Maya Drake (left) and Roz White in "Hell's Kitchen."                                             Photo by Marc J. Franklin

            No question “Hell’s Kitchen” is entertaining. It has the musical artistry of Alicia Keys, for starters. Also kinetic choreography by Camille A. Brown and the scenic design of the dependably ingenious Robert Brill.
            Story-wise? Yes, I know the book by Pulitzer Prize winner (for the much more daring “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity”) Kristoffer Diaz, written over the course of 13 years in partnership with Keys, is inspired by her personal bio growing up as a teenager in Manhattan in the ‘90s. So there’s some narrative integrity there. But in two and a half hours the “Hell’s Kitchen” tale tries to tackle far too much without completely committing to a thematic focal point.
            Is it Ali’s (the name for Keys) relationship with her mother? With her absent father? Is it her infatuation with a young painter (of the non-artistic kind) who isn’t aware that she’s only 17? Is it her tutelage by a wise and inspiring musician, Miss Liza Jane, who resides on another floor in young Ali’s apartment building? Is it her discovery of the transformative power of music and subsequent drive to make that her life?
            As the national touring production of “Hell’s Kitchen” suggests, it’s ALL of these, and by the rousing finale, a high-tech salute to New York City, there’s no definitive answer.
            A talented cast led by recent high school graduate (!) Maya Drake as Ali overcomes the too-busy script, and with “Hell’s Kitchen” practically being an Alicia Keys jukebox musical maybe it doesn’t matter that much to audiences. Hearing “Girl on Fire” and “No One” and the Big Apple anthem “Empire State of Mind” may be enough. The live accompanying band led by music director Emily Orr is a truly outstanding one, too.
            Enjoying nearly as much time in the spotlight as Drake is Kennedy Caughell playing her helicoptering mother Jersey. She’s got the pipes for emotionally charged numbers but often sounds like she’s overdoing it, and to me there’s too much mom and not enough absent dad (Desmond Sean Ellington as Ali’s father Davis) in this show. Ellington’s is a lovely, R&B-flavored voice but the storyline keeps bringing him in, then taking him out, then bringing him in, etcetera.
            Roz White’s Miss Eliza Jane is a stately and powerful presence in “Hell’s Kitchen”; no wonder young Ali is drawn to her – and vice versa. Her rendition of Keys’ “Perfect Way to Die” is a potent closer to the first act.
            “Hell’s Kitchen” is a musical of palpable energy with a winning heroine and lots of flash, but there aren’t many surprises and in the end Diaz’s book is no match for Keys’ varied and sometimes adventurous songwriting.
            “Hell’s Kitchen” runs through Aug. 16 at the Civic Theatre, downtown.

Tally Sessions and Eden Espinosa in "Much Ado About Nothing."                        Photo by Rich Soublet II

            I always liked “Wichita Lineman,” the ballad written by Jimmy Webb and turned into a major hit for Glen Campbell in 1968.
            I didn’t expect to hear it, for the first time in forever, in a production of “Much Ado About Nothing.”
            But there it was, faithfully sung by Tally Sessions, playing staunch bachelor Benedick (of the wittily bantering Beatrice & Benedick) in the Globe’s new production of one of Shakespeare’s best loved comedies. The setting? A karaoke party, Messina style, where prior to Benedick’s turn at the mic a giddy gang of volunteers had been taking a crack at the impossible-to-sing a-ha tune “Take On Me.”
            Don’t remember this from the “Much Ado About Nothing” you saw the last time somewhere?
            It’s not so much the re-imagining of the storytelling as it is the emphasis on a decided and certainly varied musical presence that characterizes this “Much Ado” directed by the Globe’s Barry Edelstein. It could be regarded as Edelstein’s tribute to the “music” of Shakespeare in every sense of the word – the language, the emotions, the vibe, if you will.
            As such the Globe cast musical theater veterans Sessions and the stupendous Eden Espinosa, a pair that has worked multiple times together, including twice before here. Their musical theater gifts are unquestionable. Their chemistry onstage as one of Shakespeare’s most delicious couples is irresistible.
            Both have opportunities to sing in this “Much Ado,” particularly Espinosa (last seen locally in La Jolla Playhouse’s “Lempicka”). While I have no idea why Sessions is given “Wichita Lineman” or really what that song has to do with what’s going on, it’s his musical highlight. Espinosa, meanwhile, opens the production with a lovely “Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,” has absolutely no trouble with “Take On Me,” and she gets to truly shine brightest in the show-closing finale.
            All the characters, as this production is conceived, are very much aware that this is a musical “Much Ado About Nothing,” to the point of cueing musician Morgan Hollingsworth in the rafters. Who will sing what and when is a constant surprise. Why is a valid question, but all is executed in the spirit of fun.
            It’s the production’s original music by Curtis Moore (last year’s “Regency Girls,” et al) that is most enticing throughout.
            This “Much Ado” is also rife with pop culture and contemporary references, and strategic departures from the Bard’s text, furthering the notion that the doings are not to be taken too seriously. My favorite’s when Sessions’ Benedick evokes Bill Shatner’s infamous “Khaaaaan!” I wonder if anybody else on opening night caught that.
            If there’s a problem with “Much Ado About Nothing” the play is that who cares about the supposed “main plot,” the romantic travails between Claudio (Ainsley Melham) and Hero (Stephanie Hinck)? When Beatrice and Benedick are both offstage the play is neither as amusing nor as interesting. It’s their “merry war” of words that Shakespeare crafted on their behalf that gives life and love and magic to an otherwise well-trod tale of courtship, deceptions and misunderstanding.
            This is Espinosa’s first Shakespearean role and you’d never know it. She’s deft and rhythmic and delightful. All but Sessions, fittingly, are pure background when she’s at the fore. She shows us her comic chops too in an unlikely scene set in an spa with cold plunge and sauna. I think you have to be there.
            The denizens of Messina so familiar by name to those who know “Much Ado” are contemporized even as they adhere to Shakespeare’s text. A backdrop by scenic designer Lawrence E. Moten is old world enough but the pre-eminent look is what he describes in the show’s program as “Acid Warhol Pop.” Besides the karaoke machine, characters have a blackjack table to play around, cocktails in martini glasses to hoist, the aforementioned spa accoutrements and an electric guitar that the scheming Don John (Jose Balistrieri) wields with ferocity.
            The beauty of “Much Ado About Nothing” is the Beatrice/Benedick relationship with all its pluck and intelligence. Even when employing the language of The Bard they could be a loves me/loves me not couple of today, neither willing to give an inch or be the first to acknowledge the most genuine feeling for the other, both full of life and bright as sunburst. Espinosa and Sessions are as luminous as I’ve seen.
            If you know this play you also know there’s a Jar Jar Binks of a character, the epitome of irritating: the constable, Dogberry. But some theatergoers love him just the same. At the Globe he’s played big by Jimmy Smagula like comic relief right out of a “Sopranos” episode. Bada bing, bada boom!
            This is about the fifth time I’ve seen “Much Ado,” including twice before at the Globe (in 2018 and back in 2003), and I also recall a 2014 production by bygone Intrepid Shakespeare Company that was quite a hoot.
            None of them invited you to a party as heartily as this new “Much Ado” does, promising masked karaoke singing, drinks, dancing and throwaway references to everyone from Bob Dylan to Olivia Rodrigo.
            “Man is a giddy thing,” Benedick declares before he weds.
            There’s enough giddiness to go around in this production, and it’s usually set to music.
            “Much Ado About Nothing” runs through Aug. 30 in the Old Globe’s Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.