‘Hell’s Kitchen’ review: Alicia Keys’ musical fires up on Broadway

nypost.com:

finally on fire. Two hours and 40 minutes, with one intermission. At the Shubert Theatre, 225 West 44th Street.The Alicia Keys musical “Hell’s Kitchen,” which opened Saturday night on Broadway following a rocky run last fall at the Public Theater, has greatly improved now that it’s only blocks away from its title neighborhood.The springtime spring in its step comes, in part, because at home in a much bigger theater — the Shubert — the vocal powerhouses of the cast can really let it rip.

And, damn, do they ever. It’s the best singing you’ll find on Broadway.Keys’ hit songs weave an evocative and lively tapestry of 1990s New York City, and these phenomenal actors knock you over with her tunes such as “Not Even The King,” “Pawn It All” and, of course, “Empire State of Mind.”Especially the wildly talented Maleah Joi Moon.

She plays Ali, a fictionalized 17-year-old stand-in for Keys at a turning point in her life. Like the singer once did, Ali lives with her mom, here called Jersey (Shoshana Bean), in Manhattan Plaza, an artist-filled, subsidized apartment building on West 43rd Street.The wonderful actress, making her Broadway debut, wows us straightaway when she rebelliously runs off to the Hudson and croons “The River,” and then tops that minutes later with a fabulous new number from Keys called “Kaleidoscope.”While musically epic, however, the plot of “Hell’s Kitchen” doesn’t match the score’s grandiosity.

Landing on the lighter end of coming-of-age tales, writer Kristoffer Diaz’s book has Ali develop an all-consuming crush on an older guy named Knuck (Chris Lee), duke it out with her stern mother over the boy and poignantly discover her flair for the piano thanks to a larger-than-life teacher, Miss Liza Jane (Kecia.