In recent years, it’s certainly felt like the jukebox musical has hit a lifeless, evolutionary dead end.
asserted
musical → feel → end
The species that traces its ancestry back to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Kander and Ebb, Lerner and Loewe has somehow devolved into an empty dumping ground for pop stars who see Broadway as a la-di-da Shangri-La to park their song catalogues and pad their post-retirement coffers.
asserted
who → trace → coffers
The result is that so many bio-musicals over the past 10 seasons have looked and sounded identical.
asserted
musicals → look → seasons
But anyone who feels hopeless about the current state of the jukebox musical should pay a visit to the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, where Alicia Keys’ “Hell’s Kitchen” opened last Thursday night, proving that the art form still has a pulse, and a bounding one at that.
asserted
form → feel → that
This new musical, which premiered on Broadway in 2024, is a kaleidoscopic, genre-defying undertaking.
asserted
which → premier → 2024
And even when it falters, as it occasionally does, it still demonstrates a sincere desire to achieve what the best musicals do: to use music not as an end in itself (as most bio-musicals do), but as a means to explore the inner turmoil of its central protagonist when words simply fail.
asserted
words → falter → protagonist
That “Hell’s Kitchen” works as well as it does is testament to its hyper-specificity.
asserted
it → work → specificity
Whereas most bio-musicals try to cram an artist’s entire life story into two hours and some change, Keys’ semi-autobiographical work takes what, in those musicals, would be a single scene early in Act 1 and expands it into a full-fledged show — one that’s equal parts a coming-of-age family drama and also an interrogation of one musician’s artistic awakening.
asserted
that → try → awakening
In doing this, Keys and book writer Kristoffer Diaz have offered themselves space to explore.
asserted
Keys → do → space
And it’s telling: “Hell’s Kitchen” is marked not so much by its superficial breadth, as is the case with most cookie-cutter bio-musicals, but by its impressive depth.
asserted
case → ’ → depth
True to the singer-songwriter’s own upbringing, Ali lives in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Hell’s Kitchen, on the 42nd floor of Manhattan Plaza, a publicly subsidized residential complex mostly home to working artists.
asserted
Ali → live → artists
Ali, on the cusp of adulthood, yearns for more independence.
asserted
Ali → yearn → independence
She wants to spend her evenings jamming with the bohemians and street musicians outside her apartment.
asserted
She → want → apartment
She wants to flirt with guys, and even has her eyes set on one guy in particular, a construction worker and bucket drummer named Knuck (JonAvery Worrell).
asserted
eyes → want → guy
But Ali’s mom wants nothing of the sort.
asserted
mom → want → sort
Jersey wants her daughter to focus on her studies and be back in their apartment by dinner each evening.
asserted
daughter → want → dinner
But Diaz doesn’t exclusively focus on Ali and Jersey’s fraught relationship.
asserted
Diaz → focus → relationship
He intersperses scenes of this mother-daughter conflict with a secondary narrative exploring how Ali falls in love with music.
asserted
Ali → intersperse → music
In between fiery confrontations between Ali and Jersey, the rebellious teen seeks refuge in her apartment building’s ground-floor common room.
asserted
teen → seek → room
And it’s here, in Manhattan Plaza’s Ellington Room, with its stately grand piano, where Ali meets Miss Liza Jane (Roz White), a no-nonsense fellow resident who introduces Ali to music.
asserted
who → ’ → music
One of Diaz and Keys’ wisest decisions is to portray Ali as a pianist, not a singer.
asserted
One → portray → pianist
(Keys herself is both a classically trained pianist and a singer-songwriter.)
asserted
Keys → train → ?
The result is that most of the songs in “Hell’s Kitchen” are non-diegetic, meaning they exist outside the world of the musical, and primarily help express a character’s innermost thoughts and desires.
asserted
they → mean → thoughts
“Hell’s Kitchen,” therefore, really shares more in common with traditional musicals than with a typical bio-musical, where characters mostly sing their songs within the world of the show.
asserted
characters → share → show
(Think of how many bio-musicals feature concert scenes within them.)
asserted
musicals → think → them
For many pop artists, turning their songbooks into a jukebox musical serves as the ultimate test for the quality of their music.
asserted
turning → turn → music
Most fail on account of their bland lyrics, which can’t support the narrative weight of a full story.
asserted
which → fail → story
Her lyrics are probing and poetic, helping to set entire scenes with just a few impactful words.
asserted
lyrics → help → words
“I’m alone in a corner of a one-room apartment / Dirty windows let the light in through my fingers / And make patterns on the carpet,” Ali sings in her enrapturing, first solo, “The River.”
asserted
Ali → ’m → solo
Even when Keys’ lyrics very occasionally traffic in bland clichés (like in “Girl on Fire” and “Empire State of Mind,” her biggest hits), at least those songs are saved by her knockout melodies.
asserted
songs → traffic → melodies
(New musical arrangements by Keys and Adam Blackstone help these well-worn chart-toppers sound new.)
asserted
toppers → help → Keys
Kennedy Caughell, as Jersey, offers an explosive supporting turn filled with vocal pyrotechnics.
asserted
Caughell → offer → pyrotechnics
But as big and expressive as her performance is, Caughell also knows when to dial it back, and she makes you see how Jersey feels as if she’s carrying the weight of Manhattan Plaza on her slight shoulders.
Maya Drake, who, shockingly, is just a teenager, pours everything into Ali’s many musical numbers.
asserted
who → know → numbers
It’s a star-making turn in every regard.
asserted
It → ’ → regard
Not everything, however, entirely works in the show.
asserted
everything → work → show
A tertiary storyline involving Ali’s dad, Davis (Desmond Sean Ellington), an itinerant musician who floats in and out of his daughter’s life, doesn’t feel fully fleshed out.
asserted
who → involve → life
Similarly, another narrative thread involving police brutality, leading into a stunning rendition of “Perfect Way to Die,” sung by White’s Miss Liza Jane, comes across as rushed and hastily tacked on to the end of Act 1.
asserted
thread → involve → Act
But even in these moments when “Hell’s Kitchen” stumbles, I appreciate Diaz’s desire to build and expand the horizons of Ali’s world.
asserted
I → appreciate → world
Director Michael Greif also does a fine job of constructing this world.
asserted
Greif → do → world
Robert Brill’s scaffolded sets feature metal towers that slide on and off the stage, recalling Manhattan’s iconic fire escapes.
asserted
that → feature → escapes
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
