Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Alicia Keys has built up a strong repertoire since her 2001 debut album, Songs In A Minor. Along the way, she has composed songs which, intentionally or not, ended up in her Tony Award-winning musical Hell’s Kitchen, co-created with Pulitzer Prize-finalist playwright Kristoffer Diaz. It’s the story of a 17-year-old girl named Ali navigating life with her fiercely protective single mother, rocky young romance, city life, and blossoming artistic possibilities. The show was nominated for 13 Tony Awards and won for Best Actress in a Musical (Maleah Joi Moon) and Featured Actress in a Musical (Kecia Lewis).
Not the Usual
Directed by five-time Tony nominee Michael Greif, the show upends traditional musical theater expectations in two ways — it uses Key’s modern compositions instead of expected musical tropes, and its narrative feels more realistic, not attempting to wrap up everything with a nice bow at the end. On the song side, the show’s collection of 24 tunes — including three composed specifically for the show — spans a wide range of genres, including R&B, pop and gospel and moves from a cappella to full-on band moments.
Tony Award-winning sound designer Gareth Owen, who recently landed his fifth Tony nomination, worked on Hell’s Kitchen, and his FOH engineer, Sean Woods has been using an Avid 6SL console after working on a DiGiCo SD7 Quantum downtown at the Public Theater. “Either desk can do the show really great,” Woods tells FRONT of HOUSE. “It just feels like the Avid is better for Gareth’s workflow [here]. I know he goes back and forth in finding things that work best for him.”
A New Beginning
Transferring this show to Broadway was a daunting challenge. It finished a near three-month public run in mid-January and — before it had even ended — they were informed that the show would be moving to Broadway. Previews started March 28, and the show opened on April 20. They had only nine days to tech the musical for the Shubert Theatre. It’s a stark contrast to when Owen had almost two months to tech MJ: The Musical.
Music orchestrators Tom Kitt and Adam Blackstone had to work fast to adapt and expand the score which was originally done with six musicians — guitar, bass, electronic drums, organic percussion and two keyboards. The Broadway production, by contrast, needed to be performed with 15 musicians to hit the union minimum for the Shubert. The added players include a trombonist, trumpeter, reed player, third keyboardist, string quartet and the show’s MD. Horn parts that had been generated through keyboards or Ableton were now being performed live. All of the added players are located in two rooms in the pit, whereas the original six perform on two separate towers on opposite ends of the stage.
“At that point, I feel like Gareth had really gotten a taste of what Alicia wanted,” Woods remarks, regarding the fast turnaround. “We had that whole downtown experience last fall just to figure out how can we align Gareth’s style to what they really want to create and how can we make this all happen. We felt like we had a good foundation for when we were doing this, and it felt like we knew what we wanted. There are a lot more cues that just ended up happening as we were able to get more granular because during that first process, I feel like we were still figuring out the sound.”
One of the elements that Keys liked is their use of low, throbbing bass sounds at a couple of points in the show. “It’s like a sweep [that] shoots through the back of the house,” Woods notes. “That came from just a moment of previews downtown that we put in and we really liked it. And then Alicia really liked it. We kept it and then we’re like, ‘Well, how big can this be?’ Alicia’s taste is emphasizing having that really warm bass and having those really cool, low-end moments. When we did the bass suite with the subs in the front row, I was [like], ‘Oh God, can we get away with this?’ As it ended up, a bunch of reviewers really liked it.”
Several of the show numbers also hit some pretty loud crescendos, notably “Pawn It All” and also “Girl on Fire,” which “punctuates pretty loud with a trumpet,” Woods says. “It really feels as though it’s setting the emotional tone of the show. The bass sweep at the end of ‘Gospel,’ — I don’t know how much emotional tone that has — but it’s definitely a ‘clap now’ [moment]. This also provided a bit of a breath. We had a moment where we were finishing the dance break, and they would just move on. You didn’t feel like people were clapping, and that really sets the emotional tone [for] ‘that’s done and that was pretty cool.’ Then I would say ‘Girl on Fire’ really sets the emotional tone. It’s really ramping up for this very intense moment where the mom finds Alicia sleeping with Knuck. That’s what we were going for.”
Going Immersive
There is a fair amount of surround sound used in Hell’s Kitchen. “Some of it is some track stuff that we’re doing, and there’s definitely some piano surround stuff,” Woods says. “There are some vocal surround moments that we use. It’s always very intentional moments that we’re looking to have those — there’s a moment in ‘Girl on Fire’ for the oh’s. And then in ‘Gramercy Park,’ we use a bunch of surround stuff for piano and a little bit of track.”
Woods is running 143 inputs on the S6L. There are approximately 230 speakers for the show in the Shubert, and the main speakers are d&b audiotechnik. He says that that the arrays are d&b XSL8 with some XSL12s in the bottom of those arrays. There are six flown XSL subs on the main array, as well as many B12s on the mezzanine for delay.
Mics, Mics, Mics
The main cast is miked with DPA 4066 headset mics, and for double-miked leads, they alternate between the Countryman B6 or Sennheiser MKE I for backups, based on supply. Both of those have been harder to supply recently. They are using Shure Axient Digital transmitters.
“I would say that using Shure Axient Digital wireless has been great as it is so rock solid,” Woods says. [Shure’s] “Wavetool is an invaluable tool for our backstage team to check mics so incredibly quick before each act so we never get caught top of act with a bad mic. Showlink antennas also help that backstage team be able to catch those problems sooner. We are usually able to have listened to all mics briefly before stage management even has places on stage.”
