For more than a decade, Alicia Keys has been hard at work on a musical.
Finally, “Hell’s Kitchen,” a new, off-Broadway production with music and lyrics by none other than the lyrical genius herself, arrives this month at The Public Theater in Manhattan’s East Village.
Inspired by the multiple Grammy Award-winning artist’s teenage years, the production is named for the New York City neighborhood where she lived as a kid. It is a coming-of-age, mother-daughter love story that follows Ali (played by newcomer Maleah Joi Moon), a 17-year-old living in subsidized housing while navigating teenage life, feeling smothered and inhibited by her no-nonsense single mother, a budding romance with an elusive older boyfriend, and a burgeoning passion for music. The emotional strain drives her to an old piano in her building’s community room, where she begins to discover and develop her musical talents.
Rounding out the supporting characters are an untrustworthy father and a dedicated piano teacher, all based on those involved in Key’s own upbringing. The spirit of the neighborhood serves as the production’s backdrop with a score composed of many rearranged versions of Keys’ greatest hits and four brand-new songs. Although she doesn’t perform in the show, its demand has been high – so much that it has already extended its run for a third time to January 14 since its announcement last June.
In some respects, making a musical might seem like Keys may have veered off course a bit, but the fact of the matter is the recording industry and musical theater actually occupy much of the same space. There is a flourishing roster of jukebox musicals (shows typically built around hit songs) that tell fictional and biographical stories with original scores written by well-known artists. “It’s a little baffling that she’s never worked on a piece of theater before,” the show’s director, Michael Greif, tells Vogue, referring to his admiration for her innate skill set. He reflects on how she not only has an uncanny capacity for rendering new music within days of considering a scene, but she is also masterful at reinterpreting and unifying a song to a story. “She has an incredible sense of how a song works dramatically.”
It was around 2012 when Keys began laying down the groundwork for a musical about being 17, that curious, hair-raising, all-too-crucial age. She wanted to explore that tender time when one is vehemently searching and building who and what they want to become in the world. Of course, her own 17th year was a major contrast from most people’s – by then she was already signed to Columbia Records and exploring prospects of an eventual move to sign with hitmaker Clive Davis at Arista Records – but the overall emotional dynamics were the same. The show’s process involved countless, profound conversations about her life and there was not one component she hadn’t signed off on, perhaps an awareness by virtue of how artists don’t always receive a fair deal in the music industry. She says her maintaining financial and creative control with “Hell’s Kitchen” grew into its culture and goals, lessons she believes are proving successful.
When asked what’s in store for her future, the quest to further realize her entrepreneurial streak remains top of mind for Keys. “I’m really interested in business at this point,” she tells The New York Times. In addition to plans to transfer “Hell’s Kitchen” to Broadway, she intends to expand Keys Soulcare, her skincare and wellness brand launched in 2020, and of course, make more music.
“I feel like I’m in a place where I can express myself clearly,” she explains. I am clear about what I want, what I don’t want. Who I want to do it with and who I don’t want to. I’m unafraid to be very vocal and verbal about that, and I feel like I’m in a place where I can do anything, anything. And I haven’t even begun yet.”
