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Marley Soleil, a Canyon High School graduate, plays Jessica and covers the lead role of Ali for Saturday night performances
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In 2024,\u00a0Soleil was named Best Actress at the Jerry Herman Awards,\u00a0a regional high school musical theater competition held at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, and went on to compete nationally at the Jimmy Awards
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“Hell’s Kitchen<\/a>” is running at the Pantages through\u00a0June 21<\/p>\n
And now, just two years later, here she is touring the country in the show which has brought her back to the stage where it all started.<\/p>\n
Soleil normally plays Jessica, Ali\u2019s best friend, but steps into the lead role on Saturday nights. She\u2019s thrilled to be back in SoCal and back in the building where her love of musical theater was first sparked during a 10th-grade\u00a0class trip to see “Hamilton.”<\/p>\n
\u201c’Hamilton’ completely changed my perception of what theater was and that I could do it myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Even though she had never even done a stage production, she left her high school in the middle of her sophomore year and transferred to Canyon High School in Santa Clarita specifically to get involved in the theatre program led by Art Miller.<\/p>\n
On a recent Saturday, he brought a group of students to the Pantages to watch her shine.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to see that this is an option,\u201d he explained. \u201cThis can happen if you put in the hard work, the time and effort, and then put your passion for this artform into full play.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hells-Kitchen_-Photo-by-Marc-J-Franklin-ca-0617.jpeg\")
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(Photo courtesy of Marc J. Franklin)<\/p>\n
After the show, he and the group waited at the stage door for Soleil to greet fans. She beamed when she spotted her former teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally wouldn\u2019t be here without you,\u201d she said as the two shared a tear-filled embrace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m so proud of her,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd to know that this is just the beginning of her journey\u2026just so, so proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every artist has mentors like Miller who nurture their talent and fan the flames of their passion. That\u2019s part of the story told in “Hell\u2019s Kitchen,” a semi-autobiographical jukebox musical inspired by Alicia Keys\u2019 own experiences coming of age in the 1990s. For Soleil, who is biracial, those experiences are not unfamiliar.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, a lot of what occurred in the 90s in still occurring today,\u201d she said, pointing to specific scenes involving racial tensions, like an interaction between a young Black man and police officers. \u201cWe see that within this young girl [who] is navigating having a white mom who doesn’t know how to raise a Black daughter, and you know, who is having trouble finding her identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re all just trying to figure out at the end of the day where we belong,\u201d she continued, \u201cand this musical has a wonderful sense of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking up at the marquee, Soleil knows she\u2019s exactly where she belonged. On stage, singing her heart out, beaming through bows with a smile that shines brighter than the stage lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of,\u201d she gushed. \u201cI’m so thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 When Marley Soliel sings \u201cThis Girl is on Fire\u201d in the Alicia Keys musical “Hell\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[14438,5282,7,48,52,51,47,50,49,5999,129322,5996],"class_list":["post-365234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-app-arts-entertainment","tag-arts","tag-california","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-socal-what-you-need-to-know","tag-tara-lynn-wagner","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365234","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=365234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}