Cast and Creative Team Set For Alicia Keys' HELL'S KITCHEN

Complete casting and a two-week extension have been announced for the world premiere of HELL'S KITCHEN. A new musical with music and lyrics by 15-time Grammy Award winner Keys, a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kristoffer Diaz, choreography by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown, and direction by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, HELL'S KITCHEN begins performances with a Joseph Papp Free Performance on Tuesday, October 24 and officially opens on Sunday, November 19. Originally scheduled to run through Sunday, December 10, the production will now run through Saturday, December 23. Tickets for the additional two weeks will be on sale for Public Theater Partners and Supporters on Tuesday, September 12 at 12:00 p.m., and full-price single tickets will be on sale on Thursday, September 14 at 12:00 p.m.

The Public's Joseph Papp Free Performance initiative will offer free tickets to the performance on Tuesday, October 24 through TodayTix. The Lottery will open for entries on Thursday, October 19 and will close at 12:00 p.m. on Monday, October 23. Additionally, $40 tickets are available in multiple ways. On the day of each performance, a limited number of tickets will be available through a digital lottery provided by TodayTix. Additionally, an in-person ticket lottery will be held in the lobby of The Public Theater prior to each scheduled performance. Entry will open two and a half hours prior to each scheduled performance, with the lottery starting 30 minutes later. Student tickets may also be purchased in advance at The Public Theater Box Office with a valid student ID. Tickets are subject to availability.

The complete cast of HELL'S KITCHEN will include Shoshana Bean (Jersey), Chad Carstarphen (Ray/Ensemble), Reid Clarke (Ensemble), Chloe O. Davis (Ensemble), Nico DeJesus (Ensemble), Brandon Victor Dixon (Davis), Timothy L. Edwards (Ensemble), Desmond Sean Ellington (Understudy), Badia Farha (Understudy), Vanessa Ferguson (Tiny/Ensemble), David A. Guzman (Ensemble), Crystal Monee Hall (Crystal/Ensemble), Gianna Harris (Understudy), Jakeim Hart (Q/Ensemble), Chris Lee (Knuck), Jackie Leon (Jessica/Ensemble), Kecia Lewis (Miss Liza Jane), Raechelle Manalo (Ensemble), Jade Milan (Understudy), Maleah Joi Moon (Ali), Onyxx Noel (Understudy), Susan Oliveras (Understudy), Sarah Parker (Ensemble), William Roberson (Understudy), Niki Saludez (Ensemble), Mariand Torres (Maria/Ensemble), Donna Vivino (Understudy), and Lamont Walker II (Riq/Ensemble).

The music team of HELL'S KITCHEN will include music supervision by Emmy and Grammy-winning Adam Blackstone, orchestrations by Adam Blackstone and Tom Kitt, arrangements by Alicia Keys and Adam Blackstone, music consulting by Tom Kitt, music coordination by Kristy Norter, and music direction by Dominic Fallacaro.  

“I'm so excited that Adam Blackstone is a part of this All-Star team!” said Alicia Keys. "Everything from the Grammys to the Super Bowl has been transformed by his Midas touch and now the musical theater world will be as well! Hell's Kitchen is so exciting, the music and every part of this show is going to touch you in a way you can't predict! I'm so grateful for all the tremendous artists bringing the magic! Get ready!”

Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys and Pulitzer Prize-finalist playwright Kristoffer Diaz bring their exhilarating coming-of-age musical HELL'S KITCHEN to The Public this fall. In a cramped apartment hanging off the side of Times Square, 17-year-old Ali is desperate to get her piece of the New York dream. Ali's mother is just as determined to protect her daughter from the same mistakes she made. When Ali falls for a talented young drummer, both mother and daughter must face hard truths about race, defiance, and growing up. Ali feels trapped, until the sound of a neighbor playing piano opens the door to an unexpected friendship and a radically different future. Loosely based on Alicia Keys' personal experiences, with choreography by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown and direction by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, HELL'S KITCHEN is an unforgettable new show featuring both newly created music and the soulful, iconic songs of New York's own Alicia Keys.

HELL'S KITCHEN features scenic design by Robert Brill, costume design by Dede Ayite, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Gareth Owen, projection design by Peter Nigrini, hair and wig design by Mia Neal, prop management by Claire M. Kavanah. Danny Maly serves as production stage manager and Tiffany Robinson and Luisa Sánchez Colón as stage managers.

