Interview: Qween Jean on Designing Cats: The Jellicle Ball—Ballroom Culture Meets Broadway

Costume designer Qween Jean is no stranger to building worlds through her work, but Cats: The Jellicle Ball offered an especially rich canvas: reimagining a classic musical through the lens of New York City ballroom culture.

The radical reinvention of Cats, which opened on Broadway on April 7 after a hit 2024 off-Broadway run at the Perelman Performing Arts Center, transforms Jellicle Ball into a joyful, high-energy competition, drawing on the legacy of ballroom while maintaining the spirit of its feline source material.

Jean—who made her Broadway debut earlier this season outfitting the cast of Liberation—said the show’s melding of those two worlds felt like a “golden ticket” opportunity, and exactly the kind of ambitious work she wanted to be part of. “This is what I’ve been waiting for my whole life,” she said. “It felt like an invitation to show the world what I could do, but also to show the world what ballroom really is.”

Conceiving some 500 costumes for the production, Jean leaned into the distinct personalities of Cats’ cast of characters while also drawing on the creativity of ballroom and classic New York style—with some tiger stripes thrown in too. (This is Cats, after all.)

TheaterMania spoke with Jean about blending ballroom and Cats, and the inspirations behind some of the show’s most memorable looks.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

 How does it feel having the show officially open on Broadway?
It feels utterly transcendent. We committed to telling the truth about humanity, the legacy of queer culture here in New York City, and ultimately, that people can and should have the freedom to be exactly who they are. So that has been really special. Something that our incredible Grizabella, [played by] “Tempress” Chasity Moore, said on opening night is that when you see a free world, you want to fight for it—and Cats: The Jellicle Ball is an undeniably loving, free, magical world.

When you first heard the words “Cats” and “ballroom” in the same sentence, what went through your mind?
The first thing was, “Oh, this is me.” We really wanted to take people on this interactive journey. You are next to performers that are getting ready. You’re next to artists that are revered in our community, that are going to be guest judges. In the first conversation with our phenomenal co-directors, Bill Rauch and Zhailon Levingston, I was like, “I got this. And also, I have some ideas.”

You had the very distinct worlds of Cats and ballroom to draw on for inspiration. How did you decide what you wanted to incorporate from each into your vision for the Jellicle Ball?
I was really drawn to the score. There are such phenomenal descriptions of each of our characters that really depict the vulnerability and the specificity of these cats and the way that we’re singing about them. So when we think about a Rum Tum Tugger and the lore that they have, or Bustopher Jones, who’s so grand and magnificent, I began to parallel some of those ideas with people who are the epitome of that. When I think about Bustopher Jones, I immediately connected to Gladys Bentley, a profound leader and provocateur of nightlife. To me, that was connecting history but also paying homage that this community has always been blessed with people that were dreamers, folks that were innovating the system, people who had the ability and the agility to provide for each other. The idea that you could come with your finery, your ideas and your imagination, and you could be reborn again—that was the driving force for me.

How did you go about differentiating the different cats and their respective houses, like Jennyanydots, for example?
With the House of Dots, Jennyanydots, like many house mothers, is truly a Renaissance woman. In her opening scene, she’s steaming, she’s ironing, she’s getting her dots ready. These are the qualities that really set a house apart, that uplift each of the house members. And so those details are immediately visible in the way that Jenny herself shows up in her own coordinating dots, in her tiger and leopard spots. She has a very clear aesthetic. One of the members in the house is also walking in the “Schoolboy Realness” category, and it was important that we paid homage to the legacy of historically black colleges and universities, so he’s a Morehouse man.

This all has to come through in the categories they compete in, too.
When we were talking about “Hair Affair,” we wanted to pay homage to Paris Is Burning, and for us that was a direct legacy to mother Paris Dupree, who created an Eiffel Tower headdress. I also wanted to pay homage to fashion icon Willi Smith—a monumental figure in fashion, revered as the founder of streetwear—in the “Old Way” category look worn by Dava Huesca [Rumpleteazer]. And we know that ballroom is rooted in voguing; the movement of the body is truly its own unique language. So we wanted to infuse that into the design—there’s airbrushing, there’s stenciling, we have laser-cut. We’ve done a lot of fabrication detail work, even with footwear, eyewear, handbags. These are fashion staples right in any person’s closet.

Skimbleshakes’ MTA uniform is just incredible. Where did that idea come from?
When we were in rehearsals during the workshop, we had different ideas about how to isolate each of Macavity’s children. But when we got to Skimbleshanks, the railway cat, it’s such an iconic part, so there’s that legacy. But in New York, it’s our conductors and our essential workers that make things happen. I really wanted to pay tribute to that. That’s how we arrived at the uniform—but also with the idea that while we might be issued a uniform, this is New York.

Are there any other little touches you’d like to call out, or specific costumes that are favorites? I loved all the purple that Andre De Shields wore as Old Deuteronomy, and the curtain call look for Junior LaBeija as Gus was gorgeous.
One of the first conversations I had with Mr. De Shields was about what this production means, and André was saying that we’re going to be able to take people to Mars and show them that there’s an alternate way of living. And then we were going through the arc of Old Deuteronomy, how this leader is about to show up at any moment and when they do, time stops. So when Old Deuteronomy steps out from that curtain, utterly glorious from the top of their mane down to the tail on the back of their coat, I wanted every detail to resonate. And when you get to the finale and the curtain opens up to this blooming lavender orchid, it feels like we’ve seen a miracle. Those details at the end of the show, when Grizabella returns and is truly encrusted in the finery of gold—they have ascended, they are reborn, and their skin is glowing in gold. That was imperative.

And lot of folks met Pepper LaBeija [ballroom icon and former head of the House of LaBeija] through the documentary Paris Is Burning. Junior is the direct lineage of that legacy. And so the final curtain call offering was just to say thank you to Mother LaBeija. The boa is part of her throughline in the family of LaBeija. We wanted to send the audience off with [the sense that] these are the tapestries. These are the things that have woven us all together here tonight. And when you go back out into the world, be kind to a cat. Be kind to your neighbors.