Dwight Casimere
“Hell's Kitchen” is a Tony Award-winning new Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys and a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Christopher Diaz.
The musical was nominated for 13 awards by the American Theatre Wing and won two Tony Awards.
Newcomer Murray Joy Moon won the award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for her Broadway debut as Ali in Hell's Kitchen, while veteran Broadway actress Kecia Lewis capped her 40-year career with her first nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Ali's mentor, Miss Liza Jane.
Hell's Kitchen is a love letter to the relationship between an overprotective mother and her precocious but talented mixed-race teenage daughter, as well as a love letter to the tumultuous neighborhood that spawned Key's breakout talent.
Combining elements of “West Side Story” (reminiscent of themes from Bernstein's “Romeo and Juliet”), “Rent” minus the AIDS pandemic and “Stomp,” with its found-object street music and musical direction by Lily King and choreography by Camille A. Brown, “Hell's Kitchen” unfolds at lightning speed throughout its two-hour, 35-minute runtime.
Set in the eponymous neighborhood of central Manhattan, behind the stark concrete walls of the Manhattan Plaza building, Hell's Kitchen follows 17-year-old Ali, living with her long-struggling single mother, Jersey, played by a stunning Tony and Grammy-nominated actress called Shoshana Bean.
Mid-'90s Manhattan Plaza is both the metaphorical world and the physical location surrounding the musical's central characters.
Set design by Robert Brill, costume design by Dede Ayite, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Gareth Owen and projection design by Peter Nigrini combine to create the glamorous atmosphere of Manhattan Plaza and Hell's Kitchen.
It is worth noting that Hell's Kitchen has been nominated several times by the American Theatre Wing for technical achievement.
Ali's world comes to life when he takes an elevator ride from the claustrophobic 42.and She walks down from her ground floor apartment to the plaza below, taking in the sights and sounds of Manhattan Plaza as she goes, a world inside a miniature reflection of the world outside.
A trumpet player sounds from the 17th floor, an endless piano lesson goes on downstairs, and an unseen voice fills the air with the strains of an opera from another floor.
In real life, Manhattan Tower holds special meaning to many of Hell's Kitchen's cast and crew, with set designer Robert Brill revealing in an interview that he lived just a few blocks from the Plaza during the era when Hell's Kitchen was set.
“In the mid-'90s, I lived just north of Manhattan Plaza,” Brill told Broadway World, “and my daughter Sophia grew up in that vibrant community,” explaining further, “In fact, her kindergarten was in the basement of Manhattan Plaza and PS212 was her elementary school, in the same building as the Professional Performing Arts School that Alicia attended many years ago. So many of my daughter's closest friends lived in the Manhattan Plaza tower, so working on this production meant a lot to me.”
From her tiny apartment window, Ali looks out at the Hudson River in the distance and the bright lights of the city below, a view that inspires her dreams of fame and fortune.
Inside Manhattan Plaza's walls there's so much life oozing through the building's clogged ventilation systems that it threatens to spill out onto the street below.
Here Ali's soul is set free. She finds her inner voice amid the noise and chaos of all the children beating the rhythm of life and hope with a storm of raw energy. This is the soul burning inside Ali, suddenly sprang to life. This girl is on fire!
And in the Duke Ellington Room, a multipurpose gathering space on the lower level of Manhattan Plaza, with its out-of-tune piano and its out-of-shape instructor, Ali meets the ailing Miss Liza Jane, who becomes his mentor and sole spiritual director.
With Mahalia Jackson's voice and overwhelming emotional range, Ms. Lisa Jane imparts to the sensitive Ali the wit and wisdom of a country mother and the tenacity of Fannie Lou Hamer, shielding the socially naive Ali from the racial and emotional attacks that will befall her in her young life.
Hell's Kitchen doesn't shy away from the politically explicit: Ali is a mixed-race girl living in a society that mistreats both women and people of color.
While her mother tried in vain to shield her precious daughter from the hustle and bustle of the social world around her, Ali was drawn to the joyous chaos of the steamy streets beneath her filthy ivory tower.
Opposites attract, as they often do, and the good-hearted 17-year-old quickly finds a connection with the older, emotionally headstrong Nack, a black traveling painter who is rebellious and a target for society. Chris Lee, making his Broadway debut, plays the role with aplomb and smoldering resentment.
In a dramatic Hell's Kitchen trap, Ali's mother suspects Nakku of having sex with her underage daughter and calls the police, leading to his arrest.
Maybe not Rodney King or the Central Park Five, but it set off a social storm that dampened the forced joviality of an otherwise depressing situation.
And Ali's estranged black father, Davis, is a talented but hapless musical talent played with magnetic appeal by Emmy-, Grammy- and Tony-nominated actor and producer Brandon Victor Dixon.
Not usually a fatherly figure, he somehow manages to show up on time, in his own meandering way.
On the surface, Davis is someone you want to hate, but he's so flawed and so compelling that you end up liking him. That's the push-pull dynamic that governs the love triangle between Davis, Jersey, and Ali.
With its moving storyline, vibrant sets and captivating music, Hell's Kitchen is a tightly-woven sonic tapestry that expertly weaves together original music and signature songs from its creators.
Listening to the music of Hell's Kitchen, it becomes clear that the hits Alicia Keys wrote over the years were entirely autobiographical and eerily prescient. They seem tailor-made for the Broadway success she and her musical drama are currently enjoying. Kudos to her!
Hell's Kitchen continues to run on Broadway at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre. For more information, visit hellskitchen.com.
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