\n<\/p>\n
There was never much doubt that the Alicia Keys musical, \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen,\u201d was going to be on Broadway. Keys spent 12 years developing a loosely autobiographical jukebox of her songs<\/a>, incorporating such hits as \u201cGirl on Fire,\u201d \u201cFallin\u2019\u201d and \u201cNo One.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem is that while it played to sold-out crowds, the show that premiered at the Public Theater in November had herky-jerky pacing, a few too many groan-inducing scenes, and a second act that lost sight of whatever point the story was trying to make. (In his review for The New York Times<\/a>, Jesse Green pointed out that, after the intermission, the show tumbled \u201cdirectly into the potholes it spent its first half so smartly avoiding.\u201d)<\/p>\n Yet here we are now, with \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d<\/a> at the Shubert Theater, a few blocks from where the show\u2019s action is set. Having seen the first version last fall, I had jitters. But \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d has earned its place on Broadway: The revised show is thrilling from beginning to end, and easily stands out as one of the rare must-sees in a crowded season.<\/p>\n All this happened without a major overhaul to Michael Greif\u2019s production, which has a book by Kristoffer Diaz. The cast and creative teams are essentially the same, and there have been judicious tweaks and trims rather than radical changes. The main differences are further refined technical elements and, most important, a subtle but crucial change in focus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That adjustment is evident from the start, with a new line that kicks off the story: \u201cBecause I\u2019m your mother, that\u2019s why.\u201d We are thrown in the middle of what is clearly a recurring argument between the Keys stand-in, 17-year-old Ali (the sensational Maleah Joi Moon<\/a>), and her mother, Jersey (Shoshana Bean, in top form). Jersey has been raising her daughter on her own, without much help from Ali\u2019s father, Davis (Brandon Victor Dixon), and is very protective of her kid. Mother and daughter live just off Times Square, in the neighborhood of the show\u2019s title, and Jersey is fearful that her daughter will fall prey to the streets\u2019 many dangers \u2014 we are in the late 1990s, and Jersey is eager for Mayor Giuliani to \u201cclean all of this right up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Naturally, these parental concerns translate as constant nagging to Ali, who, after her mom\u2019s conversation-closer, takes us on a guided tour of her life at Manhattan Plaza, a Midtown oasis that has been offering federally subsidized housing to artists since 1977 (and where Keys spent her own childhood). The complex and its surrounding streets are Ali\u2019s domain, which she surveys with her besties, Jessica (Jackie Leon) and Tiny (Vanessa Ferguson).<\/p>\n Square in Ali\u2019s sights is Knuck (Chris Lee), a handsome dude in his early 20s who drums on buckets outside her building. Much of Act I consists of Ali\u2019s dogged pursuit of Knuck (who\u2019s appropriately horrified when he eventually discovers her age).<\/p>\n Jersey predictably goes ballistic when she learns about the romance \u2014 this is not a spoiler, as the story builds up to that conflagration. The plotline involving Knuck has receded into the background but is not really missed, because the show\u2019s core relationship is now more clearly the one between Ali and Jersey. \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d remains a coming-of-age tale, but its focus has been sharpened: If the first act is Ali looking to connect with Knuck, the second is Ali finding her mother, and herself. It is a huge improvement, and functions as a binding element for all of the story\u2019s elements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n One of them is Miss Liza Jane (Kecia Lewis), a neighbor who becomes Ali\u2019s spiritual mentor and teaches her to play the piano. (Though in real life, Keys started playing around the age of 7, and was drafted by both Columbia Records and Columbia University in her teens.) Miss Liza Jane makes more sense here as a proxy mother figure, even if it\u2019s odd that the ever-curious Ali hadn\u2019t heard of someone the doorman, Ray (Chad Carstarphen), describes as Manhattan Plaza\u2019s \u201cheart, soul and conscience.\u201d Such quibbles don\u2019t stand a chance against Lewis\u2019s titanic vocals, especially on \u201cAuthors of Forever.\u201d Lewis mostly sings in a burnished mezzo, but she can go up and down octaves faster than the Manhattan Plaza elevator Ali loves so much.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In most musicals, Lewis would be the vocal standout despite her supporting status, but the competition is stiff in \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen.\u201d Moon, Bean and Dixon all excel in different styles but never feel at odds with one another or with the score: Moon draws from R&B and soul, Bean is a traditional Broadway belter and Dixon brings swinging jazzy syncopation to a remodeled \u201cFallin.\u2019\u201d (The arrangements are by Keys and the music supervisor Adam Blackstone.)<\/p>\n That one of Keys\u2019s biggest hits, \u201cFallin,\u2019\u201d is reintroduced this way testifies to the smarts in evidence here. Dixon\u2019s suave hijacking of that song quickly establishes how much his character banks on his charm. It\u2019s also a wise move not to steer all of the immediately recognizable tunes toward Ali. She does get the show\u2019s one new song, \u201cKaleidoscope,\u201d but she often shares it (as she does in a slightly tweaked \u201cYou Don\u2019t Know My Name\u201d with Jessica and Tiny).<\/p>\n In any case, no matter who performs them, the songs are lifted by Gareth Owen\u2019s sound design. The volume is turned up high, but the mix is crisp and well balanced. This is par for the course for an exacting production that also features beautifully warm lighting by Natasha Katz, a functional-yet-elegant multitiered scenic design by Robert Brill and uncompromisingly \u201990s costumes by Dede Ayite (oh, those Timberlands, FUBU jackets and mom jeans).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The most exciting complement to the music is the choreography by Camille A. Brown<\/a>, a Tony Award nominee for \u201cChoir Boy\u201d and \u201cFor Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide\/When the Rainbow Is Enuf.\u201d The movement pulses with life and is fully integrated into the show\u2019s overall aesthetics, but it\u2019s the attention to detail that\u2019s memorable.<\/p>\n As is standard for Broadway these days, the dancing is ensemble-based, but Brown and her troupe brilliantly find the individual in the group, and each one exists, like the dancer blowing gum bubbles in the middle of a number. There is, always, a sense of the person within a community, as with Ali growing up in a village known as Manhattan Plaza. That she\u2019s back in the old neighborhood feels just right.<\/p>\n Hell\u2019s Kitchen<\/strong>
At the Shubert Theater, Manhattan; hellskitchen.com<\/a>. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n