Cats: The Jellicle Ball<\/a>\u201d will kick off the 2026 NYC Pride March on June 28 with a live performance from the Broadway revival, bringing the show\u2019s ballroom-inspired reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s musical directly into one of the city\u2019s largest annual LGBTQ+ celebrations. The appearance will cap a monthlong Pride celebration for the nine-time Tony-nominated revival, whose Broadway run has been widely noted for transforming \u201cCats\u201d through the language, style and competitive rituals of Black and Latino queer ballroom culture. Other events include a June 15 screening of the landmark documentary \u201cParis Is Burning\u201d hosted by ballroom pioneer and \u201cCats\u201d cast member Junior LaBeija, who appeared in the film.<\/p>\nRevised \u2018The Fantasticks\u2019 to play Broadway<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fantasticks,\u201d which opened Off-Broadway in 1960 and ran for 42 years, will arrive on Broadway for the first time this fall in a revised, contemporary version that reimagines the Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt classic as a same-sex romance. The production will be presented by Second Stage Theater at its Broadway home, the Hayes Theater, as part of the company\u2019s 2026-27 season. The new version changes the musical\u2019s original setup \u2014 a boy and a girl whose two fathers secretly scheme to make them fall in love \u2014 into a story about two boys and their two mothers. Christopher Gattelli (\u201cNewsies\u201d) will direct and choreograph the production, which begins previews Oct. 22.<\/p>\n
\u2018West Side Story\u2019 returns to Paper Mill Playhouse<\/p>\n
Paper Mill Playhouse\u2019s current production of \u201cWest Side Story,\u201d the classic musical about star-crossed lovers and rival New York street gangs, arrives at an intriguing moment, with the Public Theater simultaneously presenting its source material, \u201cRomeo and Juliet,\u201d at Shakespeare in the Park.<\/p>\n
![\"four](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WEST_SIDE_STORY_PMP_EVAN_ZIMMERMAN_0767.jpg\" "\\"\u2018The")
West Side StoryPhoto by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade<\/p>\n
It also marks a return to familiar territory for Paper Mill, which mounted a similar, traditional revival of \u201cWest Side Story\u201d a decade ago. Directed by Mark S. Hoebee, Paper Mill\u2019s artistic director, the production has the advantages that \u201cWest Side Story\u201d demands: scale, sweep, a large cast, a full orchestra and Jerome Robbins\u2019 original choreography.<\/p>\n
Those virtues stand in especially welcome contrast with Ivo van Hove\u2019s experimental Broadway revival, which opened shortly before the pandemic shutdown and did not reopen. That production stripped away Robbins\u2019 choreography, removed \u201cI Feel Pretty\u201d and the \u201cSomewhere\u201d ballet, eliminated the intermission and overwhelmed the musical with video imagery and a harsher contemporary concept.<\/p>\n
Paper Mill\u2019s \u201cWest Side Story\u201d is enjoyable if not exceptional. The youthful cast brings energy and commitment, but the performances are acceptable at best, and there are moments when the company still seems to be getting the hang of Robbins\u2019 famously demanding choreography.<\/p>\n
Watching \u201cWest Side Story\u201d now, alongside \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d in Central Park, raises an appealing possibility: why not bring the musical itself to the Delacorte as part of Shakespeare in the Park? Another natural home would be Lincoln Center Theater, which could stage the musical on the very site of the former San Juan Hill\/Lincoln Square neighborhood that helped inspire \u201cWest Side Story.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sting will star in a newly adapted version of his musical \u201cThe Last Ship\u201d for a limited engagement…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":851000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,19607,312280,5249,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,51632,347675,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,138270],"class_list":["post-850999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-broadway","tag-cats-the-jellicle-ball","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-sting","tag-the-last-ship","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-west-side-story"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116709664156133176","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Sting](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-last-ship-mark-senior.jpg\" "\\"\u2018The")
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