Interview: For Ken Ard, Cats Really Does Mean Now and Forever

In the 1980s, Ken Ard had the good fortune to appear in three Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. He understudied in Song and Dance and skated around as Electra in Starlight Express, but before all that, he originated the role of Macavity (not to mention Plato and the Great Rumpus Cat) in Cats at the Winter Garden Theatre.

Forty-four years later, Ard is returning to the boards in Cats: The Jellicle Ball at the Broadhurst Theatre. After seeing it at PAC NYC in the summer of 2024, he loved it so much that he essentially manifested his casting until it came true.

This time, he’s playing a character called DJ Griddlebone, a role that allows him to both sit back and drink in the action, “and show them that I can still do a twirl or two.”

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

I guess when they said, “Now and Forever,” they meant you.
It actually does. I didn’t know that it would be that way, but I’m grateful and happy to be doing it. When I saw it two years ago at PAC downtown, I thought it was an amazing thing they did with Cats, and then, a few months ago, someone called me and said, “It’s going to Broadway,” and my wheels started turning. I manifested myself being in the show. I reached out to them and let them know that I existed and was still able-bodied to do it. So, here I am. Cats, now and forever.

Offer only?
I actually retired two years ago from working as a chef, so, literally, I would have done anything. They gave me what I call a princess track, where I get to sit and party and show them that I can still do a twirl or two and enjoy the show. I look at it like, I’ve done my flips, I’ve done my knee slides, I’ve done my swinging on wires across the stage. Now I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Take me back to the ’80s. Was Cats just a regular audition for you?
I had just moved to New York. When I heard the recording of Cats, I just knew that this was a show for me. I could sing, I could dance, I could do gymnastics. I was very blatant in my approach to it. I was aggressive, and I got it. I did it for a year. We were everywhere. We were on shows, we were on the cover of Life magazine. It’s funny; before I left California, I played a snake and a spider in some ballet, and then I got here and I was a dodo bird in The Little Prince, and then I was a cat. And my mother said, “Oh, my God, will you ever be in a show where you get to wear a suit?”

Was Macavity an enjoyable role for you?
It was. They put you through the wringer in these auditions, and then I was rehearsing, and they get to my number, and I was like, “Where’s my song?” I didn’t have a song. They sang about me. But I was the coolest and meanest cat on the block.

I played three different characters. I started out as Plato, then I changed into Macavity, then I changed out of Macavity and into the Great Rumpus Cat, where I shot out of the floor in a star trap, which Michael Jackson would do years later. Rumpus Cat wore a mask, so I didn’t have to change my makeup for that. Then out of the Rumpus Cat, back to Plato, and from Plato, I went back to Macavity. Macavity was just me putting my fingers in greasepaint and dragging lines across my face, basically.

They didn’t make it easy for you.
No, but that’s Broadway. Broadway never makes it easy for you. That’s why they audition you like they’re going to have your firstborn or something. They want to know that you can handle all that they’re going to throw at you.

What is it like to be in a show that becomes part of the culture?
It’s funny, because I don’t use the word for myself, but I’m often called an icon or a legend because I was in the original company of Cats. I’ve done a half-dozen other Broadway shows, but everyone remembers Macavity and Cats.

In the original company, so many people came to see it. I met so many stars and everything. I met Cary Grant; that was a big one. James Earl Jones. I couldn’t tell you who they all were. Lots and lots and lots of other people. I wish that I had the wherewithal to have an autograph book back then to document everything, but I will do it now. I’m going to have an autograph book in my dressing room so I can have all the signatures and know who all came.

I can tell you’re excited.
I haven’t come down since they called me and told me I was cast in this show. I’ve been floating since. I’m excited that it’s going to open up a whole new generation of theatergoers to an amazing show. They won’t see the show that it was, but they’ll hear the music and the libretto, which still exists in its entirety, minus a few cuts here and there for obvious reasons.

Having been in the show originally, what is it like to see Cats done this way?
Honestly, to me, it was like a religious experience. When they revived it in 2016, I thought, “What the fuck are you doing?” So, when they said they were doing Cats, again, I really crossed my arms and sucked my teeth. I was living in San Francisco. I flew out to see it, and when they found out I was coming, they allowed me to be a judge. Then I saw it again. I brought a bunch of friends to see the show because I was just so overwhelmed with how amazing it was.

And I’ll tell you. I lived down at the World Trade Center when 9/11 happened. I was basically blown out of my apartment. I had not been down there until I went to see Cats [at PAC NYC]. It was such a cathartic experience for me to have something give me a new memory. I cried all through the show, first of all, and I cried all the way home, and I didn’t know why. And then I realized it’s because of Cats. I went through major therapy for PTSD and all that stuff, but Cats gave me a new memory to put in that place.

It means so much to me that I’m able to be in this production.