James Wilson takes a look at Hell's Kitchen at the Shubert Theatre:
It is very common for audiences at Broadway musicals to clap and hoot at the entrance of a star or in appreciation of impressive scenic design. In Hell's Kitchen, which concluded an Off-Broadway run at the Public in January and is now playing at the Shubert Theatre, a venerated New York City apartment building received entrance applause the night I saw the show. Manhattan Plaza, the complex that takes up a square block between Ninth and Tenth Avenues and with entrances on 43rd Street, was built in the 1970s to provide low-cost housing for people primarily (but not exclusively) in the performing arts. Hell's Kitchen is a coming-of-age story focused on singer and songwriter Alicia Keys, and Manhattan Plaza and the neighborhood in which it is located are central to the artist's musical and expressive development. |
