Happy Pride! The 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' directors celebrate their Tony Award

As in the ballroom scene where their reimagined revival lives, Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch hope everyone finds a haven in their production.

The Tony Category is Best Direction of a Musical, and it goes to Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch for their transformative revival of Cats: The Jellicle Ball, reimagining Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats in the underground ballroom scene where LGBTQ+ people from all walks of life get to strut their stuff and celebrate with their found families. What’s more glamorous than a Tony win during Pride Month?

“Everyday is a tag-team performance,” Rauch said in a press conference following their win. “We knew that our values were so aligned, and that we never had to be threatened by the other one disagreeing with us or having a different idea because every time there would be a disagreement, there's an opportunity to make you think better and deeper.”

To truly synchronize, the pair had to be willing to bridge any creative tensions along the way. “The key to the collaboration is not trying to avoid tension or disagreement,” Levingston shared, “but to collaborate with someone who you can't wait to be in tension with, that there's something intellectually stimulating about how to prove something to your fellow artist.” The co-directors share victory with another duo, Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, who won Best Choreography for Jellicle Ball, as well as costume designer Qween Jean, the first openly trans designer to ever win a Tony.

In that same spirit of openness and community, Levingston extended his paw, er, hand, to the world, inviting everyone to "come one, come all" to the Jellicle Ball, as the show's own slogan says. In his and Rauch's acceptance speech, he encouraged young people "who might be watching this on a television in their bedroom with the volume turned low, come find your home at the Jellicle Ball."

“There are literally cities and states in this country right now trying to erase Pride Month, and so more than anything, I'm hoping that Cats is a refuge,” he later added at the press conference. "If you can't find this kind of queer Black joy, which is accessible to all of us — no matter what background you come from, where you come from — then this is your invitation to come to Broadway, get a dose of it for two and a half hours, and then bring it back to where you come from.”

Get Cats: The Jellicle Ball tickets now.

Photo credit: Bill Rauch and Zhailon Levingston accepting the Best Direction of a Musical Tony Award for Cats: The Jellicle Ball. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)