NEW YORK (AP) — Broadway audiences will soon be hearing the hit songs of Alicia Keys — not far from where the multiple-Grammy-winner grew up.
“Hell’s Kitchen,” the semi-autobiographical musical by the singer-songwriter, is making the move uptown from off-Broadway to the Shubert Theatre this spring.
“I loved going to the theater and I was inspired by it and the songwriting and the expression and the beauty and the way you could be transported,” she tells The Associated Press. “But I never really put it together that maybe one day I would be able to have a debut on Broadway.”
Performances begin March 28 with an opening set for April 20. Tickets are on sale Dec. 11. No casting news was revealed but Maleah Joi Moon was the lead off-Broadway.
The musical features Keys’ best-known hits: “Fallin’,” “No One,” “Girl on Fire,” “If I Ain’t Got You,” and, of course, “Empire State of Mind,” as well as four new songs.
The coming-of-age story about a gifted teenager is by playwright Kristoffer Diaz, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity.” It is directed by Michael Greif, who also helmed “Dear Evan Hansen,” and has choreography by Camille A. Brown.
“Hell’s Kitchen” centers on 17-year-old Ali, who like Keys, is the daughter of a white mother and a Black father and is about growing up in a subsidized housing development just outside Times Square in the once-rough neighborhood called Hell’s Kitchen. Keys is also the lead producer.
Keys notes that her mother moved to New York City from Toledo, Ohio, and studied at New York University, eventually acting on stage, in independent films and TV projects. Keys also went into acting before music snatched her away. “Hell’s Kitchen,” in a way, is a full-circle moment for the Keys’ family.
“Dreams come around for you — they might not come for you exactly when you thought it was going to come for you….
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