Coming of age has rarely been brought to life on the musical theater stage as movingly or exhilaratingly as it is in Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen, now bringing L.A. audiences to their feet at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre.

Inspired by R&B superstar Keys’ upbringing on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan, Hell’s Kitchen introduces us to 17-year-old Ali (Maya Drake in the year’s most sensational touring debut), who like many a teen girl before her doesn’t exactly see eye to eye with her mother Jersey (Kennedy Caughell) where boys are concerned.

It doesn’t help that Ali and her crew have been upsetting the neighbors by banging out tunes in front of the high-rise Manhattan Towers she and Jersey call home, or that Knuck (JonAvery Worrell), the local bucket drummer who’s got Ali all hot and bothered, is more man than boy.

Adding to Jersey’s maternal concerns is the fact that Ali is the product of her own teen crush, or that Ali’s African-American musician father Davis (Desmond Sean Ellington) left Jersey girl Jersey early on to raise their mixed-race daughter on her own, so it’s perhaps no wonder that Ali’s mom is more than a bit overprotective where her potentially wayward daughter is concerned.

Then comes the day that Ali happens upon the regal Miss Liza Jane (Roz Lewis) tickling the ivories in her apartment building’s Ellington Room, and a mentor-mentee relationship is born, one that will affect Ali for the rest of her life and might just one day lead to the writing of a Broadway musical named after the neighborhood in which she came of age.

In trademark jukebox musical tradition, Tony-nominated book writer Kristoffer Diaz has found ingenious ways to integrate Alicia Keys’ Greatest Hits into Ali’s story.

“Girl On Fire” has our plucky heroine and her BFFs Tiny (Gigi Lewis) and Jessica (Marley Soleil) reflecting on Ali’s growing confidence in herself, a briefly-back-in-town Davis attempts to rekindle romantic flames with Jersey in “Fallin’” and later to bond with his daughter in “If I Ain’t Got You,” “No One” becomes an expression of mother’s unconditional love for her daughter, and what better way to end a musical on a celebratory note than the rousing “Empire State Of Mind.”

Add to this a trio of songs either written for the musical or previously unreleased—“Seventeen” (Jersey’s warning to Ali on the dangers of teenage love affairs), “The River” (a young girl’s yearning for adventure), and “Kaleidoscope” (a teenager’s discovery of the many possibilities life has to offer)–and you’ve got one of the best examples ever of what a jukebox musical can be.

It’s also as perfect an example as I’ve ever seen of how seamlessly dance can be integrated into and throughout a musical, choreographer Camille A. Brown’s life mission to “reclaim the cultural narrative of African American identity” leading to some of the most thrilling dance sequences I’ve seen in a Broadway musical in many a year.

Performances under the direction of Broadway legend Michael Greif could not be more powerful, in particular fresh-out-of-high school Drake’s positively irresistible and heartbreakingly real Ali, fiery powerhouse Caughell’s Jersey (whose “Pawn It All” earns a justified mid-show standing ovation), and Mother Earth force-of-nature Lewis’s Miss Liza Jane channeling decades of pain and triumph into one quietly extraordinary life.

Ellington’s Davis and Worrell’s Knuck are so downright charming, it’s no wonder Jersey and Ali are smitten, and featured players Rachida Dawan, ‘Zaiah Ellis (Q), Sean Holland II (Riq), (Gigi) Lewis, Chikezie “Chike” Nwankwo (Doorman Ray), Soleil, and Beda Spindola (Millie) are every bit as terrific as the supremely gifted dance ensemble made up of Mae-Lynn Flores, Destini Hendricks, Marques Furr, Christopher Miller, Usman Ali Mughal, Sangeetha “Sang” Santhebennur, and Ethan Zundell.

And though swings Stemarciae Bain, Miya Bass, Jaylen T. Bryant, Sherée Marcelle Dunwell, Alfred Jackson, Asten Stewart, Teetee, Sydney Townsend, and Timothy Wilson did not appear in the performance reviewed, they deservedly got to take bows with their fellow cast members on opening night.

Finally, “this girl” isn’t the only thing “on fire” in Hell’s Kitchen.

So are music director Emily Orr and the production’s sensational offstage orchestra, and the spectacular production design the show has been given thanks to the time-proven talents of Hell’s Kitchen Tony nominees Dede Ayite (costumes), Robert Brill and Peter Nigrini (scenic design), Natasha Katz (lighting), and Gareth Owen (sound), and also so Michael Clifton (makeup) Peter Negini (projections), and Mia Neal (hair and wigs), who would have merited their own nominations were Tonys awarded in their fields of expertise. (Check out production stills and you’ll see what I mean.)

Oh, and lest I forget, Monet (associate director) Rickey Tripp (associate choreographer) merit mention for keeping the Hell’s Kitchen tour in tiptop shape.

Not since In The Heights has New York City’s racial diversity been represented in as celebratory a fashion as it is in Hell’s Kitchen, and for that reason alone, the 2024 Broadway hit has more than earned its multitude of award nominations and wins. That it did s (and continues to do so) with inestimable emotional resonance and impact makes The Alicia Keys Musical one of recent years’ absolute best.

Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles.
www.broadwayla.org

–Steven Stanley
May 27, 2026
Photos: Marc J. Franklin

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Alicia Keys, Broadway In Hollywood, Kristoffer Diaz, Los Angeles Theater Review, Pantages Theatre