Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen brings powerhouse vocals to Toronto — with one drawback

Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen, the Tony-and-Grammy-Award-winning musical by the “Empire State of Mind” hitmaker, is a soulful, gritty tale of teenage rebellion, unconditional love, and the healing power of music.

Now playing at Mirvish’s CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto through Oct. 25, Hell’s Kitchen is loosely based on Keys’ upbringing in Manhattan Plaza, a subsidized housing complex mainly reserved for performing artists in the neighbourhood known as Hell’s Kitchen.

Set in the 1990s, the musical weaves Keys’ biggest hits, including “Fallin’,” “Empire State of Mind,” “Girl on Fire,” “If I Ain’t Got You” and “No One,” with new compositions, such as “Seventeen,” written for the musical, and previously unreleased “Kaleidoscope” and “The River,” to tell the story of a do-what-I-want “boy-crazy” teen living with her single mother, a former actor, in Hell’s Kitchen, where she discovers both a love for and a talent for the piano — when she’s not chasing the boy she likes.

Directed by five-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif (Rent, Dear Evan Hansen and The Notebook), the production features choreography by five-time Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown, a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kristoffer Diaz, music and lyrics by Keys, and music supervision by Adam Blackstone.

Seventeen-year-old Ali is enamoured with an older boy, much to her mother’s concern, flirting and following him to his job as a painter — and bucket drummer — nicknamed Knuck. Her white mom is not just overprotective, calling her daughter and her friends “babies in grown-up bodies,” but racially profiles and stereotypes him, even calling the cops on him. She calls her ex for help, a Black musician, who’s still got a hold on her, but is always on the road, and, sadly, never keeps his promises to his daughter. 

The leads in this North American tour cast are outstanding singers: Maya Drake as the flirty, forward and talkative Ali; Kennedy Caughell as her overly strict mom, Jersey; Roz White as the wise mentor Miss Liza Jane, Desmond Sean Ellington as Jersey’s seductive ex, Davis; and JonAvery Worrell as the responsible but outwardly thuggish Knuck.

Diaz’s book explores a family dynamic that includes an absentee father, the struggles of single parenthood (she works two jobs), racial profiling, the challenges of an artist’s life, and teenage hormones, while also highlighting the importance of mentorship and music as outlets for all kinds of emotions, including disappointment, grief, and hope.

From the show’s outset, there is one fixable drawback: the ensemble is often drowned out by the house band, making many of the lyrics difficult to decipher — a significant issue in any musical, where the words are crucial to the storytelling.

Hell’s Kitchen won two 2024 Tony Awards and the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. It ran for two years on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre, ending earlier this year.