“Though not perfectly told, Ali’s discovery that art is love, with or without the guy, is too rich not to reach a bigger audience, and a million more girls on fire.”
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"CRITIC’S PICK:...easily stands out as one of the rare must-sees in a crowded season."
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“Though ‘Hell's Kitchen’ takes plenty of liberties with Keys's life, to the credit of her and bookwriter Kristoffer Diaz, it's not a highlight reel. The creators don't sugarcoat the low notes of Keys's adolesence: her younger self's willfulness to a fault, the illness of her mentor, and gravest of all, the overpolicing of her community, filled with artists of color.”
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"Alicia Keys musical is on fire with powerhouse performances"
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"Hell’s Kitchen is ultimately a celebration of the city—and the people who make it pop."
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“ ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is a mother-daughter story...They take Keys’s remarkable solo work and fill it out, expanding its feeling of context and community. A jukebox plays what you’ve heard before, and though ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is unquestionably a slick commercial machine, it’s also, with admirable frequency, able to pull off the feat of making the musically familiar feel brand new.”
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"worth being wary of any musical that positions itself as a love letter to New York City."
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“While ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is musically ravishing—the musical, named after the New York neighborhood in which Ms. Keys grew up, is more slender dramatically. The book, by Kristoffer Diaz, curves along formulaic grooves, even if they closely track Ms. Keys’s life.”
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