He stresses that “Girl on Fire,” one of the most powerful numbers in the show, which closes out Act I, is not a song that one wants to lose a mic on. For the cast member who sings lead on that song, they have “a quick option to swap to another pack through a soft patch,” Wood states. “So it’s not like a true double-up chant on the console, but we can soft patch it backstage.”
Wavetool has been important for the Hell’s Kitchen audio team backstage to be able to listen for any sonic issues. Woods remarks that he might want the A2 to hear something on playback, not right at the moment. “Things are so intermittent sometimes where if they listen now, they’re not going to hear a problem,” Woods observes. “But I promise I’m not crazy. If you go back in a minute, I promise we’ll hear something weird. That happened the other day, where we heard some rattling and figured out that someone was talking so close to the scaffolding that the sound was reverberating off of the scaffolding. So we figured out what to do with that. I also heard some buzzing, but I didn’t know what that was. Then we figured out it was off the scaffolding at that point. That’s been great.”
Woods adds that Owen has developed his own proprietary software, rPatch, which helps the audio team change a patch through Dante on the fly. “So if someone goes out in the middle of the show, you just patch this person to that pack, patch this to that and then you’re done,” Woods explains. “That’s been nice. I can also monitor that from front of house.”
No Easy Mix
Mixing the show is certainly challenging at times, but it’s a task that Woods relishes. Different songs require different types of attention. He says “Pawn It All” is tricky in how it was redone for the Shubert “to get so loud and big.” He notes that some of the staging is so far downstage that they have to see what they can get away with in terms of foldback, which makes it tricky mixing. And the fast-paced “Gospel” has around 15 sound cues but gets easier the more he does it.
“The number ‘Un-Thinkable’ is deceptively hard, even though it’s just two people,” Woods adds. “But they’re very much in each other’s faces, and depending on who’s doing it, if understudies are on, it’s definitely a lot of focus and listening, just know how tender the band is. Then those two people that are right in other spaces figuring out how to blend that really nicely. That’s a tricky thing.”
He adds that “Hallelujah” is a great song to mix. “It’s not very tricky, but it’s really cool to mix when the drums really come in and pick up the beat, when everyone’s clapping into their mics, it’s a pretty cool number,” Woods says. “It really spans so many different styles. I would say probably the most fun I have is ‘If I Ain’t Got You,’ which is just such a fan favorite. It is probably Alicia’s most streamed song on Spotify, and everyone just knows it and loves it. If you blend Davis the dad and Ali and get those horns up really big, it feels like we’re just winning every time and the audience goes nuts. That’s a really good, emotional feeling at the end.”
Hell’s Kitchen on Broadway
VENUE
Shubert Theater
AUDIO CREW
- Sound Company: Sound Associates, Inc.
- Sound Designer: Gareth Owen
- Associate Sound Designer: Scott Kuker
- Assistant Sound Designer: Tye Hunt Fitzgerald
- Production Engineer: Phil Lojo
- FOH Engineer: Sean Woods
SOUND SYSTEM
- Mains: (25) d&b audiotechnik XSL8, (10) XSL12, (2) E8
- Balcony P.A.: (18) d&b Y8, (10) Y12
- Outfills: (8) d&b E8
- Front Fills: (9) d&b E6
- Delays: (9) d&b Y10P, (9) E8, (9) E5
- Surrounds: (54) d&b E6, (4) Y7P, (2) Q7, (2) Q10
- Subs: (12) d&b V-Sub, (4) GSL-Sub
- Stage/Spot Monitors/SFX Speakers: (10) d&b Y7P, (6) E5, (4) E6
- Wings: (12) ElectroVoice S40
- Amplifiers: (15) d&b D40, (10) D20, (10) D80
- Delay/Surround Amps: (21) d&b D20
- System Processing: (2) d&b DS10 16-ch Dante-to-AES Audio Network Bridge
FOH GEAR
- FOH Console: Avid S6L-32D
- Immersive Processing: (2) d&b SoundScape DS100 64×64 96k Dante Matrix Processing Units with En-Scene’ Object Oriented plug-in and En-Space’ Convolution Reverb plug-in
- Wireless Mics: (9) Shure AD4Q Axient Digital Receivers; (36) Shure ADX1M Axient Micro-Bodypack digital transmitters; (2) Shure ADX2 Axient handheld transmitter
MON GEAR
- Monitor Console: Allen & Heath DM64 MixRack (64-in x 32-out with 128 mix channels)
- Band Monitoring: (3) Allen & Heath ME-U 10-way Personal Mixer Hub w/ME-Protocol 40-ch Input Card; (22) Allen & Heath ME-1 Personal Headphone Mixers
- IEM/Monitor Gear: (4) Shure PSM1000s; (7) Shure PSM1000 P10Rs; (24) Sennheiser HD25mk2 PRO headphones
- Cast Mics: DPA 4066 headsets; Countryman B6; Sennheiser MKE I
- Band Mics: Audix i5, D2, D4; (4) DPA 4018C, CORE 4099V, (3) 4099C, (2) 4061, (4) MMC 4011; (3) Neumann KM140; (2) Sennheiser MKH50; (4) Shure Beta 98, (9) SM57, (4) SM58
- DI Boxes: (6) Radial Pro D8 rackmount DIs, (4) JDI passive DIs, (4) PZ-DI Variable Load active DIs, (2) J48 active DIs, JDI Duplex Stereo passive DI; InterSpace Industries 2-ch PC-Bal-Box
