Before the curtain rises. Before the stage lights warm. Before a young girl steps forward with a voice that trembles just enough to prove it’s real—there is a moment. A moment where something small ignites. A sound. A memory. A dream.
For Alicia Keys, that moment happened in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen, a New York City neighborhood where ambition and adversity lived side by side. It is this moment—the origin of her voice, her defiance, her music—that she now brings to life through Hell’s Kitchen, a Broadway musical and, coming this October 2025, a stunning behind-the-scenes book co-authored with Lise Funderburg.
Hell’s Kitchen: The Book isn’t just a companion to a hit musical. It is a living archive, a scrapbook of soul, a visual and literary invitation into the fire that forged one of music’s most beloved artists. It’s a story of transformation, tension, rhythm, and becoming—and the pre-order campaign, titled “Where Dreams Begin,” is an homage to that first whisper of greatness inside us all.
A Broadway Phenomenon, A Personal Triumph
Premiering in 2024 at the Shubert Theatre, Hell’s Kitchen quickly established itself as a cultural lightning rod. It didn’t just attract sold-out crowds—it drew those hungry for a story that pulsed with truth, joy, and emotional rawness. The musical’s protagonist, Ali, a spirited 17-year-old in the concrete sprawl of ’90s New York, is a fictionalized extension of Keys herself—a girl full of fire, tangled in her dreams, desperate to break free and build something true.
Through Alicia Keys’ iconic music—both classics and new compositions written specifically for the show—audiences witnessed Ali’s coming of age with choreography that moved like memory, costumes that told stories, and set design that breathed nostalgia into every steel beam and fire escape.
This October, Keys invites us deeper into that world. Hell’s Kitchen: The Book is not a recap. It’s an excavation. It’s the heartbeat beneath the spotlight.
The Book: A Stage Door Left Open
The upcoming volume opens not with the show’s premiere, but with the very first seed of the idea. We are taken through thirteen years of creative evolution: notebooks scrawled with lyrics, casting sessions where actors met their fictional reflections, late-night piano demos recorded in Keys’ home studio. It includes:
- Never-before-seen photographs of rehearsals, costume fittings, and candid backstage moments
- Personal essays and notes from Alicia Keys, revealing her emotional and creative journey
- Interviews with cast and crew, offering insight into how each scene, song, and gesture came to life
- Original lyric pages, complete with Alicia’s handwritten annotations and revisions
- Visual moodboards, design sketches, and color palettes that shaped the show’s world
- Reflections from fans, community voices, and Broadway creatives on what Hell’s Kitchen means to them
Designed as a coffee-table-style hardback, the book is rich in imagery and poetic detail. It doesn’t just document—it transports.
Where Dreams Begin: The Pre-Order Experience
In celebration of the release, the pre-order campaign titled “Where Dreams Begin” encourages readers to revisit their own starting points. Whether you’re a teenager at a bedroom piano or an adult still seeking your voice, this campaign is a tribute to origins—their pain, their promise, their possibility.
Pre-Order Bonuses Include:
- Digital Piano Demos – Alicia Keys’ unreleased studio sketches of songs from Hell’s Kitchen
- Signed Lyric Print – Replica of Alicia’s handwritten lyrics to “Kaleidoscope” from the musical
- “Ali’s Journal” Mini-Ebook – A fictional diary from Ali’s perspective with illustrations, poems, and quotes
- NYC Postcard Set – Five vintage-style prints inspired by Hell’s Kitchen, New York in the 1990s
- Backstage Access Short Film – A five-minute mini-documentary on the making of Hell’s Kitchen, exclusive to early buyers
These exclusive items are limited edition and only available to those who pre-order before October 1, 2025.
Visual Identity: New York in Tones and Textures
The campaign’s visual aesthetic draws directly from the musical’s production design and Keys’ own synesthetic relationship with sound and color.
- Color Palette: Burnt red (brick), fire escape gray, subway tile cream, soft gold accents
- Typography: Clean, architectural sans-serif fonts paired with handwritten lyric overlays
- Imagery: A girl at a piano under a streetlight. A hot stage glowing red and gold. A fire escape as both prison and pathway. These aren’t just promotional tools—they’re emblems of becoming.
Alicia’s team has worked with creative agency collaborators to ensure every ad, every banner, every email header echoes the tone of the show: resilient, soulful, intimate.
The Narrative Thread: Behind the Curtain, Into the Fire
What makes this pre-order campaign more than commerce is its emotional arc. “Where Dreams Begin” invites us to follow not just Alicia’s journey, but Ali’s, and by extension, our own.
In one passage from the book, Keys writes:
“There was a moment when I was 13, sitting at the edge of the bathtub in our little apartment, thinking, ‘I need more room than this. I need more sky.’ I didn’t know what to do with that feeling, except write about it. That’s what this show is. That’s what this book is. That moment—forever expanding.”
It’s this honesty that makes Hell’s Kitchen both vulnerable and victorious. And it’s this spirit the book preserves.
For Fans and First-Timers Alike
You don’t need to have seen the musical to be moved by the book. While it is packed with production detail and insider stories, its emotional core is universal:
- A girl finding her voice
- A city that raises and tests her
- A family that both wounds and holds
- A world that finally listens
For longtime Alicia Keys fans, the book is a love letter. For Broadway lovers, it’s a masterclass. For anyone who’s ever stood in their own shadow waiting to step into the light, it is a map home.
Alicia Keys and Lise Funderburg: The Literary Harmony
The decision to co-write the book with Lise Funderburg, the acclaimed author of Pig Candy and a leading voice in memoir and cultural reportage, elevates this project beyond vanity publication. Funderburg brings journalistic rigor and emotional nuance, acting as a guide, shaping Alicia’s memories into literary architecture.
Together, they form a narrative duo—Alicia, the voice; Lise, the frame—and the result is a book that is both poetic and precise.
Culture
Since its premiere, Hell’s Kitchen has been more than a Broadway success. It has become a movement of representation and resonance. For Black girls, for New Yorkers, for those raised by single parents, for aspiring artists, for anyone who’s ever dared to want more—this story reflects reality back in song and spotlight.
The book, then, is not simply about preserving the musical—it’s about preserving the spirit that made it necessary.
Ideologue
The final pages of Hell’s Kitchen: The Book are not conclusions. They are thresholds. Alicia Keys writes directly to the reader:
“Wherever you are, whatever you’re dreaming, I hope this reminds you: you already have what you need. The world just needs you to bring it.”
As we turn the last page, we don’t close a story. We walk into it.
And that’s the power of Hell’s Kitchen—on stage, on the page, and in every alleyway where music becomes a way out.
