Alicia Cook, who lives in Manhattan Plaza, West 43rd Street.rd He once changed her name to Alicia Keys, in part because her piano had the number 88 on it and because it was the door she unlocked. That was 27 years ago, 16 years before she won a Grammy, when she was just 16 years old. her debut her album, Song in A minor, was announced when she was 20 years old and won her first five of those Grammy Awards. These days, she writes scripts for Broadway. her jukebox musical hell's kitchen The production, which has now moved to the Shubert Theater four blocks away from the subsidized apartment complex where she grew up, received 13 Tony Award nominations, one for each year Keyes worked on the show. and is a local favorite. “Greatness doesn't come in a hurry,” she says.
The show (with a book by Christopher Diaz) tells the story of Keys's creative nascent years on the project as a fictional facsimile, sprinkling new songs like her best-known R&B, hip-hop and pop hits “If I Ain't Got You,” “Girl on Fire” and “Empire State of Mind.” Malea Joy Moon plays Ali, the 17-year-old girl in free fall, and Shoshana Bean plays her single mother, but it's a third character who emerges from the sidelines and proves to be the play's most memorable: a no-nonsense teacher who helps cultivate, deepen, focus and give direction to the teenager's musical talents. Voila! A songwriter is born.
Two weeks ago, Lewis received the Lucille Lortel Award. and Winner of Actors Equity's Richard Seff Award. last This week the Outer Critics Circle named her Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Musical, and yes, she's up for two more awards yet to be determined: a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award.
Lewis not only has a compelling presence on the show, but he also makes his mark musically on several Keys songs, “Perfect Way to Die” and “Authors of Forever.” The creative collaboration that made these songs stage-worthy cemented the bond between singer and songwriter. “She wants to know your ideas, what you're thinking, how she's building the character,” Lewis says. observer of the key. “And she was kind enough to tell me what she was thinking and what was going on in her heart and head when she actually wrote those two songs, and It allowed me to create my own version of it and bring out my own truth.”
Lewis stepped into the role of experienced teacher and mentor, having split most of her day between teaching and acting. “Hell's Kitchen” “It's a perfect fit for where I am in my life and career,” she says. At the Atlantic Theater, she has taught stage acting; she has taught at her alma mater, New York University, and conducted master classes at the Juilliard School. During her impoverished years, she even worked jobs at elementary school to survive.
Fortunately, that didn't happen too often. On Broadway and off-Broadway, she has been busy creating, inventing, and replacing roles like Asaka. Once upon a time this island“Mama” Morton Chicagothe main character is mother's courage,other. The original cast is It's not cheating When the revue reconvened for a 1988 revival, she served as standby for Nell Carter and Almeria McQueen.
when Sleepy companion When it first appeared on Broadway in 2006, Lewis appeared on a plane as Trix the Aviatrix. “This is probably in my top five theater experiences,” she muses. “This cast was people who half-jokingly thought they were the oldest cast on Broadway. Our company baby was Sutton Foster, the star of the show. She was 30 years old and… Most of the rest of us were over 45, but there was a calmness of mind and spirit, and a joy and confidence in what we had done so far, both on stage and off. There was a great atmosphere and we had a great time.''The cast enjoyed each other's company and hung out together. “On Sundays, Sutton would bring us bagels and breakfast things and we would meet before her matinee.”
hell's kitchenHer new favorite role, Miss Liza Jane, is a composite of several Manhattan Plaza people who help Alicia find her way. Audiences adore this character. Walking back and forth, Lewis claps and laughs. Lewis attributes the audience's warm embrace to the fact that almost everyone has had someone like Miss Liza Jane in their life. “Relatives, neighbors, school administrators, people who really saw you, believed in you, and pushed you to do your best,” she says. “Over the years, I have been blessed to have quite a few Miss Liza Janes in my life. One person in particular that I draw on to create this character is My voice and dictionary teacher was Koehler, who is now deceased.I went to the Performing Arts High School, which is an old high school on West 46th.th–And many of my classmates said, “Is Mr. Koehler doing this too?'' Is that Miss Koehler? ”
The movie that made that high school famous…fame—The film was shot in the summer of 1979, and Lewis, along with Danny Burstyn, Helen Slater and Lisa Vidal, didn't arrive until September of '79.
“This is my 40th year.th One year in show business! ” she points out happily. “June 15th marks 40 years since I was hired by Michael Bennett at the age of 18 and walked into the Imperial Theatre. dream woman. Now—to have hell's kitchen“So to have this kind of role and have it all come together at this time is just perfect for me. All of that combined in my own life, matched with this character and this group of young people, many of whom are making their Broadway debut, it's just perfect.”
Part of the plot hell's kitchen The work depicts Lewis's own life, and also depicts the problems and worries of a single mother raising a child with artistic talent. His son Simon, who is almost 21 years old, is “carrying on the theatrical tradition,” her mother beamed proudly. “He went on to become a stagehand and is currently completing his training in the Roundabout Theater Company internship program.
“Raising a child in New York City is quite a feat. I was lucky enough to live on Long Island, so I was a little further away from the city, but the problems still exist. And the problems in this country still exist. Racial background in raising black and biracial children is an issue almost everywhere. We train our children with a degree of vigilance that few others know. We must protect it.”
When Lewis comes to the Shubert Theatre every day, her maternal instincts come into full bloom, given the number of young people in the cast. “I love that about me,” she admits. “I think even from an early age, my nature was kind of protective. I always was. I resisted that when I was younger. I wanted to be Ing.”pictureI liked the pretty girls that Nue and the boys wanted, but I've come to accept and be very grateful when younger people want to be around me as an older person. I think that's a special thing.”
The cast members call her “Mama.” “I didn't ask them to call me that,” Lewis says. “When they called me a legend, I started to suspect they were speaking code for 'old actress.'”
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