- Stage veteran Shoshana Bean starred in the Broadway Hell's Kitchen
- In the musical, Bean plays a character based on Alicia Keys' mother, Terrier Joseph, who isn't exactly a likable character, something Bean told People magazine she struggled with.
- Bean also revealed that he's adopted the inspirational advice he received from Keys as his new life mantra.
Shoshana Bean is now in the spotlight, but it's been 20 years in the making.
Twenty years after her stage debut, the actress and singer is receiving major buzz and career-best reviews thanks to her role in the Star Wars films. Hell's KitchenA new Broadway musical is inspired by the life of Alicia Keys and features songs by the Grammy Award winner.
The role showcases a previously unseen side of Bean's talents, including a powerful vocal range previously only available in live concerts. While the standing ovations from audiences, praise from famous peers (like Usher), and a second Tony nomination have been rewarding, the 46-year-old star told People magazine the real accolade is the newfound confidence he's found in himself.
“For so long, in this particular space of theater, I've tried to shrink myself or reshape myself to fit into something,” she said during a meeting with the 2024 Tony Award nominees. “This is the first time someone has looked at me and let me be who I am, and that means more to me than anything.”
That “someone” is Keys, the award-winning singer-songwriter who allows Bean to express all sides of himself in the musical.
“Alicia sets me free,” Bean says. “She wrote me this card that I put on the mirror in my dressing room, and at the end it says, 'Be free to shine,' and that's become my favorite mantra now, because it's like, 'Just be yourself, with no restrictions. Be free and take up space!' That's so precious.”
“Her support has been everything,” Bean added about Keys. “I think she's the best. I have so much respect and admiration for her, and have for a really long time. So to have her approval? Any approval from her is priceless to me.”
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in Hell's KitchenIn the film, Bean plays Jersey, a single mother desperate to protect her teenage daughter Ali (Maria Joy Moon), a character based on Keys' own mother, Terrier Joseph, with whom Bean said she “instantly related.”
“The moment Terri and I sat down, there was a bond,” Bean said. “We're really close. We're really similar. So it's been the greatest blessing for me to get to know her and build that friendship.”
In fact, they're so similar that Keys even gave them names. “Alicia calls us 'twins' because we're eerily similar,” Bean says. “We were sitting together in the audience at an event the other night, and we both sat the same way, and someone would make a sound, and we'd raise our hands and say the same thing, and it just fit.”
Despite the similarities, Bean was reluctant to take on the role of mother. Hell's Kitchen – Notably, she recently played the daughter in a 2022 Broadway musical. Mr Saturday Night.
“I was very resistant to playing a mother at first,” Bean told People magazine. “I'd just played someone else's child. I thought, 'How did I get this old? How did I suddenly become a mother?' There were so many things going through my mind. It felt weird. So I was very conflicted.”
It wasn't until actor Billy Porter came to see the show during its off-Broadway run at New York's Public Theater that Bean's perspective changed.
“He was like, 'Hey, you're rewriting the paradigm of what a mother is on stage! Embrace that. Step into that world.' That gave me the freedom to let Teri be dynamic and fierce and who Teri really is in real life. She's not defined at all. So that gave me a lot of freedom.”
Bean's character is not an easy one to play. Throughout the musical, she is often portrayed as the bad guy, harsh towards Ali and her biological father, Davis (Brandon Victor Dixon). So much so that during one performance, when Ali tells her piano teacher, Ms. Liza Jane (Keshia Lewis), “I wish you were my mom,” the audience erupts in applause.
“Afterwards, I went to Michael Greif, the director, and said, 'We're doing something wrong. They hate me. I don't think they understand,'” Bean recalled. “And he just said, 'Shoshana, trust me. Any parent knows all you're trying to do is protect her and keep her safe.' But it was an internal conflict between me and the character, because I was raised by a single mother too, so I understand and recognize what that means. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't shocked when Ali attacked me onstage with some of the things that she said to my character.”
Bean's attitude changed after watching an interview with actress Ali Moussy, who played the less-than-perfect mother in “The Movie,” as well as advice she'd received from Keys and Porter in the past. Kimberly Akimbo.
“They said, 'How does it feel to play a dislikeable character?' And she said, 'Why do you have to be a likeable character? We're human. Not all humans are likeable. What's it like to play a dislikeable character?'” Bean says, “And it clicked.”
“Now I tell myself, 'There's a journey. I'm going to get somewhere. There's a payoff,'” Bean says. “The story needs this. The show needs this. I have to commit to it.”
Hell's Kitchen For Bean, the hard work certainly paid off: Her performance earned her nominations for a Drama Desk Award, a Drama League Award, a Lucille Lortel Award and, of course, theater's highest honor, a Tony Award.
The show itself has been nominated for a total of 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and awards for Moon, Dixon and Lewis.
“Win or lose, I'm a winner,” Bean told People magazine about the honor. “Our show is redefining and disruptive in a lot of ways, and I'm so proud to be a part of it.”
The 2024 Tony Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, June 16, at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. Viewers can watch the show on CBS and Paramount+ starting at 8 pm ET. Select awards will also be presented during a pre-show, which will stream on Pluto TV.
ticket Hell's Kitchen Now on sale.