Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen opens on Broadway this spring

“Hell’s Kitchen,” a loosely fictional story inspired by Keys’ own childhood, depicts a short chapter in the life of a 17-year-old who grows up surrounded by artists in a New York housing project where most units are subsidized for artists. The main character, a girl raised by her single mother, discovers a love for the piano and an attraction to an adult man, while chafing at her mother’s attempts to keep her safe in a gritty neighborhood.

The musical features new arrangements of Keys’ biggest hits, including “Fallin,” “Girl on Fire,” “No One” and “Empire State of Mind,” as well as several new songs the pop star wrote for the show. Keys, who is not performing in “Hell’s Kitchen,” has been working on it for more than a decade with playwright Kristoffer Diaz, who wrote the book.

In an unusual move that demonstrates Keys’ long determination to maintain control of her own intellectual property and career, the musical’s lead producer will be AKW Productions, a company Keys owns and describes as “focused on creating diverse, real, authentic and sincere music’. stories in film, television, theater and music.” When asked if the stage production, like most commercial Broadway musicals, would have investors, Keys said, “Yes, there will be some very special people who will come along.”

The musical is directed by Michael Greif and choreographed by Camille A. Brown. The center cast is led by Maleah Joi Moon as the lead, joined by Shoshana Bean as the mother, Brandon Victor Dixon as the absent father and Kecia Lewis as the piano teacher. The Broadway cast has not yet been announced.

Reviews were mixed, with many critics praising the performances and production but saying they wanted more from the story. Critic Jesse Green in The New York Times called the first act “thrilling” but said it “disappoints after the mid-show intermission.” In the Washington Postcritic Peter Marks was disappointed and called it ‘a fine musical’, but in the Los Angeles Timesthe critic Charles McNulty was much more enthusiastic, writing: “I was surprised by how compellingly I fell under the musical’s spell.”