Following HELL'S KITCHEN, The Public Theater's 2023-24 season at its downtown Astor Place home continues with MANAHATTA. The gripping play by Emerging Writers Group alumnus Mary Kathryn Nagle and directed by Obie Award winner Laurie Woolery returns to The Public, where Nagle first developed the epic play about a young Native American woman connecting with her ancestral Lenape homeland. 2024 kicks off with the world premiere of Tony Award winner Itamar Moses' THE ALLY, a provocative new play directed by Drama Desk Award winner Lila Neugebauer and featuring Josh Radnor about the vanishing line between the personal and the political. Pulitzer Prize winner and writer-in-residence Suzan-Lori Parks returns with SALLY & TOM, an edgy dramedy about art, history, and politics, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III. Emerging Writers Group alumnus Ife Olujobi makes her professional stage debut with the bold, bitingly funny play JORDANS. Directed by Obie Award winner Whitney White, the world premiere play is a piercing exploration of assimilation, racial capitalism, success, and survival.

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BIOS:

Alicia Keys (Music & Lyrics) is a 15-time GRAMMY Award-winning singer, songwriter, musician, producer, founder of Keys Soulcare, New York Times best-selling author, film/television and Broadway producer, accomplished actress, entrepreneur, and a powerful force in the world of activism. Since the release of her monumental 2001 debut album, Songs in A Minor, Keys has sold over 65 million records, over 5 billion streams and built an unparalleled repertoire of hits and accomplishments. Keys has become the #1 RIAA certified Female R&B artist of the millennium with over 37 million certified track sales (US) and 20 million album sales (US). She released her eighth studio album, Keys (Originals and Unlocked)—a double album—in 2021 followed by a deluxe version in 2022 and a sold-out Alicia + Keys World Tour that celebrated the Keys and Alicia albums. She recently completed her first Latin American leg of that tour to rave reviews and ravenous audiences. Keys released her book More Myself: A Journey via Flatiron Books, which debuted and spent multiple weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. In March 2022, she released her first graphic novel titled Girl on Fire with HarperCollins. Keys released her first-ever holiday album Santa Baby in November 2022 which includes four original songs, including the single “December Back 2 June.” Keys recently completed a spectacular, 360-degree show, the Keys to the Summer Tour, which hit 22 cities across North America. Hell's Kitchen, the original stage musical Keys diligently worked for 13 years to create, opens November 19 at The Public Theater. 

Kristoffer Diaz (Book) is a playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and educator. His play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Other full-length titles include Welcome to Arroyo's, Reggie Hoops, Things With Friends, Hercules, and The Unfortunates. His work has been produced, commissioned, and developed at The Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, ACT, Center Theatre Group, The Goodman, Second Stage, Victory Gardens, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among many others. Awards include the Guggenheim, Jerome, Van Lier, NYFA, and Gail Merrifield Papp Fellowships; New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award; Lucille Lortel, Equity Jeff, and Obie Awards; and the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant, among others. As a screenwriter, Diaz has developed original television pilots for HBO and FX, written for the first season of Netflix's “GLOW,” and adapted the musical Rent for FOX. Diaz teaches playwriting at New York University. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists and a member of its Board of Directors, and the current secretary of the Dramatists Guild Council.

Camille A. Brown (Choreography). Three-time Tony Award-nominated director and choreographer is the first Black woman in 67 years to direct and choreograph on Broadway with for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf in 2022. The production garnered seven Tony Award nominations including two nominations for Brown as director and choreographer. She is the 2023 winner of the Broadway Black award for Best Direction/Broadway (for colored girls...). Other Broadway: Choir Boy (Tony nomination, Choreography) and Once on This Island (Drama Desk nomination, Choreography). Off-Broadway choreography credits include Toni Stone (Roundabout Theatre, A.C.T.), Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet (Shakespeare in the Park), Bella (Playwrights Horizons; AUDELCO Award, Choreography), and Fortress of Solitude (The Public; Lucille Lortel Award nom). At the Metropolitan Opera, Brown became the first Black director in the history of the Met Opera main stage with Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones (which she co-directed with James Robinson and also choreographed), as well as choreographed Blanchard's Champion and Porgy & Bess at the Met. Film/TV includes the Oscar-nominated Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Emmy-nominated “Jesus Christ Superstar Live” (NBC), and “Harlem” (Amazon). She is the Founder and Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and has Honorary Doctorates from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Drew University. She received the 2020 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Choreography. camilleabrown.org @camilleabrown

Michael Greif (Director). Notable productions on and off Broadway include: The Low Road, f-ing A, Dogeaters, Giant, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide, Romeo and Juliet, Machinal at The Public and Delacorte; Our Lady of Kibeho, A Few Stout Individuals, Landscape of the Body, Angels in America at NY's Signature Theater; Dear Evan Hansen, Next to Normal (also Arena Stage and Broadway), A Parallelogram, Make Believe at Second Stage; Grey Gardens (also Broadway), Far From Heaven, Spatter Pattern at Playwrights Horizons; Street Scene, Therese Raquin, The Cherry Orchard at Williamstown Theater Festival; and Rent at the New York Theater Workshop and Broadway. Most recently, he, along with Schele Williams, co-directed the critically acclaimed musical adaption of The Notebook at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.