Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys and Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright Kristoffer Diaz bring their exhilarating coming-of-age musical HELL’S KITCHEN to The Public this fall.
In a cramped apartment hanging off the side of Times Square, 17-year-old Ali is desperate to get her piece of the New York dream. Ali’s mother is just as determined to protect her daughter from the same mistakes she made. When Ali falls for a talented young drummer, both mother and daughter must face hard truths about race, defiance, and growing up. Ali feels trapped, until the sound of a neighbor playing piano opens the door to an unexpected friendship and a radically different future.
Choreographed by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown and directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, HELL’S KITCHEN is an unforgettable new show featuring both newly created music and the soulful, iconic songs of New York’s own Alicia Keys.
There are times during Hell’s Kitchen where it is easy to see how Broadway and the pop charts once worked hand in hand. The music is current and endearing, further enlivened by a cast seemingly unspoiled by conservatory training or the idea that a stage voice should have all its kinks and character ironed out. With an embarrassment of vocal riches undergirding her life’s work and story, Keys might well soon cement her own cred on the theatrical street which traces her home neighborhood's horizon.
Yes, Alicia Keys songs are organized to tell a story loosely based on a moment in Alicia Keys’ life: At the age of 17, Ali (portrayed by Maleah Joi Moon, making an impressive professional debut) pursues a boy and discovers the piano while rebelling against her strict mother, Jersey (Soshana Bean.) But the story is not what’s most fresh or distinctive about “Hell’s Kitchen,” and enough of the details have been altered to turn Ali into a fictional character: Keys’ passion for the piano was ignited by age six, for example, not 17 as in the show; her largely absent father was a flight attendant, not a pianist.
2023 | Off-Broadway |
Public Theater Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
2024 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Choreographer | Camille A. Brown |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical | Kecia Lewis |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical | Shoshana Bean |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical | Maleah Joi Moon |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Musical | Hell's Kitchen |
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