I basically knew what to expect from Hell’s Kitchen – a take on the early life and musical beginnings of 17-time Grammy Award Winner and recording artist Alicia Keys. I expected Key’s beloved tunes, great dancing and singing, lots of high energy and inspiring storyline. What I didn’t expect was the level of some of the performances and, mostly, the reactions from myself and the rest of the audience.
With projections along the back wall and floors of buildings suggested by a scaffolded set (and actual scaffolding in some scenes), the framework is set for the West Side Manhattan neighborhood where Ali lives. She and her mother have an apartment high up in a 46-story building called Manhattan Plaza, adjacent to New York’s theatre district. Keys and her mother really did live there where federal funding rules required 70% of the apartments to be earmarked for people in the arts. In the opening scene, Ali is “riding” the elevator up, up, up, telling the audience who lives on what floors and what their talent is – dancing, opera, piano, trumpet, etc. It’s a very effective way to give us a sense of the tenants and the physical presence of the high-rise. Live band members occupy screened in “boxes” on different levels, over to the right, further giving that sense of performers living on each floor.
The suggestion of the building is a little more concrete with a doorman’s desk in the lobby, a piano in the Ellington Room downstairs and in the apartment Ali shares with her mother, who is known in the production as “Jersey.” There’s a sofa and a dining table and chairs and kitchen counter. The dining table is the most important of the minimalist apartment setting because food and feeding Ali are the anchor between the teen and her mother. There’s love, of course, but I was interested to see how present 6pm dinnertime was in the show. Because of the two jobs she maintains, Jersey rarely sits down to dinner with her daughter but, by God, dinner is on the table for Ali no matter what – even when Ali rejects the meal and her mother. And when Ali’s mom is encouraging her to make amends with her boyfriend, and Ali asks “how?” Jersey says, “Feed him!” Food is definitely her love language.
The relationship between mother and daughter are central to Hell’s Kitchen. They form the real love story in the production. And since Ali is 17 years old, you can just imagine the friction between them. As someone who survived being a teen herself and raising four teens, I was as angry at Ali for being a disrespectful snot as I was with her mother for being overly protective. But I also, absolutely, understood them both.
There’s a lot of great chemistry between characters in Hell’s Kitchen and credit goes to the specific actors for that. For the opening night performance, Jersey was played by Kelsee Kimmel (lots more on her in a moment) and Marley Soleil as Ali. Their push-pull relationship felt very real. And the heat between Kimmel and her ex (and Ali’s dad), Davis, played so smoothly by Desmond Sean Ellington, was palpable. JonAvery Worrel played Knuck, the lust interest for Ali. Although Worrel is very talented, I just didn’t feel the connection between his character’s and Ali. That was probably because the relationship went from barely knowing each other to hitting the sack without enough of a path of “I know you, I need you, I gotta have you and now!”
The singing performances by all of the leads were great, including Soleil’s “Ali.” However, it was really hard to hear her voice over the music, whereas we could hear everyone else’s solo voices over the music just fine. I don’t know if she just wasn’t projecting as much or what but it was a shame because clearly Soleil has a beautiful voice and really acts through her singing.
Roz White portrayed “Miss Liza Jane” who schools Ali on many things in life, not the least of which is how to play the piano. She helps Ali’s previously unknown-to-anyone talent with the instrument emerge. It was very interesting to see the awakening of who Alicia Keys would become because of her new-found passion for the piano. We all know, and benefit from, where that got her. White’s singing voice is rich and powerful. But her presence is even more so, delivering lines and lessons to Ali about her role continuing the legacy of black female pianists who came before her, the need to be respectful of her elders and how to weather life’s hardships. She is like a godmother to Ali who comes along exactly when the child-becoming-a-woman needs her most.
So, here’s where Hell’s Kitchen became something I, and others, couldn’t have expected. Kelsee Kimmel wasn’t the listed actor portraying Ali’s mother, Jersey. A small slip of paper inserted in the program “welcomes” her to the Company. We were told she was filling in for a week of the run here in Denver as a “swing” in theatre terminology. OMG, she blew us all away.
Kimmel’s voice had so much power, control and flexibility, there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do. Her entire body sang along with her vocal cords, possessing every song. During “Pawn It All,” the audience went nuts. The man in front of me grabbed his head with both hands. People were wiping away tears. A woman near us let out a gasp. Tears were flowing down my face and I didn’t even know why (usually, it would be because a scene or song connects with me personally, which this one did not). Kimmel’s performance was a force and we were being taken over by it. People yelled out during certain vocal runs and others stood up applauding when the song (not just the show) was over. Truly, in all the years I’ve seen plays and shows, I’ve never seen people react the way they did to Kimmel on opening night. We were spent!
The program lists Kennedy Caughell as playing “Jersey” and Maya Drake playing “Ali” (making her professional stage debut as a recent high school graduate!). I’m sure both are great but, wow, I’m so thankful I got to see Kelsee Kimmel in action. She comes by her connection to “Jersey” honestly, having just finished playing the same role on Broadway.
I can’t talk about a show about Alicia Keys without mention the songs themselves. The biggies they absolutely had to have are there like “Fallin’,” “If I Ain’t Got You,” “No One,” “Girl On Fire,” and others. But what makes them super-interesting in Hell’s Kitchen is the way they are arranged, who they are sung by, and what element of story they illustrate. Fans will hear these songs in a whole new way.
Hell’s Kitchen takes place in the 90s, when Keys was coming up. New York is a character itself, a la Sex in the City but with the fun of the beginnings of Hip Hop, the fashions, the grit and streetwiseness of the times. Put it all together with the power of the performances and the audience is willingly and unwittingly transported.
Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen plays the Buell Theatre April 14-26, 2026. Tickets are available at denvercenter.org.
-By Courtney Drake-McDonough, Publisher of InGoodTasteDenver.com
Comments are closed.