Alicia Keys is speaking out after making Broadway history with her new musical Hell’s Kitchen.
The musical features a score written by Alicia, including many of her greatest hits and some new songs written for the show. The story is loosely based on the Grammy winner’s childhood growing up in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood in a building full of artists.
The 2024 Tony Awards nominations were announced on Tuesday (April 30) and Hell’s Kitchen is the most-nominated musical of the year with 13 nods.
Head inside to check out Alicia’s reaction to the nominations…
“I kind of lost it, kind of freaked out, and I was super excited, particularly that all of the collaborators on this project are seeing so much love and so much greatness for their brilliance. I’m so excited for everybody and for Hell’s Kitchen. It’s just like, ‘Whoa!,’” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
Nominations included Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, and four acting noms for the four main stars: newcomer Maleah Joi Moon, Shoshana Bean, Kecia Lewis, and Brandon Victor Dixon.
On the process of making a musical, Alicia said, “I’ve learned that the people that you collaborate with are so important and the way that each person brings something special to the process from sound design, set design, costume design, obviously, our magnificent director and the book writer, the stage manager and every single person that’s a part of this moving art installation is so important, and they all hold a piece of the energy that gets transferred to those who come and see it.”
She added, “And so I feel like what I’ve learned is that the energy around it, the energy around anything that one creates or is a part of is almost 90 percent part of why it resonates in the way that it does. And so I feel like that’s what I’m receiving. And also the love from the theater community. There’s something special about the veterans and us combining this new freshness with the veteran wisdom, that I think has created a very special way to express this.”
Check out photos from the show’s opening night performance!
