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.
Featuring mostly catalogue songs of hers, it’s an aural explosion of powerful ballads and pop tunes infused with R&B, soul and hip hop. The fact that the characters in Kristoffer Diaz’s book appear to be enacting a fable of street life, designed to teach, inspire and give audiences a chance to hear Keys’ rich tunes sung to the hilt, may lessen the story’s heft, but Michael Greif’s spirited production is still a crowd-pleaser that seems destined for Broadway.
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.
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