Singer Alicia Keys brings ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ to Los Angeles

Bringing a piece of New York to Los Angeles doesn’t intimidate Alicia Keys. When she created “Hell’s Kitchen,” the jukebox musical loosely based on her early life in Manhattan, Keys drew energy from her deep belief in the project. The show opened on Broadway in 2024 and was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, including best musical. It will make its L.A. debut at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre on Wednesday, in a step that Keys welcomes as a natural progression marking its success.

“We spent 13 years developing this piece,” Keys said. “I believe in this deeply. I stand behind it. I stand for it.”

The LA stop is almost halfway through the musical’s 45-city North American tour. With a book by Kristoffer Diaz and directed by Michael Greif, the show features hits from Keys’ career, along with additional music and lyrics written by Keys and various collaborators for the show. Legendary tennis player and entrepreneur Serena Williams also joined the tour as a producer. Keys called it thrilling to bring another powerful woman onto the team.

“She saw the show early, and she was just totally taken. I think she said something like, ‘Alicia, you made this young thug cry,’” Keys recounted. “She was so connected to it and felt really, really engaged with it. Obviously, she’s such an incredible businesswoman and visionary. It just felt right.”

Inspired by Keys’ own childhood growing up in the midtown neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, the musical follows 17-year-old Ali searching for freedom, love and expression in 1990s New York City. Between arguments with her overprotective mother, Jersey, Ali finds solace learning to play the piano under the tutelage of Miss Liza Jane, an elderly tenant in the family’s subsidized artist housing. Ali becomes romantically entangled with an older boy named Knuck and falls in love with music, but female relationships form the core of the story. Keys hopes the dynamic between Ali, her mother and Miss Liza Jane helps the musical transcend any limitations inherent in its particular urban setting. “It was interesting to see that even though the story itself is based in New York City ... it is a piece that really becomes timeless, and it doesn’t matter where you live,” Keys said. “You can understand this story, and that’s why it translated so well into a tour because at the heart of it, it’s really a mother-daughter love story.”

“Hell’s Kitchen” is still a distinctly New York musical. The characters discuss Rudy Giuliani’s controversial stop-and-frisk police policies, and Knuck is part of a sidewalk bucket drumming group. Keys wanted to ensure that the spirit of New York was “baked into the show.” “I just want [the audience] to feel the electricity. I want them to feel that New York energy,” Keys said. “You feel this grit. You feel this rawness. The show is set in the ‘90s, but ... it could be today, tomorrow, yesterday.”

Like New York, LA is a city that Keys said is shaped by “creative spirits,” and she can’t wait to see how the show is received by a Hollywood crowd.

“I’m so excited to bring this to the L.A. community for everyone, all these creative minds and spirits who are every day chasing their own dreams and breaking down walls and barriers and looking for ways to connect more deeply,” Keys said. “I’m excited for them to fall in love with it and have a piece of Broadway in their backyard.”

That piece will arrive via a touring cast consisting of emerging artists and storied talent. Maya Drake makes her first tour debut as Ali; while Kennedy Caughell (Jersey) has three national tours under her belt, including “Wicked” and “Beautiful: the Carole King Musical.” Keys finds particular joy in watching new talent breathe life into her characters.

“When you see the tour, you’re seeing young people that are living their dream, and they are so good. I mean, they dance next level. They are singing the whole roof off the entire place,” Keys said. “It’s magnificent to see the young artists that are blooming and blossoming.”

The character of Ali is fundamentally shaped by the young artists who play her, Keys said. During the show’s original Broadway run, the actor Maleah Joi Moonwon a Tony for performance at the age of 21. Drake is 19, and even though this tour marks her first major production, Keys called Drake a “pure champion veteran.”

Tribune News Service