The stage is theirs: Cynthia Erivo and Lena Waithe are taking the “Ball” to Broadway

There's something happening on Broadway right now, and it didn't happen by accident.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball — the ballroom-reimagined reinterpretation of the classic musical — officially has Tony winner Cynthia Erivo and Emmy winner Lena Waithe attached as producers. The production, directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch with choreography by Arturo Lyons and Omori Wiles, opens at the Broadhurst Theatre with previews beginning March 18 and opening night set for April 7.

That's already the kind of sentence that deserves a full stop and a moment of appreciation.

But Lena isn't stopping at Broadway. The Emmy Award–winning creator behind The Chi and Master of None is also making her playwriting debut with trinity at Baltimore Center Stage — a bold, intimate, and genre-defying exploration of love, humanity, and the power of imagination. Two stages. Two completely different forms. One artist who clearly has no interest in being categorized.

Cynthia Erivo and Lena Waithe join the producing team of Cats: The Jellicle Ball — and Lena's making her playwriting debut at the same time. Black queer creatives are not asking for space. They're building it. (Shutterstock Creative; Carla van Wagoner and Shutterstock Creative; Ron Adar)

This is what creative authority looks like when it isn't waiting on a permission slip. Erivo and Waithe aren't diversity hires attached to someone else's vision — they're producers, which means they're in the room where decisions get made. Levingston, one of the youngest directors ever to helm a Broadway production, is directing the whole thing. Lyons and Wiles are setting the movement language. The ballroom world — with all its history, its defiance, its genius — is being translated to one of the most storied stages in American theater, by people who actually understand what they're holding.

That's not a coincidence. That's a coordinated act of refusal: the refusal to let Black queer stories be told only when someone outside of them decides it's time.

Spring 2026 on Broadway isn't just a season. It's a statement.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball reimagines the classic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical through the lens of ballroom culture. Directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, with choreography by Arturo Lyons and Omori Wiles, the production begins previews March 18 at the Broadhurst Theatre, with opening night April 7. Cynthia Erivo and Lena Waithe are among its producers.

trinity, Lena Waithe's playwriting debut, is currently running at Baltimore Center Stage.

Sources: Official production announcements via @catsjellicleball and @bmorecenterstage. Talent credits confirmed via press materials.