Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys and Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright Kristoffer Diaz bring their exhilarating coming-of-age musical HELL’S KITCHEN to The Public this fall.
In a cramped apartment hanging off the side of Times Square, 17-year-old Ali is desperate to get her piece of the New York dream. Ali’s mother is just as determined to protect her daughter from the same mistakes she made. When Ali falls for a talented young drummer, both mother and daughter must face hard truths about race, defiance, and growing up. Ali feels trapped, until the sound of a neighbor playing piano opens the door to an unexpected friendship and a radically different future.
Choreographed by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown and directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, HELL’S KITCHEN is an unforgettable new show featuring both newly created music and the soulful, iconic songs of New York’s own Alicia Keys.
Leave it to Alicia Keys, the writer of evocative songs like 'Fallin'' and 'If I Ain't Got You,' which make everyday emotions feel like momentous revelations, to make a New York local see Midtown anew. I'll admit, after living on both the north and south outskirts of Hell's Kitchen for a combined four years, that particular part of the city began to feel a little less fiery, the streets no longer making me feel brand-new, but same-old. But as portrayed in Hell's Kitchen, under Michael Greif's direction, Keys's home neighborhood is a living, pulsing, vibrant soundscape.
With absolute powerhouse vocals from the cast and songs written by Keys with orchestrations and arrangements by Emmy and Grammy winner Adam Blackstone, “Hell’s Kitchen” moves beyond Ali’s teenage experiences. The play also showcases Jersey’s perspective as a single mother determined to get her daughter to make different choices from her own. Though Keys’ iconic music is used throughout, Diaz and Blackstone don’t haphazardly sprinkle the tunes across two acts. Instead, tracks like “You Don’t Know My Name” and “Fallin” come thundering forward from surprising characters at unexpected times.
2023 | Off-Broadway |
Public Theater Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
2024 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Choreographer | Camille A. Brown |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical | Kecia Lewis |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical | Shoshana Bean |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical | Maleah Joi Moon |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Musical | Hell's Kitchen |
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