{"id":428489,"date":"2026-08-10T01:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T01:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/428489\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T01:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T01:54:10","slug":"alicia-keys-musical-hells-kitchen-may-be-rooted-in-nyc-but-san-diego-creatives-shaped-the-tony-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/428489\/","title":{"rendered":"Alicia Keys musical ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ may be rooted in NYC, but San Diego creatives shaped the Tony winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Several<\/a>Maya Drake as Ali in the touring production of \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen,\u201d the musical with songs written by Alicia Keys. (Photo by Marc J. Franklin)<\/p>\n

Loosely based on a short period of time in the life of singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, the Tony and Grammy-winning Broadway smash \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d is tuning up for a run from Aug. 11 to 16 at the San Diego Civic Theatre downtown.<\/p>\n

For 17-time Grammy winner and pianist Keys \u2013 who has a home in La Jolla \u2013 and the show\u2019s <\/a>creative team, this premiere isn\u2019t just a tour stop. It\u2019s a bit of a local homecoming.<\/p>\n

Hailed as a\u00a0New York Times\u00a0Critic\u2019s Pick that is \u201cthrilling from beginning to end \u2013 a rare must-see!\u201d, \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d is directed by five-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, with choreography by five-time Tony nominee Camille A. Brown. The musical is based on a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kristoffer Diaz and the music of Keys.<\/p>\n

The coming-of-age musical tells the story of 17-year-old Ali, a fiery teen searching for her passion and purpose in a 1990s New York City neighborhood, guided by a musical mentor and a dynamic community.<\/p>\n

Keys, now 45, wrote the music and lyrics for the show, which blends new music written specifically for the production with hit songs from her catalog, including \u201cFallin\u2019,\u201d \u201cNo One,\u201d \u201cGirl on Fire,\u201d \u201cIf I Ain\u2019t Got You\u201d and \u201cEmpire State of Mind,\u201d along with previously unreleased material. <\/p>\n

\u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen,\u201d which began off-Broadway in 2023, won two 2025 Tony Awards and the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the story is rooted in Manhattan, the visual heartbeat of the production was crafted by UC San Diego Professor of Scenic Design, four-time Tony Award nominee Robert Brill. <\/p>\n

Brill has been nominated for scenic design for \u201cAssassins\u201d (2004), \u201cGuys and Dolls\u201d (2009) and \u201cAin\u2019t Too Proud\u201d (2019), as well as \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d (2024).<\/p>\n

Brill designed the gritty, kinetic set for the production with firsthand knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually lived in Hell\u2019s Kitchen in the mid-\u201990s, just a few blocks north of Manhattan Plaza, where Alicia grew up and where the story takes place,\u201d Brill told Times of San Diego.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His daughter, Sophia, attended preschool in the basement of Manhattan Plaza and later went to P.S. 212, housed in the same building as the Professional Performing Arts School Keys attended years earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I have a lot of personal memories of that neighborhood and the incredible artistic community that surrounded it,\u201d Brill said.<\/p>\n

That history, of course, shaped his design approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brill said he and Greif \u2013 who also has local connections as a former artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse \u2013 decided early on to put the show\u2019s musicians inside the world of the story rather than off to the side, representing the artists who influenced Ali\u2019s love of music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the design evolved alongside Keys\u2019 desire to capture the energy and grit of New York, it became a layered mix of architecture, light and projections in constant motion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, that\u2019s what living in New York feels like,\u201d Brill said. \u201cYou\u2019re always taking in new sights, sounds, people and energy. We wanted the set to capture that feeling \u2014 that sense that the city is constantly shifting around you \u2014 almost like looking through a kaleidoscope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brill said working on the 11-time Tony-nominated production feeds directly back into his classroom at UCSD, where he\u2019s been teaching since 2015. Brill is also a 1988 alumnus of UCSD\u2019s undergraduate program in theater and dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get inspired by my students\u2019 curiosity and creativity, and I get to bring my experiences from productions like \u2018Hell\u2019s Kitchen\u2019 back into the classroom,\u201d Brill said, noting that UCSD students collaborate with guest artists through a residency program at La Jolla Playhouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps them understand that great design isn\u2019t just about having a good idea \u2014 it\u2019s about collaboration, communication, adaptability and continually growing as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The local connections don\u2019t stop at the stage design.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Born Alicia Augello Cook in New York City, Keys has since 2019 shared a home with her husband, Swizz Beatz (born Kasseem Daoud Dean) in coastal La Jolla near the Torrey Pines State Preserve. Keys\u2019 footprint is also currently visible elsewhere in the regional arts scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGiants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys,\u201d an exhibition showcasing nearly 40 Black diasporic artists from the couple\u2019s collection, is on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego through Sunday \u2014 closing just two days before the musical opens downtown.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the show\u2019s six-day run, at the Civic Theatre at 1100 Third St., start at $68 and are on sale at\u00a0BroadwaySD.com<\/a>. \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u2019s\u201d running time is 2 hours and 35 minutes, including one intermission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maya Drake as Ali in the touring production of \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen,\u201d the musical with songs written by Alicia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[56396,61652,930,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-428489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-alicia-keys","tag-broadway-san-diego","tag-la-jolla","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428489","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=428489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}