By Ryan Leeds
Steps away from Times Square, an enormously talented young Black artist grew up in an apartment complex of entertainment professionals, seniors, and people living with HIV. It was the early 90s, and Manhattan Plaza was the epicenter for all the grit and glory New York City had to offer. Eventually, she’d mature into the multiple Grammy award-winning musical artist Alicia Keys.
If you wait long enough, there’s bound to be a biographical musical about your favorite singer. (The Cher Show, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and Jersey Boys, to name a few.) Fortunately, Keys’ fans didn’t have to wait long for Hell’s Kitchen, a tuner loosely based on her early life.
The show generated considerable critical and audience buzz when it premiered at the downtown Public Theater at the end of 2023. By the following spring, it had transferred uptown to Broadway’s Shubert Theater, took home two Tony Awards, and is still playing to packed, enthusiastic audiences with an “Empire State of Mind.”
The usual teenage problems are prominent as book writer Kristoffer Diaz highlights central character Ali’s adolescent angst, including a romantic affair with a boy that her frazzled mother shuns, an absent father, and general rebellion. But the story, under Michael Greif’s direction, is told with a lot of heart and warmth, and will be especially relatable to any parent or kid who’s had a riff.
Audiences will be surprised by how many of Keys’ songs they know, all performed by a first-rate ensemble. Tony Award winner Maleah Joi Moon has left the original Broadway cast. Still, fellow Tony winner Kecia Lewis remains, offering a sobering and deeply touching Act I finale, singing Keys’ 2020 hit “Perfect Way to Die.”
With an undeniably catchy score (it won a 2025 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album) and hard-hitting choreography by Camille A. Brown, Hell’s Kitchen is a dynamic night at the theater that will appeal to both locals and visiting theatergoers who want a taste of contemporary city life through the lens of a tried and true New Yorker.
Hell’s Kitchen plays on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre.
‘Hell’s Kitchen’ takeaway
Keys is not the only celebrity whose humble beginnings were rooted in Manhattan Plaza. A fascinating documentary about the apartment complex was made in 2018, revealing its starry roster of tenants, including Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Lansbury, Terrence Howard, Larry David, and many more.
