Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat Rides a Train Straight Into the Hearts of America

Not to commit the sin of choosing a favorite cat from Cats: The Jellicle Ball, but Skimbleshanks is hard to deny. Last night, the voguing superstar made her way to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to perform her titular number, “Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat.” This reimagined version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats is set in the Harlem ballroom scene, and Skimbleshanks, played by Broadway veteran Emma Sofia (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), is an MTA conductor coming straight from the train to the ball. Both in the Belasco Theatre and on The Tonight Show, the number is a total joy bomb. It is perhaps the show’s best example of simultaneously bringing real grit and musical-theater polish into the same song. Sofia emphasizes her deeply held New York accent, singing “That’s when I would appear / And I’d saunter to the rear” with “appea-yah” and “ree-yah.” Then she stands on her head. It rules.

The production, directed to Tony-winning success by Bill Rausch and Zhailon Levingston, sets each number to a different ballroom category. This one is “old way” versus “new way.” Old way refers to the original version of voguing, up through the late ’80s, which emphasized clean, symmetrical lines in the body and sharp angles. New way came to the ballroom scene later, bringing increased flexibility and a dancerly quality. “I wanted to make it fluid, and some of us were able to get into these intricate double-jointed poses that many couldn’t do,” ballroom pioneer Jose Xtravaganza explained to Vogue. “We added that element to it, and the ‘New Way’ was born as a way to categorize it.” Both versions are shown in the “Skimbleshanks” number. Don’t tell me Broadway never taught you anything.