Kecia Lewis in Broadway’s ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ delivers the soul and earns a Tony Award nomination

By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s fitting that Kecia Lewis has had her most successful theater season while playing a mentor. The Broadway veteran portrays the formidable piano teacher Miss Liza Jane in “Hell’s Kitchen” who inspires the show’s young heroine to embrace music. Lewis now celebrating 40 years in the business is having a special spring. She has earned her first Tony nod and already won awards from the Outer Critics and Lucille Lortel. Lewis initially read the script not knowing that Alicia Keys’ songs would be used nor that the teen at the center of the story would be loosely based on the Grammy winner.