Kai Harada previously won a Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Musical for The Band's Visit in 2018, and has been honored with five other Tony Award nominations including two this year for CATS: The Jellicle Ball and Ragtime. He has worked as sound designer on more than 20 Broadway shows and many Off-Broadway, regional, and international productions including in London's West End.
Productions
- CATS: The Jellicle Ball opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway in April 2026
- Ragtime opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center in October 2025
Collaborators on CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Rachel Hauck Scenic Design
Qween Jean Costume Design
Adam Honoré Lighting Design
Brittany Bland -Projection Design
Nikiya Mathis Hair & Wig Design
Rania Zohny Make-Up Design
Collaborators on Ragtime
Lear deBessonet Director
David Korins Scenic Design
Linda Cho Costume Design
Adam Honoré Lighting Design
Donald Holder Lighting Design
59 Studio Projection Design
Tom Watson Hair and Wigs Design
Live Design: The quality of the sound–what did you want the audience to hear?
Kai Harada: ...ummmmmmmm this is an oddly-worded question, but I will try to answer in a way that I think says what people want to hear.
The goal of any of my sound designs is to give the audience the best possible aural experience from any seat in the house, and to be able to work with the dynamics dictated by the orchestrations and performances to enhance that experience. For me, clarity and transparency were key in both shows: the more a sound system sounds artificial, regardless of how loud it is, the bigger divide we create between the audience and the performers. For example, it was crucial on both shows to ensure that performers *sounded like themselves* and also *sounded like their voices were coming from where they were located.* On the orchestra side, my goal was to stay true to the original orchestrations and never *fight* them; instead we help them, by letting the emotional side of the music come out through enhancing their dynamics (especially when we got to dance sections on CATS: The Jellicle Ball, for example) and also letting things get *quiet* every now and then!
LD: Architecture of the rig – what did you use and where are you placing it?
KH: At Ragtime at the Vivian Beaumont there are only a few traditional locations for the main, audience-facing PA, so I stuck to those positions and tuned the system appropriately. For CATS: The Jellicle Ball, we were faced with the challenge of not only having a powerful PA for the main audience chamber, but having a runway extend into the house AND have two onstage seating sections. For each onstage seating section there's essentially an entire sound system of eleven speakers. Both shows utilize primarily Meyer Sound cabinets; Ragtime has more point-source cabinets (Ultra-X40, UPA, UPM) and Cats has a combination of Meyer line arrays (LINA and LEOPARD) and point-source cabinets (ULTRA-X40, UPA, UPM, UP4-Slim). Ragtime uses Meyer subwoofers; CATS: The Jellicle Ball uses d&b subwoofers. Surround systems on both shows are primarily d&b. Ragtime uses Meyer Galaxies for system processing, and CATS has Meyer Galileos in addition to two d&b DS100 things.
LD: What console did you choose and why?
KH: Both shows are mixed on Studer Vista 5 consoles; Ragtime uses the sCore DSP and CATS uses the Infinity Core DSP. I stick with Studer because the sound quality and transparency are almost as good as analog.
LD: What rental shop did you choose and what piece of gear was non-negotiable?
KH: Masque Sound provided equipment for both shows; they are a fantastic group of people and I have a long relationship with them, so we can talk candidly about equipment substitutions when necessary; my teams also enjoy building shows there because of the high quality control and attention to detail. I can't thank them enough- not only for these two shows but for many others!
LD: Can you tell us who was on your sound crew?
KH: I couldn't have done this without this great group of people:
Ragtime
Associate: Owen Meadows
A1/Mixer: Lukas Guilbeau
A2s: Jack O'Brien, Colin Braeger
Production Sound: Charles Shell
CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Associates: Owen Meadows and Josh Blaisdell
A1/Mixer: Marc Fisher III
A2: Michelle Reiss
Production Sound: Jake Scudder and Mike Wojchik