Rosie O’Donnell Explains Why Seeing Cats: The Jellicle Ball Made Her ‘Think Twice About Being Gay’

Rosie O’Donnell has spent decades championing the theater community, from turning The Rosie O’Donnell Show into must-watch television for Broadway fans to stepping onto the stage herself in everything from Grease to Fiddler on the Roof.

via: EW

Musical theater has a long history of helping people find their truest selves. That’s... apparently what Cats: The Jellicle Ball did for Rosie O’Donnell?

The actress, former talk show host, and pop culture icon is gearing up for her return to the stage, this time in the Off Broadway production of Common Knowledge, an autobiographical one-woman show that taps into O’Donnell’s storied life in the public eye.

On Wednesday, O’Donnell opened up about her relationship to Broadway in an interview with TheaterMania.com. When asked what she’s seen since renewing her interest in theater, O’Donnell replied, “I went to see Cats: The Jellicle Ball. I thought it was so unbelievably brilliant to take the same clay and mold it into a different shape. That Rum Tum Tugger guy made me think twice about being gay.”

“Pulling down his pants and letting us see his cute hiney?” O’Donnell joked. “Oh, my God.”

Ironically, among the slate of shows currently running on Broadway, Cats: The Jellicle Ball is arguably the gayest. That is, it is the show that foregrounds queerness the most completely, with the possible exception of The Rocky Horror Show, currently playing at Studio 54.

Directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch with choreography by Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, Cats: The Jellicle Ball is a queer twist on the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber classic, itself a flamboyant adaptation of T. S. Eliot’s 1939 Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.

The Jellicle Ball reimagines Webber’s feline fantasia in New York City’s historic queer ballroom culture. As in the original Cats, the, well, cats on stage are all vying for the chance to ascend to Heavenside Layer. The songs they sing are the same as in Cats, but their dances are infused with distinctly queer styles like voguing, and the ensemble is split up into different “houses,” as in the real culture of ballroom.

The character that gave O’Donnell her great awakening, Rum Tum Tugger, was originated on the West End in Webber’s musical by Paul Nicholas, on Broadway by Terrence Mann, and was played by Jason Derulo in the 2019 film adaptation. He is played by Hamilton breakout Sydney James Harcourt in The Jellicle Ball.

O’Donnell also had praise for Killian Donnelly, who currently plays Jean Valjean in the Irish arena tour of Les Miserables. “He’s the best Jean Valjean I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen that show probably once a year since it came out. It’s my favorite show ever,” she said.

The actress is no stranger to the stage, having played Rizzo in a 1994 Broadway revival of Grease, the Cat in the Hat for a short stint in a 2001 production of Seussical: The Musical, and Golde in the 2005 revival of Fiddler on the Roof.

Common Knowledge plays July 22-Aug. 8 at the Daryl Roth Theatre.