Hell's Kitchen (4*)

For some reason, Alicia Keys had never been on a Chiffon playlist; as I scanned the musical numbers in the Playbill for Hell's Kitchen, I recognized only one, "Empire State of Mind," a song I associated more with Jay Z.  Definitely a blind spot and my loss for the past two decades.  

Set for the most part in Manhattan Plaza, where Keyes grew up, Hell's Kitchen resonated for a personal reason, too.  Barnet, one of the buildings earliest tenants, lived there with a spectacular view of the George Washington Bridge when we met, four years before the musical prodigy was born in 1981. The one-room apartment where Ali and her mother resided was the same size as Barnet's, and I recall listening with excitement to his stories of riding the elevator with Angela Lansbury.  And early in our relationship my encounters with the doormen, typically Black men like the ever-reliable Ray (Oscar Whitney, Jr.), were frequent.

From "Gospel," the super kinetic opening number, bolstered by vivid projections of the 'hood and multi-purpose scaffolding that emphasizes the high rise of Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen felt true to me in ways that other juke box musicals haven't, perhaps because it focuses strictly on the most relatable years before its adolescent subject became famous, while she banked the experience she eventually communicated through song. Has the Hudson ever served as a more relevant metaphor than it does in "River," plaintively sung by Amanda Reid, a fellow Texan making her Broadway debut? 

The production reminded me for the umpteenth time how much talent there is on Broadway.  Although I wasn't familiar with the 2024 Tony winners for Best Actress and Best Featured Actress in a Musical, the energetic and diverse cast, and first-rate band had the joint stompin' and shoutin', particularly during "Kaleidoscope," a new song Keys wrote for the show, when I almost felt young and hopeful enough to be dancing in the aisles along with them.  Jessica Vosk, as a strict mom, and Angela Birchett, an understudy who played Miss Liza Jane, Keyes's beloved mentor, both deliver powerhouse vocal performances that bring down the house.  Though Philip Johnson Richardson and Benjamin H. Moore don't have as much to do in what is essentially a thin but still resolutely feminist book, they sing well and deliver performances that add social justice nuance to stereotypes of sensitive, sexy men.  Speaking of sexy men, I have a weakness for chorus boys, but few have commanded the stage the way that Eliazar Jimenez does, tirelessly.

As for "Empire State of Mind," the closing number: let me just say I fell in love with my adopted city all over again, with the now besieged Statue of Liberty still capable of bringing tears to my cynical eyes.

Chiffon went to sleep listening to Alicia Keys "Essentials" on Apple Music and put the original cast recording of Hell's Kitchen on repeat the next morning.  Congratulations, Ms. Keyes, director Michael Greif and choreographer Camille A. Brown for raising the juke-box-musical bar as high as Barnet's apartment on the 37th floor.