OKLAHOMA CITY – To celebrate their 10th anniversary, OKC Broadway is presenting a season packed with some powerhouse productions embarking on their first national tours, including “Hell’s Kitchen,” a new musical from 17-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys and Tony-nominated playwright Kristoffer Diaz, taking over the Civic Center April 7th through 12th.
The fiery opening night show drew a full house of theater lovers, most of whom, aside from knowing Keys’ most notable works, were attending blindly.
“Hell’s Kitchen” is a semi-autobiographical musical that details Keys’ upbringing in New York City’s artistic Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood during the 1990s.
A jukebox musical marrying Keys’ chart-topping hits with some new originals by the Grammy-winner, it tells the story of precocious 17-year-old Ali and her overprotective mother, Jersey, who live in their 42nd-floor apartment in Hell’s Kitchen.
The opening night cast actually differed from audience expectations, with neither Ali nor Jersey played by the tour’s principal actors Maya Drake and Kennedy Caughell.
Instead the night saw first understudy Marley Soleil as Ali and second understudy Beda Spindola as Jersey, and the dynamic between them as daughter and mother felt both loving and distant.
Ali is a rambunctious teenager who often disobeys her mother‘s wishes by hanging out in the streets, talking to boys, and eventually falling in love with a much older street drummer named Knuck, played by JonAvery Worrell.
Ali is surrounded by artists of all kinds, and a recurring elevator motif symbolizes each floor being filled with loud expressions of art, making it hard for her to suppress her own need for self-expression, but instead of pursuing art formally, Ali chases her established passion—boys.
Outside her building, Ali and her friends flirt with Knuck and other street drummers, with each flirting more exuberantly than the last, an opportunity for Soleil’s undeniable charisma to shine through in her playful displays of affection.
But those antics attract her mother’s attention, and eventually the police, with the production design employing flashing red lights for a serious moment of foreboding, and themes of police brutality causing collective unease in the audience.
Still hungry for fulfillment, Ali explores her own apartment, ending up in the Ellington Room on the first floor. The room is mostly bare except for a grand piano, which is played by a mysterious woman named “Miss Liza Jane,” portrayed by seasoned performer Roz White. Miss Liza Jane offers brief piano lessons, despite her sternness. Ali agrees, sparking a potential new interest and setting her on the path laid by Keys’ life.
Throughout, Tony-nominated scenic designer Robert Brill achieves an effective minimalism that gives just enough to feel like a city, but not too much to take away the audience’s imagination. There are fixed set pieces that remain on stage the entire duration of the show and most additional scenic pieces – scaffolds, tables, beds – are cleverly wheeled in by the characters themselves.
The stars of Brill’s set are the large LED video wall that acts as a modern drop curtain and the industrial staircases positioned on both sides of the stage where actors and the live band reside, adding to the sense that creativity lives on every floor.
Tony-nominated choreographer Camille A. Brown’s moves transport the audience to the streets of 90s New York. Although choreographed, dances are done in such a clever way that they almost feel like each character is freestyling, and in the big group numbers, you get a sense of community that these dances have been danced for years during social gatherings.
And Dede Ayite’s costumes conjure that same sense of NYC at the time, with crop-topped jerseys, baggy jeans, eccentric athletic wear, all with patterns reminiscent of the specific Global Village Coffeehouse design only belonging to that time. There are elements of skate, graffiti, and hip-hop culture all meshed together, resulting in a truly authentic melting pot, the way as New York has always been.
It’s all held together by legendary theater director Michael Greif, whose presence felt throughout the entire production, from the blocking to the tone. For such a fast-paced show, there are impactful moments of stillness and high points then immediately being dropped incredibly low in a way that doesn’t leave you with a sense of whiplash can only be achieved with great intention.
But the show’s selling point, of course, is Keys’ music, and her songs are spread throughout in powerful and rousing moments that had opening night audience members dancing, embracing, and even wiping tears during the intermission.
“Gramercy Park” scores Jersey’s cautionary tale about her own teenage romance with Ali’s jazz pianist father, a passionate rendition of “Unthinkable (I’m Ready)” accompanies the moment that Ali and Knuck spend their first night together, and Keys’ smash hit “Girl on Fire” heightens Ali’s – and the audience’s – excitement afterward.
In a particularly poignant moment, Miss Liza Jane urges Ali to play the piano following a harrowing moment, stating it was kismet she found herself in the Ellington Room. Like her ancestors before her, Ali is encouraged to turn her rage into greatness and White delivers a heartfelt performance of “Perfect Way to Die,” a tribute to those lost to the horrors of police brutality.
And if you know anything about Keys’ songs, you now that it’s all heading toward “Empire State of Mind,” her signature anthem of New York.
“Hell’s Kitchen” is an intimate, moving, and exciting show, filled with powerful performances and enough well-known hits that it’ll be difficult for many to remain seated.
“Hell’s Kitchen” at Civic Center Music Hall runs April 7th through 12th, presented by OKC Broadway.
For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit okcciviccenter.com and okcbroadway.com.
Gavin Taylor is a writer who explores the lives, work, and events of the people of Oklahoma. He draws his inspiration from engaging directly with the community.
Outside of writing, he is a visual artist, filmmaker, and energetic rock and roll frontman known professionally as The Muffled Siren.
