The Charlotte to Broadway pipeline found its newest star in spicy ‘Cats’ revival

Just five years ago, Bryson Battle was a suburban Charlotte high school senior dreaming about a career in the theater. Now, the Harrisburg native is performing in one of the hottest musical revivals lighting up Times Square.

Battle made his Broadway debut as Jellylorum in “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” a reimagined take on the Andrew Lloyd Webber hit that opened to rave reviews April 7. The musical moves the action from a junkyard to the fashion and dance-forward world of ballroom culture — the underground cultural movement born in New York that for decades has created a safe space for self-expression particularly among the Black and Latino LGBTQ+ community.

Making his Broadway bow is the latest high-profile accomplishment from Battle. His career took off after winning Best Actor at the 2021 Blumey Awards, his senior year at Hickory Ridge High in Harrisburg.

That program, created by Blumenthal Arts and modeled after the Tony Awards, celebrates high school musical theater excellence. It launched Battle into the national competition, the Jimmy Awards, which he also won.

Battle joins a growing community of Blumey Awards alums who have gone on to careers on Broadway and beyond. That includes Grammy winner and two-time Tony Awards nominee Eva Noblezada (“Miss Saigon,” “Hadestown,”), stage, screen and music star Reneé Rapp (“Mean Girls,” “The Sex Lives of College Girls”) and Nkeki Obi-Melekwe, who starred in “TINA: The Tina Turner Musical,” the first Broadway show Battle saw.

There are plenty of other Blumey Awards success stories too, including Broadway actors Philip Johnson Richardson (“The Wiz”) and Liam Pearce (“How to Dance in Ohio,” “& Juliet”) and three-time Tony Award-winning producer Thomas Laub among others.

Tickets for the annual Blumey Awards go on sale May 6 for what’s historically been a sold-out event. The ceremony itself is May 17. For more info on that, go to blumenthalarts.org/this-years-program.

The Charlotte Observer recently spoke with Battle about his journey, why he thinks the Blumeys have become such a strong pipeline to Broadway and what makes this new version of “Cats” so special.

‘The greatest voice I ever heard’

After winning Best Actor at the Jimmy Awards, Battle attended Boston Conservatory at Berklee, a top program for musical theater.

During his senior year, Battle got cast on NBC’s “The Voice,” the long-running singing competition that draws millions of viewers. He wowed the celebrity coaches during the “Blind Audition” round. Praise included, “You might have the greatest voice I have ever heard,” from five-time Grammy Award winner Michael Buble.

Battle made it to the semi-final round, working under the guidance of EGOT winner John Legend. Soon after, Battle landed a starring role in the new off-Broadway musical, “Saturday Church,” at New York Theater Workshop.

He continued to land more work.

Headed to Broadway

Battle was rehearsing a workshop production of the gospel musical, “Your Arms Too Short to Box with God,” when he overheard two cast members chatting. Bebe Nicole Simpson and Xavier Reyes were both in the 2024 off-Broadway “Cats” production and were talking about who had auditioned for its Broadway transfer.

“And I was just sitting in the corner like, ‘Oh, I also just had my last callback the other day,’ ” Battle said.

The next day, he found out he’d been cast.

“So when I got the call, I was literally with this group of people,” Battle said. During the next rehearsal break, Simpson and Reyes returned with champagne, flowers and other gifts to congratulate him.

“And they made it so special because… I had just graduated and this would be my Broadway debut.”

Ongoing support from the Blumeys community

Battle said he also continues to feel strong support from the Blumenthal Arts community at every step of his journey.

He pointed to the nurturing environment and opportunities the theater’s Blumey Awards program provided as important factors in building his confidence as a performer.

For young people in North Carolina, who often cannot easily access New York and Broadway stages, he said the program offers the chance to sharpen skills in a professional context.

“Being able to have workshops with the national tours that come through the city and being able to set foot on a stage so large and so massive, it does something for you intrinsically that kind of affirms your inner beliefs in your artistry,” Battle said. “And that as a young person means the world, because you hear constantly you need to choose something realistic, or you need to have backup plans and that your dreams aren’t valid to some extent — when they 100% are.”

Seeing past Blumey winners succeed professionally also inspired him.

“I was growing up in the era of like Reneé Rapp and Eva Noblezada, who were around my same age, and seeing that they could do it made me believe that I could do it. And so knowing … it was possible for me, I was like, ‘Okay, how am I going to get there? I have to know every single ounce of knowledge that is accessible to me in order to get myself to that position.’

“Had I not had that experience in high school, who knows where I would be today,” Battle said.

About the new version of ‘Cats’

Still, he said, no training can completely prepare you for the thrill of performing in a hit Broadway show and the magnitude of the audience’s response to it.

“It’s nothing like I could have ever imagined,” Battle said. “Going to school for musical theater and doing theater for the majority of my life, truly, I don’t think could have prepared me for what it actually is like doing eight shows a week and doing a show of this caliber.”

The book, music and lyrics stay true to the original production, based on the whimsical poems in T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” But the leotard-clad feline look which ran on Broadway from 1982-2000 has been transformed.

“A lot of the structural integrity of ‘Cats’ has been maintained,” Battle said. But “it’s been lifted and elevated in so many different ways, from the costuming to the individuals that are telling the story through the choreography, and all of this being done through the lens of ballroom.”

Ballroom culture and ‘Cats’

Some date the beginning of the cultural movement known as ballroom to the late 19th century drag balls in Harlem. Modern ball culture emerged in the 1960s and started reaching the mainstream in the 1980s and ‘90s, especially through the 1990 documentary film “Paris is Burning.”

Ballroom’s influence can be seen in everything from “voguing” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to Beyonce’s “Renaissance World Tour.”

It merges drag, bold fashion and dynamic dance moves across a series of competitions between “houses” of chosen families. It also has served as an important space for community healing, education and advocacy through the AIDS crisis and in the face of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.

Battle’s off-Broadway debut, “Saturday Church,” was also immersed in the ballroom scene, but he said he’s still learning from fellow “Cats” cast members, many of whom come from that community.

One of Battle’s big moments in the show is a song about “Gus: The Theatre Cat.” Gus is played by Junior LaBeija, an internationally known trailblazer in the ballroom community, who appeared prominently in “Paris is Burning.”

In this version of “Cats,” Battle’s character, Jellyloram, is attending his first ball. “We’ve added the layer of Jellyloram being Gus the theater cat’s grandchild, which … the original production didn’t have, but really speaks to the elements of ballroom, and how you have your families and your chosen family, and kind of the queer relationships that exist in this space.

“My character has a really gorgeous ballad … where I kind of introduce Gus and I explain his life and talk about the legacy that he has had in this world.”

Battle performs alongside other theater legends too, like actor André De Shields (“Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “The Wiz,” “The Full Monty,” and “Hadestown” alongside Noblezada). His career has spanned over 55 years and earned him many accolades. De Shields portrays Old Deuteronomy in “Cats.”

“André is a very calm and collected person,” Battle said. “He just knows his artistry and his process and what is needed in order to not only just elicit a response from the audience, but to create the community feeling, because he is kind of like the grounding force of all of these cats, all of our characters.”

Battle said he never could have imagined that he’d come to Broadway in “Cats.”

“For my Broadway debut to be in the most diverse show on Broadway at this current moment in time, not only in race and ethnicity but in the gender diversity and in the age — like André De Shields is 80 years old, and I am 23… To be in the most diverse show on Broadway is incredibly humbling, and I am so incredibly grateful.”

He believes the show will continue to resonate with all kinds of audiences.

“I think this show is incredibly special,” Battle said, “and I want people to come see it.”

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