'Hell's Kitchen': Alicia Keys' tribute to NY life

‘HELL’S KITCHEN’: Kecia Lewis & Maleah Joi Moon. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.

HELL’S KITCHEN
Music & lyrics by Alicia Keys
Book by Kristoffer Diaz
Directed by Michael Greif
Sam S. Shubert Theatre
225 West 44^th Street
https://www.hellskitchen.com/

By Scott Harrah

Loosely based on R&B superstar Alicia Keys’ real life, Hell’s Kitchen has arrived on Broadway after playing at the Public Theater downtown. The off-Broadway production received mixed reviews, but director Michael Greif has made many changes and the Broadway production is simply exhilarating and sublime, featuring some of the best songs and vocal talent on the New York stage in years. It received 13 Tony nominations, including one for Best Musical, and rightfully so.

The story focuses on Ms. Keys’ life in the 1990s, growing up in Manhattan Plaza, an affordable-housing complex that provides residences for many in the arts. Ali (beautifully portrayed by Maleah Joi Moon) is 17 when the show starts, raised by her single mom Jersey (Shoshana Bean). Her mother Jersey is protective of her daughter and doesn’t want her hanging out with the “wrong” crowd. Ali gets caught talking to Knuck (Chris Lee), a bucket drummer and part of a group that hangs out in the building. Her mother is not pleased.

Drummers in the complex practice in Manhattan Plaza’s courtyard, and Ali’s friends Tiny (Vanessa Ferguson) and Jessica (Jackie Leon) insist that she pursue Knuck. He turns her down, and shortly afterward her mother Jersey calls the police and has the group thrown out of the building. After leaving her apartment in anger, Ali visits the building’s music-practice area, the Ellington Room, and sees Miss Liza Jane (the outstanding Kecia Lewis) playing the piano. Miss Liza Jane is an older woman, wise and a piano virtuoso. She offers to teach Ali to play piano.

The plot focuses on several themes, from a single mother raising a biracial teenager daughter and struggles with the father who abandoned them long ago to racism, coming of age and grappling with grief when someone passes away. The musical showcases all of Alicia Keys’ iconic hits, from “Like You’ll Never See Me Again” and “You Don’t Know My Name” and “Girl On Fire,” “Fallin’” to “If I Ain’t Got You,” “No One,” and “Empire State of Mind,” and many more.

The flawless performances and outstanding vocal talent are two of the best aspects of Hell’s Kitchen. Standouts include Ms. Moon as Ali. She has the spunk, sass and vulnerability required for the role. Shoshana Bean as Jersey gives a sincere and touching performance as the doting mother, and Ms. Bean’s powerful vocals are sheer heaven for listeners, particularly in the song “Pawn It All.”

The excellent Kecia Lewis is incandescent and brings down the house whenever she sings, especially at the end of the first act when she beautifully belts out “Perfect Way to Die,” a song about unjust killings of innocent people, police brutality and systemic racism. Brandon Victor Dixon’s vocals are wonderfully melodic on the song “Fallin’,” a jazzy duet with Ms. Bean that is another showstopping number.

Camille A. Brown’s choreography is inventive and wonderfully visual, especially during a new Alicia Keys song “Kaleidoscope” in which dancers twirl around Ali with beautiful kinetic energy.

Hell’s Kitchen is a quintessential New York story about how life is rough here on these mean and dirty city streets, but love from family and friends and neighbors gets us through tough times. It’s a tribute to all who have ever struggled in Manhattan, and one of the spring 2024 season’s best musicals.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published June 1, 2024
Reviewed at May 23, 2024 performance