Alicia Keys is a big star with an extensive back catalog. I'm not familiar with all of her songs, but I'm a little more familiar since going to her concert last year. And you could kind of expect that a plot contrived off of existing songs would be corny. Corny writing in contemporary Broadway musicals is not so uncommon though. I could look past it because Maleah Joi Moon has enough charisma to project her New York attitude all the way up to the balcony. Kecia Lewis, as her piano teacher, and Shoshana Bean as her mother, also have ample opportunities to belt it out. Keys chose some lesser known numbers that nonetheless have a bit of Broadway flair. And other songs are re-contextualized, given new life through different rhythms and harmonies, most notably Fallin'. We got an understudy for Davis, who gets some of the most recognizable songs, but the understudy Desmond Sean Ellington was quite good too. They all manage to channel Alicia Keys in their own unique ways. They're all fantastic, with a special shout out to Kecia Lewis. I appreciated that the audience was really into it, responding well to the jokes and high notes and emotional moments. Always more fun to experience with an audience enjoying themselves. It is fun, I give you that. Plot is a little thin but there's enough there for a satisfying coming-of-age mother-daughter story.
