Kim Soo-ha had to unlearn musical theater for ‘Hell’s Kitchen’

Kim Soo-ha has spent more than a decade in musicals, from London to Seoul, appearing in productions such as “Rent,” “Hadestown” and “Aida.”

In 2015, she became the first female Korean actor to make her West End debut, joining the ensemble and serving as a cover for Kim in “Miss Saigon.” Yet nothing in her career prepared her to sing and dance like Ali, the teenage lead she plays in the Korean premiere of “Hell’s Kitchen.”

"Hell's Kitchen," a musical created by Alicia Keys based on her teenage years, is running at GS Arts Center in Seoul through Nov. 8.

The adjustment began with rhythm. For weeks, the 32-year-old actor wore headphones everywhere she went — in the rehearsal room, in the car, even lounging in the theater lobby before curtain — trying to teach her body a rhythm it had never known.

The challenge went beyond dance. Kim said she had barely known Keys’ music before landing the role.

"Since I started dreaming of becoming a musical theater actor in fifth grade, musicals were basically the only thing in my life. I didn't listen to pop songs much, so I didn't know a lot of her music either," Kim told reporters Tuesday.

That unfamiliarity turned into curiosity once rehearsals began. Kim began searching for footage of a young Alicia Keys performing, around Ali’s age in the show, hoping to get a sense of the teenager she was playing.

“The first thing I thought was that she’s so beautiful,” Kim said. “That was the first time I really noticed her that way.”

Listening to Keys’ earliest recordings, Kim also found herself drawn to the soulful, slightly husky quality of her voice, which she tried to borrow for certain parts of the score.

The vocal style presented a different challenge from the rhythm. Kim said the music team, Alicia Keys included, wanted a tone that did not sound like conventional musical theater, with more breath than her training had taught her to use.

“They wanted it to not sound like a musical,” she said.

With no natural feel for the style, Kim memorized the original Broadway cast recording note for note.

Her ballet training, meanwhile, worked against her physically. Ballet dancers are taught to hold what is known as a “box” — a controlled frame — but the choreographers spent weeks pushing her to break that habit and adopt a slouched, restless posture that conveyed teenage defiance.

“They kept trying to break that box,” she said.

Singing songs audiences already know by heart brought another kind of pressure. Numbers such as “Fallin’” and “Empire State of Mind” are instantly recognizable, and Kim said she worried audiences would hear the hits rather than Ali.

“I try to put more care into the moments right before those songs come in,” she said, “so it feels like something they’ve been waiting for.”

As she delved deeper into Keys’ teenage years, Kim also became curious about Miss Liza Jane, the piano teacher who mentors Ali in the musical. She wondered whether the character was based on a real person and later learned that a woman who inspired the character had come to see the show in New York.

For Kim, one of the most meaningful aspects of the production has been sharing the stage with three generations of women the actors playing Miss Liza Jane, Ali’s mother and Ali herself.

“Having three generations of women actors stand on one stage together, I find that moving,” she said.