If you are an Alicia Keys fan, going to see “Hell’s Kitchen” at the Nederlander Theatre on its North American tour is a no-brainer. If you’re not, you’re more likely to be annoyed by its shortcomings as well as appreciative of its long suits.
A Grammy Award-winning R&B singer and songwriter, Keys wrote the music and lyrics for this semi-autobiographical, quasi-jukebox musical, which premiered at the Public Theater in 2023 and moved, with revisions, to Broadway the following year, where it is still playing. Many of her hits — “You Don’t Know My Name,” “Girl on Fire,” “Fallin’,” “If I Ain’t Got You” and, of course, “Empire State of Mind” (the finale) — are incorporated either straightforwardly or repurposed to suit the plot lines, more often than not successfully.
Though Keys insists the coming-of-age tale is not about her, the main character, Ali (Maya Drake, a recent high-school graduate making her Broadway tour debut), is a precocious 17-year-old living, as Keys did, with her mother, Jersey (Kennedy Caughell), in Manhattan Plaza, a midtown high-rise with subsidized housing for artists.
The time is the 1990s and, in the rousing hip-hop-inflected opening number choreographed by Camille A. Brown, Ali introduces us to the building via a projected (projections by Peter Nigrini) elevator ride down from her 42nd-floor apartment, with stops at various floors to hear the residents’ diverse music. After that, she intermittently narrates the events of her 17th year of life.
She also hangs around outside with her besties Jessica (Marley Soleil) and Tiny (Gigi Lewis), who encourage her to make a move on Knuck (Jonavery Worrell), a 20-something bucket drummer who initially rejects her.
Much of the first act revolves around Ali’s pursuit of Knuck, who turns out to be a sweet-natured house painter eager to stay out of trouble. But Kristoffer Diaz’s book also introduces the other main story lines: Ali’s conflict with her uber-protective mother, how she comes to terms with her unreliable father and her discovery of her love of music and first mentor.
The problem is that, while the place and time are specific, the rest — including Ali’s aborted romance — is pretty generic, predictable and occasionally nonsensical. Typical adolescent girl that she is, Ali spends lots of time fighting with Jersey, who just wants her to stay home and have dinner (for some reason), makes her feel trapped and goes ballistic when she discovers her daughter and Knuck together, leading to a life-threatening situation and a suggestion of racism that’s never fully explored.
As a last resort, Jersey calls Ali’s father, Davis (Desmond Sean Ellington), a piano player, in the hope that he can help with Ali. But she knows he’s irresponsible and at first doesn’t let him see his daughter, so it’s hard to understand why she calls him at all. Still, after showing off his seductive charm in a bluesy “Fallin’” duet with Jersey, he does bond with Ali over music, then disappears again when he’s supposed to show up.
After one of her battles with Jersey, in the middle of a rainstorm, Ali finds her way to Manhattan Plaza’s basement common room, The Ellington, where Miss Liza Jane (a commanding Roz White) is playing the piano and takes her on as a student whether she likes it or not. Naturally, the pupil learns about herself and life as well as about music but, what’s mystifying, since Miss Liza Jane is later honored as a building treasure, is that before their meeting, Ali doesn’t even know she exists. Also odd is the virtual disappearance of Jessica and Tiny, and of Jersey’s two best friends, almost as if Diaz found himself with more than he could handle.
On the bright side, “Hell’s Kitchen” is about as high energy as can be, thanks to director Michael Greif and the large ensemble of talented actors, singers and dancers. Drake, who is only 18, makes a debut any girl could be proud of and is completely convincing as a spoiled brat. She also does justice to her songs, among them the one new one for the show, “Kaleidoscope.”
Caughell’s Jersey is the mom from hell any teenager could hate, and I found it hard to sympathize with her even when it becomes clear she is only trying to keep Ali from making the same mistakes she did. She can really belt them out, though, especially in “Pawn It All.” Ellington’s Davis is everything he should be, and his beautiful voice blends well with both Drake’s and Caughell’s. White makes Miss Liza Jane’s brand of tough love almost endearing.
Robert Brill’s multi-tiered scenic design is busy, busy, busy and, with Natasha Katz’s lighting and Nigrini’s projections, as well as the dancers in Dede Ayite’s colorful costumes, the stage always seems to be in motion—and sometimes in overdrive. Sound designer Gareth Owen keeps the volume high on the small band under musical director Emily Orr. It is hidden on stage, and the piano playing is great, though the percussion was too loud for me and obscured the lyrics a few times.
I’m not a huge Keys fan, but, on balance, I was happy to have seen “Hell’s Kitchen.” She’s a hell of a songwriter.
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