One of the hard parts of being a regional theatre critic is I usually get to see new shows later than my New York counterparts for obvious reasons. This means by the time the national tours get to me I have heard all kinds of reviews, seen awards given out and sometimes listened to the original cast recordings for the shows. This can leave me over-hyped for some shows (I’m talking to you Kimberly Akimbo) or under-prepared for something I end up really enjoying. Either way I try my best to set expectations aside and give everything I watch as fair a shot as is possible. Anyway, the latest new show to come through Salt Lake is the national tour of Hell’s Kitchen and fortunately it is one that exceeded my expectations.
Going into watching this show it had a bit of an uphill battle for me personally. To begin with, I’m not normally a big jukebox musical fan and I also don’t love a lot of angsty coming of age stories. They can feel one-note and frustrating. Plus I’m not very familiar with Alicia Keys music so I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it just on that level alone. Fortunately Hell’s Kitchen was able to break down all those barriers and provide a captivating night of theater. It just goes to show anything can be entertaining when executed well.
The story of this musical is rather formulaic but it’s what the creators do with that formula that makes it work. The story is semi-autobiographical of Keys life as a 17 year old (called Ali played by Maya Drake) being raised by a single mom in an artistic part of New York City (this mom if she didn’t want her daughter to start playing music might have picked a different building to live in!) Ali becomes introduced to playing the piano by a woman named Liza Jane (played by Roz White.) The minute you meet Liza it is totally obvious what her arc is going to be and that she’s probably not long for this world but again this show is all about the execution not the formula.
I was particularly moved by the character of the mom (named Jersey) played by Kennedy Caughell. She is a character that desperately wants to help her daughter but can’t figure out how besides telling her what she’s doing is a bad idea. In 2 moments of desperation she first calls her ex-love Ali’s father to try to break through to their daughter and then she actually slaps Ali in the face. Both choices are equally useless in actually helping her get her daughter to listen and she becomes more and more frustrated. This all culminates in the most powerful song of the show with “Pawn it All.” Caughell is absolutely riveting throughout this role but especially with that song. Wow! For the most part the father named Davis (Desmond Sean Ellington) is a forgettable character but it’s all about how he gets mom and daughter where they need to be for the story.
The dynamic between Ali and boyfriend Knuck is less compelling (hard to get invested in their love story when he should know she’s a young teen or he should ask more questions!) but it’s a means to an end in furthering the tension between mother and daughter so I was fine with it. Those who are familiar with Keys’ music will enjoy hearing all her greatest hits, but I loved seeing the dancing that accompanied what is happening on stage. This changed from hip-hop style to contemporary to classic Broadway (choreography by Camille A Brown.) I also liked how the set has layers to it with scaffolding and projections all used to create movement and interest in every scene that is happening (Robert Brill set designer.) It creates the feeling of a bustling city with history and music. The production is directed by Michael Greif.
One thing is for sure if you are a teen or are currently a parent of a teen Hell’s Kitchen is a must see. It’s so hard to find material that speaks to that time period in an authentic non-patronizing way and this does. Otherwise if you just enjoy seeing dynamite performances like Caughell gives as the mom you won’t be disappointed. I’d say it is one of the better shows we’ve gotten on tour this year outside of The Phantom of the Opera and it is definitely worthy of your time and money. It is playing through the 12th at Eccles and tickets can be purchased here.
Hell’s Kitchen is a jukebox musical with songs by Alicia Keys so she is credited as the music and lyricist. The book is by Kristoffer Diaz. It first premiered Off-Broadway in 2023 and on Broadway in 2024 where it just closed this February.
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