Hell's Kitchen 9/10
This past weekend Cam took me to see this Hell's Kitchen play at The Pantages. Thankfully we found parking a few blocks away because their own parking is expensive as hell and ridiculous to get out of. We also stopped by Amoeba where she got a Rick James CD and I got a The Last Dragon shirt which drew too much attention when at The Grove with L. So we got to the show and I had no idea what the show was about other than it was loosely based on Alicia Keys' life. We had really good seats at a balcony where no one was in front of us which I am always a fan of.
This 17 year old girl named Ali is impulsive as hell and tries to do whatever she wants. She hangs with her friends and runs the street. She lives in a building full of artists and they did this cool thing where she stood in a rectangle of lights and the floors showed on a screen behind her. Ali likes this guy who plays drum buckets in front of the building named Knuck. Her mother Jersey is very overprotective of her and wants her to stay away from him. I can't even say she is overprotective because Ali is a damn mess.
One day she meets a piano teacher who almost forces her to play piano if she is gonna be staying in the Ellington room. She teachers her to play and says she is a natural. Ali continues chasing after Knuck and following him to work. He paints buildings. She tries to act tough to impress him but realizes that he is not that type of guy. They get closer and end up sleeping together. Her mom catches the half naked on the couch and she is like “You are sleeping with a 17 year old girl!” He is like “Oh, hell no!” and leaves. The police are called after the guys are playing drums and Knuck is taken away. Ali refuses to talk to her mother anymore. Her mother calls her estranged father to come talk to her. It works for a bit until they realize that he is not gonna change and he flakes out on her.
Everything works out in the end of course. You know how this goes. The music in this was great. My only complaints are the basic Pantages complaints. The first and last songs were blaring so damn loud that we could barely make out what the singers were saying. Its like their voices were at a 4 and the music was at 11. After the applause and such the band just kept on playing like a two minute jam that was cool. I would definitely see this again. The main actress was great and it turns out she just graduated from high school and this was her first thing as a performer. One of the dancers was incredible and drew attention whenever she performed. And Ali's mother was fucking good. She got the crowd going wild. So did Ali's father. Women loved him.
Desmond Sean Ellington as Davis
JonAvery Worrell as Knuck
Maya Drake as Ali
Kennedy Caughell as Jersey
Roz White as Miss Liza Jane
Destini Hendricks
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