Hell's Kitchen NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (145)
See it if You want a good NY story and are a fan of Alicia Keys and her music and love strong popular dance routines throughout the show
Don't see it if You are not a fan of urban based stories and do not enjoy spontaneous dance routines throughout most scenes. Do not like Alicia Keys' music.
See it if You want to see a new musical with great songs, great singing, great dancing and a pretty good story.
Don't see it if You don’t like musicals!
See it if ...you like Alicia Keys...if you like great singing and great ensemble work...need to be blown away by Shoshana Bean, Kecia Lewis and more
Don't see it if ...you're going to be grumpy about juke box musicals - all of them are not the same
See it if You like great singing, dancing, and music. High energy!
Don't see it if You don't want to be entertained.
See it if you love Alicia Keys music & modern new musicals. The talent is INCREDIBLE! The music, choreo, singing, staging is Awesome. A TRUE MUST SEE!
Don't see it if you prefer more classical theater & musicals, But I still recommend going it's a really well crafted new show that deserves a Broadway run!
See it if invested in Alicia Keys’ music put to a new story about growing up and falling in love (and becoming an artist) in New York City.
Don't see it if you dislike musicals that blend a variety of genres (like Hamilton), want a strong and compelling book, or need new music. Read more
See it if you want to see a terrific new bio-musical by Alicia Keys with an outstanding cast especially Maleah Joi Moon who is incredible in the lead
Don't see it if you don’t care for Alicia Keys’ music, prefer plays or comedies, or need meatier subjects than teenage love and parental issues Read more
See it if You like Alicia Keys’ music and or urban dance ensembles. You value not-to-be-missed talented ensembles. Superb acting and vocals.
Don't see it if You are looking for a complete life story of Alicia or lots of new music. Read more
Critic Reviews (19)
“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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“ ‘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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“ ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is more than a story about a young woman’s first love affair...Instead, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is a sparkling story paying homage to New York, to that beautiful and heartbreaking transition between girlhood and womanhood and to the women who hold our hands through it all.”
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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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“In contrast to its intimate domestic scale and relatively subdued dramatic stakes, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is slick and aggressively commercial”
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“What ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ does dish out in ample portions are vocalizing and dancing pleasures...It’s all in service of something short of fabulous. Just, you know, nice.”
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“In trying to be a paean to New York, a love story, a mother-daughter drama, an exploration of Keys’ biracial identity and an artist’s origin tale all at once, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ does justice to none of those aspects. The show succeeds largely as a concert.”
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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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