Broadway By Design: CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL

In Broadway by Design, BroadwayWorld is shining a spotlight on the stellar designs of this season, show by show. Today, we continue with the Tony-winning scenic designer of Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Rachel Hauck.

Inspired by the Ballroom culture that roared out of New York City over 50 years ago and still rages on runways around the world, The Jellicle Ball is staged as a spectacularly immersive competition with all new Ballroom and club beats, runway ready choreography, and an edgy eleganza makeover.  Come one, come all, and celebrate the joyous transformation of self at the heart of Cats and Ballroom culture itself.

Where did the design process begin? Hauck drew inspiration from the new concept. "We needed to make this big, beautiful, brand new theater into a home for the wild Jellicle Ball. Of course we knew we'd need an epic runway but also a space where the actors could be everywhere," she explained. "The decided audience should be in the middle of the action as participants not observers.

"We knew that stuff would going on in all the corners and on all the levels of the theater, theres always someone changing clothes somewhere... There would be too much happening to catch it all; so we decided we were ok with the idea that folks in different seats might see a different show.

"So with all that in mind, the design sort of became environmental as we were working on it. The set is the ballroom itself, a once grand room and it was as if the Jellicle Ball had been set up for the night. We wanted the sense of the city, the giant warehouse window became a great way to access that idea. I felt especially excited to look at the warehouses of the meatpacking district with its history of the clubs.

"There are tons of references to the OG CATS in the show, the original alley becomes our runway. And since Ballroom and Broadway are equal partners in this show and - incredibly - the Icon Junior LaBeija is our Gus, it was fun to add a few nods to Paris is Burning as well."

Where did she come across her biggest design challenges? "We needed to make a room that looked and felt real, so that the audience would walk into the space, feel the club vibe right away -- and then not think about the space again, all energy goes to the runway. In that way it’s a kind of an invisible design. The biggest challenge was to unify what I would describe as three separate spaces into one grand room, and in the process, to find a way to make this beautiful brand new theater with its swank architecture feel like a whole other world."

Cats: The Jellicle Ball is running off-Broadway at the Perelman Performing Arts Center.