As for Alicia Keys, hell's kitchen It's personal. The new Broadway musical, which premieres April 20 at New York City's Shubert Theater, depicts the singer's childhood in Manhattan's then-rough Hell's Kitchen neighborhood and follows teenage Ali as she falls in love with music. Draw a falling figure. Its main setting is Keyes' childhood home, Manhattan Plaza, a subsidized housing complex primarily dedicated to housing performers (Keys' mother was a part-time performer). Ta).
Robert Brill, the show's set designer and professor at the University of California, San Diego, collaborated. hell's kitchen Director and UCSD alumnus Michael Greif (you may know him as the film's original director) rent)—Although he grew up in Salinas, California, the world of the show is close to Brill's heart. “I lived in Hell's Kitchen for about 15 years,” he says. “My daughter Sophia went to kindergarten in the basement. [Manhattan Plaza]. Many of her friends lived in those buildings. ”
While conceptualizing the set for a 2023 Off-Broadway production at the Public Theater, Brill revisited Manhattan Plaza, ultimately focusing on the irregular terraces dotting the exteriors of high-rise apartment buildings. I did. “When you look at it from the side, it looks like a piano keyboard,” he points out.
Brill and his team used balconies as inspiration to create a mass of tall, movable structures with steps. “We were trying to create a complex architectural web so that the space could evolve from scene to scene,” he says. Greif and Brill created miniature models of the sets and spent more than 15 hours taking snapshots of various compositions, adapting the patterns to the mood and needs of each scene.
In addition, two multi-level platform towers provide an alternative to an orchestra pit. With musicians and performers hopping from platform to platform, Manhattan's Plaza's vibrant artistic hive is constantly buzzing in its halls and around its perimeter. “We felt it was important for the musicians to be there, always surrounding Ali and providing inspiration for her music,” Brill added.
Shifting set pieces capture the staggering heights and ever-changing hustle and bustle of New York City, smashing the theater's constrained space into a kaleidoscope of restless movement. To bring even more dynamic energy to the show's visuals, Brill collaborated with projection designer Peter Negrini (who also played the same role in the film). Dear Evan Hansen) and lighting designer Natasha Katz have packed the stage with LED surfaces, which take on different configurations throughout the show.
“LED screens are like a bunch of pictures placed randomly on a table,” says Brill. “Imagine those photos changing and taking you on a journey.” Negrini and his team send images, videos, and other content to each screen, then turn them into animate images. can be collaged and combined into the places that shape your life. During the musical's 150-minute running time, the set changes every few minutes, and the team never repeats the same song.
The show's move to the larger Shubert Theater gives Brill and his team more space, with each vertical structure being more than 50 percent taller than the previous iteration, but as nomadic as ever. “[It’s like one of] A puzzle where one square in the middle is missing. Even off stage, it's a real puzzle. 10 seconds ago there was an open space outside the stage, and now there's something there,” Brill explains. “Musicals are machines. It takes quite a community to put these things together and make them feel effortless.”
preview of hell's kitchen The musical officially opens on April 20th at the Shubert Theater in New York City.
