{"id":299810,"date":"2026-05-04T22:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T22:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/299810\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T22:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T22:33:09","slug":"san-joses-maya-drake-stars-in-musical-playing-in-sf-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/299810\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose’s Maya Drake stars in musical playing in SF"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you want to amp up Alicia Keys,<\/a> the original Girl on Fire, ask her about the young inferno<\/a> that\u2019s criss-crossing the nation with the \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The inferno is Maya Drake, a 2025 graduate of Branham High School in San Jose and alum of Children\u2019s Musical Theater San Jose,<\/a> who\u2019s been leading the national tour of \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen,\u201d the jukebox musical based on Keys\u2019 music,\u00a0 since it kicked off in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d stops at the Orpheum Theatre through ATG San Francisco May 6-24. The jukebox musical is built from Keys\u2019 catalogue of R&B and soul hits, a semi-autobiographical story that treks through her Manhattan upbringing.<\/p>\n

Drake plays young Ali, a 17-year-old girl growing up in Manhattan Plaza in the Hell\u2019s Kitchen neighborhood in New York. For Keys, Drake is perfect for the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re seeing this young woman literally out of high school, and she not only has that level of maturity and commitment, but also that level of focus and determination, and she\u2019s tiny,\u201d said Keys, who made it clear that Ali is not an autobiographical character, but an amalgamation of many aspects of Keys\u2019 young life. \u201cShe\u2019s like the littlest thing and you think a strong wind can blow her over, except it can\u2019t. She\u2019s mighty, and she has this kind of grit and a strong desire to understand Ali\u2019s depth of character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drake\u2019s commitment to grasping every aspect of how to build and perform complicated characters was first forged at San Jose\u2019s Montgomery Theater in 2019. That\u2019s when Drake was cast in her first musical when she was 12, as Erma in the CMT San Jose Rising Stars summer production of \u201cAnything Goes.\u201d In subsequent years, Drake built a resume of lead roles at the company but wasn\u2019t exactly sure if she was ready for a professional audition when her time at CMT San Jose concluded. Fortunately, she decided to give it a shot anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I decided to submit an audition for the first time, it wasn\u2019t even that I thought I could book this or be in this show; I didn\u2019t have an agent, I didn\u2019t have anything and I was still in high school,\u201d said Drake, now 19. \u201cI don\u2019t even think that I felt ready, but I just wanted to see what the possibility was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Drake received a callback and began to train with other Hell\u2019s Kitchen hopefuls, learning all the nuances of the role of Ali, she received a phone call weeks later when home alone. She was informed she\u2019d been hired to play a role that garnered the show one of its two 2024 Tony Awards, out of 13 nominations. Once the tears of shock and joy subsided, it was time for Drake to transition out of performing for fun and into the professional world of commercial theater \u2014 not to mention her national tour. That meant diving into a show that Keys and her team made sure was fresh and exciting from the jump.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all about breaking boundaries and breaking norms, creating a new experience,\u201d said Keys, whose team on \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d includes choreographer Camille A. Brown, book writer Kristoffer Diaz and director Michael Greif. \u201cWe had enough foundation to be true to the art form, but there was so much disruption. It would be like, \u2018No, we can\u2019t do that, Alicia, because the union doesn\u2019t ever let us do that,\u2019 and I\u2019m like, great, how do we figure out what we\u2019re going to do which will solve that? We were truly able to get to the next level because there was this beautiful balance of tradition and complete rebellion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balance has been a key part of how Drake was able to transition from a child performer to a full-blown professional. She strove to be a quick study, soaking up information and tips from other veterans as to how to get through a grueling tour with her voice and all forms of health intact. She admits that she\u2019s never paid much attention to her health, but that is now her No. 1 priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to find some normalcy outside of the tour, which is sometimes easier said than done,\u201d Drake said. \u201cI\u2019m a very independent person and doing things by myself is nothing new to me, so it\u2019s just a way I can connect with myself without any distractions. You were a person before the show, and will be a person after the show, so it\u2019s important to protect that person and not wear yourself down with this one job.\u201d<\/p>\n

What this one job has done is win her critical acclaim in the country\u2019s major cities who have housed the tour thus far. Chris Jones, the longtime theater critic for the Chicago Tribune, lauded Drake\u2019s performance as one few Broadway performers of her age can handle, declaring Drake was \u201creally amazing\u201d when the tour stopped in Chicago in November.<\/p>\n

The homecoming for Drake is something that\u2019s been on her mind for some time. Performing in San Francisco means so many who have been with her since her earliest days get a chance to bask in her glory, seeing a local girl making good and thriving at the highest levels of commercial theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of people from CMT San Jose are coming and that is going to be so exciting and fulfilling for me,\u201d Drake said. \u201cThe fact that they are going to get to watch me in this show from the place that quite literally built me up to be the performer and person I have become is super exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing Drake make it back to her home region is also terribly exciting for Keys, who is bullish on how much she herself loves the Bay Area and can\u2019t wait to return.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo do all she\u2019s doing just out of high school, touring eight days a week across the country and remain sane and balanced, it\u2019s like whoa, she\u2019s an anomaly, she\u2019s a unicorn,\u201d Keys said. \u201cI\u2019m so happy she\u2019s coming home to be able to show her hometown how freaking brilliant she is. She\u2019s unbelievable, and she was born for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

David John Ch\u00e1vez is a former chair of the American Theatre Critics\/Journalists Association, a 2020 O\u2019Neill National Critics Institute fellow, and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2022-23). @davidjchavez.bsky.social.<\/p>\n

\u2018HELL\u2019S KITCHEN\u2019<\/p>\n

Based on the music and lyrics of Alicia Keys, presented by ATG San Francisco<\/p>\n

When: May 6-24<\/p>\n

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco<\/p>\n

Running time: 2\u00bd hours, with an intermission<\/p>\n

Tickets: $69.03-$274.95; us.atgtickets.com<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you want to amp up Alicia Keys, the original Girl on Fire, ask her about the young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[967,88,90,89,1058,420],"class_list":["post-299810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-entertainment","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-theater","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}