Let's hear it for New York! Hell's Kitchen, the new Broadway musical conceived by 16-time Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys and directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, opens tonight at the Shubert Theatre.
Ali is a passionate 17-year-old girl searching for freedom, passion, and her place in the world. How She Finds Them is a New York City coming-of-age story like you've never felt before – 16-time Grammy Award-winning Alicia Keys' new musical, Hell's Her Kitchen, is about growing up in New York Her songs and experiences are the inspiration for the story. For Broadway.
The cast stars Shoshana Bean, Brandon Victor Dixon, Keshia Lewis, Chris Lee, and Marea Joy Moon. HELL'S KITCHEN is directed by four-time Tony Award® nominee Michael Greif, choreographed by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown, and written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Christopher Diaz. It features Keys' music, featuring new songs and some of her biggest hits.
BroadwayWorld compiled reviews from New York City theater critics. Check out the comments about Hell's Kitchen below.
Photo credit: Mark J. Franklin
Aramide Timbu, Variety: In addition to Moon and Bean's sensational vocal range, “Hell's Kitchen” shows how tender the mother-daughter relationship can be. It also reflects the underlying issues of 90s New York City, revealing the effects of loss, absentee fathers, and over-policing on communities of color. Because the show has a long running time of 2 hours and 30 minutes (including intermission), these themes are often portrayed at length, and can sometimes give the impression of being trite, bordering on trite. However, the absolute dynamism of the cast prevents the show from descending into pure melodrama.
Jonathan Mandel, New York Theater: If Dixon and Bean deliver swoon-worthy interpretations of some of the Keys' catchiest melodies, Keshia Lewis delivers the Keys' most moving and hard-hitting song, “The Perfect Way to Go.”・It's on fire with “Die.” This song is about a woman whose son was shot and killed. No one was shot to death in Hell's Kitchen. There is no indication that Miss Liza Jane had a son who was killed. Miss Jane sings this song after Ali enters Ellington's room and she tells him that she is too angry to play the piano now. In the immediately preceding scene, the police have a (somewhat ambiguous) encounter with Knack, leading to his arrest, presumably at Jersey's instigation. Teacher Liza Jane lashes out at her student. “Then why are you here instead of outside? You were in pain. That pain led you here. Listen to that pain. Do something with it. Please.'' Even if the lyrics don't match the context of the scene, the sentiment is deeply aligned and easy for the audience to share. The same can be said about much of “Hell's Kitchen.”
Average rating: 70.0%
