset made of a Union Jack flag.

and Sydney James Harcourt as Rum Tum Tugger, muscle boy, who spends much of his time without his pants.

There is no cast member that’s ever any less than engaging.

Only one, though, really deserves the legendary appellation that ballroom participants bestow on one another with abandon. André De Shields reigns as Old Deuteronomy.

Yet De Shields, so mesmerizing downtown, feels somewhat constrained at the Broadhurst. The layout of the Broadway theater doesn’t allow for the regal walk he took far into the crowd at the Perelman. The creative team tries to re-create the informal, communal feel that so visibly (and audibly) excited the downtown audience. Set designer Rachel Hauck has added some seating on either side of the stage, as if to narrow the space so that it resembles a runway. But it’s not the same.

It’s not just the space. Broadway inevitably draws a different crowd, one more likely to comprise longtime fans of “Cats” than people eager to party with the House of Xtravaganza. On some level, directors .Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch seem to acknowledge this. There are scenes of ballroom participants bringing black garbage bags full of fashionable clothing; it doesn’t take a detective to realize that they just shoplifted the goods. But downtown their outlaw/outsider status was more explicit, with scenes of police officers making arrests.

There is a slideshow of historical photographs at the top of Act II (one is of police officer apparently escorting a drag queen) but, since there is no narrative attached to it nor anyhing made of it afterwards, it feels more obligatory than illuminating.  I would think that there might be a Broadway audience for a more direct look at the lives of the people in those photographs — and, for that matter, the Ballroom veterans on stage.   (“Pose” ran for three seasons, after all.) But it’s as if the production wants to make sure that even theatergoers who wouldn’t think of going to an actual Harlem drag ball will have fun watching this party on Broadway.

CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Broadhurst Theater
Running time: Two hours and 25 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission
Tickets: $58 – $247. Digital lottery: $49. In-person rush: $45 (Broadway Rush and Lottery Policies
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; Based on “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by T.S. Eliot; Lyrics by T.S. Eliot; Additional lyrics for “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats” by Trevor Nunn and Richard Stilgoe.
Directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch 
Choreographed by Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons
Scenic design by Rachel Hauck, costume design by Qween Jean, lighting design by  Adam Honoré, sound design by Kai Harada, projection design by Brittany Bland, hair and wig design by Nikiya Mathis, makeup design by Rania Zohny, dramaturg and gender consultant Josephine Kearns, magic by Paul Kieve, music supervisor and music director William Waldrop, music producer Doug Schadt, beats arranger/producer Trevor Holder 
Cast: André De Shields as ‘Old Deuteronomy,’ Ken Ard as ‘DJ Griddlebone,’ Kya Azeen as ‘Etcetera,’ Bryson Battle as ‘Jellylorum,’ Sherrod T. Brown, Jonathan Burke as ‘Mungojerrie,’ Baby Byrne as ‘Victoria,’ Tara Lashan Clinkscales, Bryce Farris, Sydney James Harcourt as ‘Rum Tum Tugger,’ Dava Huesca as ‘Rumpleteazer,’ Dudney Joseph Jr. as ‘Munkustrap,’ Junior LaBeija as ‘Gus,’ Leiomy as ‘Macavity,’ Robert “Silk” Mason as ‘Magical Mister Mistoffelees,’ “Tempress” Chasity Moore as ‘Grizabella,’ Primo Thee Ballerino as ‘Tumblebrutus,’ Xavier Reyes as ‘Jennyanydots,’ Nora Schell as ‘Bustopher Jones,’ Bebe Nicole Simpson as ‘Demeter,’ Emma Sofia as Cassandra’/’Skimbleshanks,’ Phumzile Sojola, Kendall Grayson Stroud, B. Noel Thomas, Kalyn West, Donté Nadir Wilder, Garnet Williams as ‘Bombalurina, and Teddy Wilson Jr. as ‘Sillabub.’ 

Photos by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade