Inside 'Hell's Kitchen': Brandon Victor Dixon on Bringing Alicia Keys' Songs to Life

Since debuting on the Broadway stage in the 2005 original production of The Color Purple, Brandon Victor Dixon has delivered a variety of Tony Award-nominated performances.

In his latest Broadway role, Dixon plays Davis, a musician and father to Ali in Alicia Keys’ musical Hell's Kitchen. As Davis, he performs some of Keys’ signature songs from a male perspective and explores the crucial estranged father-daughter relationship that forms an essential element of the play.

“I've always found that Alicia’s [Keys] music had an inherent emotional narrative quality to it,” Dixon said in an interview with The Quintessential Gentleman. “So I thought it would really lend itself to the medium of theater, and I thought that the story they were telling was kind of this mother-daughter story, about how it takes a village to raise somebody. I thought that that was a really strong message and can be really great for the show,” he added.

Two of Keys' signature songs that Dixon performs in the show are If I Ain't Got You, which he performs alongside Tony Award winner Maleah Joi Moon, and Fallin, which he sings with his Tony Award-nominated co-star, Shoshana Bean. In playing Davis, Dixon embodies a piano player, a role familiar to him from some of his previous performances.

“In some shows, I’ve literally played [piano], whereas in this show I mimic playing, so there's a different level of preparation and a different level of pressure that goes with that,” Dixon explained. “It was really just a matter of paying attention to what the songs are, and how they're arranged, and from there, I was able to get the general fingering down on that. But it's different when you're actually playing, which I have in some shows, than in this one, where you're not actually hearing me,” Dixon added.

Dixon's performance as Davis earned him his third Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical, a category in which he first received a nomination for his Broadway debut in The Color Purple.

“I'm the elder statesman in the show. In both the other shows in which I was nominated, I was not. I was one of the younger, so I'm one of the more mature cast members this time around, and so because we have a lot of Broadway debuts, and Tony debuts just the first time excitement of it was a big energy, and that was really great,“ Dixon said about what made this year’s Tony Awards unique and special.

Dixon shared some advice for working with talent who are making their Broadway debut, like Maleah Joi Moon.

“I tried to communicate to them the sense of responsibility. We're not in a place that is given, we're in a place that is earned, just not a privilege. It's a privilege that must be earned, and we have a responsibility once we do get to a place like this, to show up, to come to work, to show up for each other, to show up for our audience, to put our show first,” Dixon said.

“I really tried to talk to them about the dedication and the craft. It's one thing to be able to do this once or twice, there are artists that can do something like this here and there. But what it takes is a whole other thing to be able to do it eight times a week [and] figuring out how to do this, not just for fun, but as a professional. How do you do it when you're not feeling inspired? How do you do it when you're not feeling your best? But you can still do it. How to learn how to push past one's limits?“ he added.

Dixon has been celebrating up-and-coming youth talent with an award named after him, presented by The National Theatre. This award is an extension of the Jimmy Awards for high school musical theater students.

“When they wanted to start a chapter in my hometown of DC, a couple of years ago, they reached out to me and asked me if I'd be interested in being a part and I very much wanted to. The richness of the arts in my hometown are a big part of why I am where I am today. But we didn't have anything quite like this. So I thought it was wonderful to be a part of something that the kids can have now that I would have wanted to have when I was there,” Dixon said.

While Dixon performs Alicia Keys' songs onstage, he is also preparing to release his own original music soon. In the meantime, you can catch Dixon on Broadway in Hell's Kitchen.

Photo Credit: Dario Calmese