Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys has created the music and lyrics for a brand-new musical called “Hell’s Kitchen,” which recently completed a successful run at the Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Avenue in Manhattan. The musical was picked up for Broadway and will be performed beginning March 28, 2024, at the Shubert Theatre.
The musical is loosely based on Alicia Keys’s life. Keys grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, in the artists’ building at W. 44th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues. Through the lead character Ali, who is the narrator, we hear her story from the age of 17, living with her single mother in a one-bedroom apartment on the 42nd floor. While her mother, Jersey, works two jobs to take care of her, Ali has ideas about what she should be doing when her mother leaves the house each evening to go to work. Ali and her two best friends, Tiny and Crystal, find themselves drawn to street performers who play in front of their building. With Jersey always working, Ray the doorman tries to keep an eye on Ali and alerts her mother when Ali is doing things she should not be doing.
Ali is a teenage girl who is attracted to men and finds herself attracted to Knuck, one of the drumming street performers and much more. Ali is at a point in her life when she is not sure what her passion is, what her talent is, what her path in life should be. Living in this building that houses performers, she is surrounded by creativity: from musicians to singers to painters to dancers to actors, she is in an atmosphere that is swirling with glorious creative energy.
The environment itself sounds incredible. This musical demonstrates the positive energy that someone can be around on their journey to making their dreams come true. Of course, they will run into obstacles, but it is about what you do when you come up against them.
The storyline gives us Jersey’s friends Millie and Jessica, who also try to look out for Ali. Ali’s father Davis does not live with them and is barely in the picture. When he does come in, it’s learned that he is a musician and his life is focused on his next gig. As Ali tries to cope with feeling isolated in her home when her mother goes to work and feeling that her mother is trying to control her life, she hears Miss Liza Jane, an elderly, accomplished performer, playing the piano in one of the music rooms. That moment changes her life.
The musical is a vehicle for Keys songs, including “You Don’t Know My Name,” “Not Even the King,” “Un-thinkable (I’m Ready),” “Girl on Fire,” “Heartburn,” “Fallin,’” “Like You’ll Never See Me Again,” “No One,” and “Empire State of Mind.”
The performance I attended had a cast primarily of understudies, except for Shoshana Bean, who played Jersey; Brandon Victor Dixon as Davis (Ali’s father), who always stuns; Vanessa Ferguson as Tiny, one of Ali’s best friends and what a voice; and Jackie Leon, who played Jessica, Jersey’s friend. The understudy cast members were talented and included Gianna Harris as Ali; Desmond Sean Ellington as Ray; Lamont Walker II as Knuck; Susan Oliveras as Millie; Badia Farha as Crystal, Ali’s friend; Crystal Monee Hall as Miss Liza Jane—this woman’s voice was on fire; Oscar Whitney Jr. as Riq; and Aaron Nicholas Patterson as Q.
The musical has music and lyrics by Keys, a book by Kristoffer Diaz, choreography by Camille A. Brown, direction by Michael Greif, set design by Robert Brill, costume design by Dede Ayite, lighting design by Natasha Katz, and sound design by Gareth Owen.
I look forward to experiencing this musical on Broadway with the principal actors in their roles!