+34
The Toronto staging of Hell's Kitchen begins like a conventional Alicia Keys jukebox musical but evolves into a thoughtful portrait of love, family and a working-class New York neighbourhood. Maya Drake leads a strong cast as Ali, a teenager whose romance with a young drummer challenges her ambitions and opens the story to a vivid urban community. Michael Greif's production, featuring Alicia Keys's music and Kristoffer Diaz's book, ultimately surpasses biography-driven entertainment through emotional complexity and richly realized characters.
Title: Hell’s Kitchen Music and lyrics by: Alicia Keys Book by: Kristoffer Diaz Director: Michael Greif Actors: Kennedy Caughell, Roz White, Desmond Sean Ellington, Jonavery Worrell, Maya Drake Company: Mirvish Productions Venue: CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre City: Toronto Year: Runs until Oct. 25 Hell’s Kitchen has all the trappings of a ho-hum jukebox musical – at least at first.
Written around the music and lyrics of Grammy-winning sensation Alicia Keys, and largely inspired by Keys’s own coming-of-age in midtown Manhattan, the show opens on 17-year-old Ali in the apartment building she calls home, a vibrant tower that houses a good chunk of New York’s working-class artists. For a while, the stakes seem simple: Ali likes a bucket-drummer named Knuck . Ali’s overworked mom Jersey doesn’t approve.
When the teenager sings The River , an “I want” song that hits every cliché in its genre – “I know there’s more to life than this,” she belts rather aimlessly to the city’s skyline – there’s a distinct sense that Hell’s Kitchen might not be all that different from Neil Diamond’s A Beautiful Noise or Michael Jackson’s MJ . But a certain alchemy begins to crackle as Hell’s Kitchen settles into its story.
The relationship between Ali and Knuck blooms into something more complicated than a forbidden romance; the diverse community around Ali and her mom, dressed in era-appropriate Fubu jerseys and Yankees caps , crystallizes into something deeper than set-dressing. Before long, Hell’s Kitchen evolves into a story aimed not at immortalizing its creator’s biography, but at honouring her childhood neighbourhood writ large.
Kristoffer Diaz’s book wrestles with the racial politics of the 1990s – Jersey loudly confesses her faith in Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the show’s first few minutes – and while its second act is weaker than its first, the show covers a commendable amount of narrative ground. Its characters make mistakes and offer imperfect apologies; its songs cover emotional nuances that mere dialogue couldn’t possibly convey. It is, on the whole, a delight.
Much of the power of Hell’s Kitchen comes from its performances, from 19-year-old Drake to the astonishing Caughell, whose second-act rendition of Pawn It All sees the actor sustain a high F6 . Roz White, too, is a highlight as Miss Liza Jane, the pianist who instills in Ali a sense of purpose at the piano.
Indeed, as in any musical, Hell’s Kitchen requires its audience to suspend their disbelief in order for its plot to fully gel. An early setup of Ali and Jersey’s friends à la Mamma Mia! disappears after intermission; Ali becomes a musical prodigy seemingly overnight.
There’s also the issue of Ali’s dad , whose repeated abandonment of his daughter never feels satisfactorily resolved.
Jersey’s decision to call the cops on Knuck near the end of the first act is a thornier book issue. While the optics of a white woman having a Black man placed in handcuffs are obvious and well-explored, what’s less thoroughly examined is how race factors into Jersey’s relationship with her biracial daughter and vice versa.
Miss Liza Jane’s scenes nimbly incorporate Ali’s artistry into the history of Black musicians who came before her, but there’s a missing link in how that history shows up in Ali’s home life beyond the conflict of her boyfriend. And yet: Hell’s Kitchen is irresistible.
Alicia Keys’s songs, though overamplified on opening night, span a vast kaleidoscope of atmospheres, and in Hell’s Kitchen , they’re rearranged and recontextualized just so: Keys’s 2003 track If I Ain’t Got You becomes a gorgeous duet between Ali and her dad. Empire State of Mind , softened and abstracted for the stage with arty choreography by Camille A. Brown, makes a fabulous closing number for a show about New York and its capacity to inspire.
Am I a jukebox musical convert? Not quite. But Hell’s Kitchen offers a surprisingly egoless blueprint for the genre moving forward, with a story from, but not of, Keys’s own origins.
“This girl is on fire,” Ali’s friends and neighbours belt happily as her world clicks into place. On this occasion, I’m inclined to agree.
Please follow us on Google to support usHell's Kitchen Alicia Keys Mirvish Productions Musical Theatre Toronto
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
6 Boring Kitchen Items I Didn't Expect To Love, But Now Use All The TimeMost of these aren’t flashy gadgets.
Read more »
Tragically Hip, Feist and Other Canadian Music Legends Inducted into Songwriters Hall of FameThe Tragically Hip honored their late lead singer Gord Downie during their induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame at Massey Hall in Toronto. The band entered the 2026 class alongside Feist, Loverboy songwriters Mike Reno and Paul Dean, and French-Canadian artist Roch Voisine.
Read more »
Pedestrian critically injured after being hit by car near South KeysA 74-year-old man sustained life-threatening injuries after he was hit by a car Saturday afternoon near South Keys, police say.
Read more »
MTV Video Music Awards Delivers Pop Culture Perfection with Star-Studded PerformancesThe MTV Video Music Awards at the Peacock Theater featured special honors including the Artist Director Honor for Taylor Swift, who premiered her new single Patient Zero. The ceremony included performances by Lisa, Sienna Spiro, Shaboozey, GENER8ION, Gunna, Yung Lean, and appearances by Charli xcx and David Corenswet, celebrating a mix of MTV history and current hits.
Read more »