Tony Award-nominated actress Shoshana Bean opens up about aging in the entertainment industry and the special opportunity she had to work with Alicia Keys.
“Growing older in this industry is hard, and it's been hard for me to accept that at this stage in my career, I'm finally playing a mother — I'd just played someone's daughter two years ago, and now I'm a mother. It's been a battle with my ego to step into this role,” Bean said.
Bean is one of the stars of the musical “Hell's Kitchen,” inspired by the life of show creator Keyes. The musical tells the story of Ali, a girl who longs for independence from her overprotective mother, played by Bean.
“This is not your average Broadway mom. We're rewriting old, tired paradigms with these characters.”
Bean called Keys “the greatest gift to this project” and said he highlighted the uniqueness of each person involved.
“The favorite thing she ever said to me was a little love note she left on my makeup table in my dressing room that said, 'Shine like mad,'” Bean revealed.
“To have someone say, 'Just be yourself. It's okay to be more than who you know yourself to be.' That kind of permission is rare and special.”
The musical, which began off-Broadway and has been nominated for 13 Tony Awards, including best musical. Bean said the cast was nervous about transitioning from an off-Broadway show to Broadway.
“The risk and the fear that you always feel when you go from a small, intimate space to somewhere like the Shubert Theater is, 'What are we going to lose? What heart are we going to lose? What intimacy are we going to lose? What are we going to miss?'” she explained. “In a weird way, I feel like our show did the opposite of what often happens, and I feel like this space really invigorated us in an incredibly way.”
Bean attributes the smooth transition to the relationships between cast and crew offstage.
“Especially in larger spaces, things can get very dramatic, but this piece remains very human and down to earth.”
The cast album will be available on June 7. The 77th Annual Tony Awards ceremony will air on June 16 at 8pm ET on CBS and Paramount+.
