CLEVELAND, Ohio — For most recording artists, a greatest hits set is a capstone. For Alicia Keys, it was a starting point.
In “Hell’s Kitchen,” the Tony-winning musical inspired by her teenage years, the 17-time Grammy winner doesn’t just stitch together her best-known songs. She pulls them apart, finding new emotion and meaning in lyrics she’s been singing for decades.
“It was really a beautiful experience,” Keys said in a recent interview with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. “As many times as I sang ‘No One’ all across the globe, I never thought of it as being a love song between a mother and a daughter. It even hit me differently.”
In the show, which launched its national tour this month at Playhouse Square and runs through Nov. 1, “No One” serves as the story’s emotional resolution — a reconciliation between Ali (Maya Drake), the headstrong 17-year-old at its center, and her protective mother, Jersey (Kennedy Caughell). The moment reframes one of Keys’ biggest hits as a song about unconditional love rather than romance.
That kind of reinvention didn’t happen overnight. Hell’s Kitchen took 13 years to develop, giving Keys, along with book writer Kristoffer Diaz and director Michael Greif, time to explore how each song could serve the story. “We really dissected it and made it the best it could possibly be,” she said. “The way the songs are woven in, it really propels the story forward — it’s not just insert song (here).”
Keys began to hear her catalog in a new light. “Un-thinkable (I’m Ready),” for instance, became a tender duet between Ali and her love interest, Knuck (JonAvery Worrell).
“It’s the most beautiful thing,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘How did I miss that? How did I never sing that as a duet?’”
Even “Fallin’,” the Grammy-winning breakout that introduced her to the world, gets a fresh twist — turned into a playful, jazz-infused number performed by Ali’s absent father Davis (Desmond Sean Ellington) to Jersey.
“It’s possibly one of my favorite moments in the show,” Keys said. “He sings it in a way that you’ve absolutely never heard before.”
And when Ali seemingly blows up her relationship with her mother after a series of questionable decisions, “Girl on Fire” takes on a different kind of power — performed not by Ali, but by her best friends Tiny (Gigi Lewis) and Jessica (Marley Soleil), who add some hip-hop flair. It’s still an empowerment anthem, but one seen through the eyes of the people who care about her most.
It’s an interesting creative choice — and one of the show’s most surprising strengths. Some of Keys’ most famous songs aren’t sung by her onstage counterpart at all. By giving “Fallin’” and “Girl on Fire” to other characters, she lets the music speak from new perspectives, expanding her own voice through theirs.
For Keys, that’s the magic of “Hell’s Kitchen.”
“People leave the show saying, ‘I’ve never heard the music like that,’” she said. “It feels totally new — and I know that’s true because even I feel that same way.”
The show also let Keys stretch into new territory. She wrote three original songs for “Hell’s Kitchen,” including “Seventeen,” which she calls her “first musical-theater song,” and the joyful, African-influenced “Kaleidoscope.”
“I love that number,” said Drake. “It’s just such a cool moment with everybody on stage in their costumes and the lighting, the music and the beat. I think it will definitely be one of the audience’s faves for sure, too.”
The result is a show that reminds you why Keys’ music endures — soulful, sincere and alive with possibility. It’s a coming-of-age story, not necessarily about the making of a pop star, but about finding yourself and the people who lift you up.
“When you step into that theater, your jaw is gonna hit the floor,” she said. “This is the perfect opportunity to bring all of your loved ones and really enjoy a night together.”
“Hell’s Kitchen” is playing at the KeyBank State Theatre, 1519 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, through Nov. 1. Tickets, $35-$150, are available at playhousesquare.org.
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