Original Broadway Cast, 2024 (Alicia Keys Records/Interscope) (4 / 5) Hell’s Kitchen is one jukebox musical — in this case, celebrating the artistry of R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keys through the semi-autobiographical story of teenage rebel Ali (Maleah Joi Moon) — that receives a significant upgrade in the translation from stage to cast recording. On the one hand, the misguided inclusion here of substantial portions of dialogue gives us too much of the show’s paper-thin story and near non-existent character development. (The most frustrating track in this regard is “You Play These Notes” featuring a wildly silly and unconvincing piano pedagogy.) But also showcased are the extraordinary vocals and rousing arrangements of Keys’ songs that a shorter version of the album could have offered with fewer distractions. Rather than simply recreating the sound of Keys’ original hit recordings, Hell’s Kitchen reimagines them: the sped-up, jazzy take on “Fallin’” and the impassioned mother-daughter duet recrafting of “No One” are two exemplars. Keys penned four new songs, including the lovely “The River,” for the musical, but the bulk of the score consists of items familiar from nearly 25 years of her albums. As jukebox musicals go, this one boasts unusual orchestral reinvention; Tom Kitt and Adam Blackstone engage in symphonic spread with rich scoring for strings that never overwhelms the piano-driven gold at the core of Keys’ compositional mines. And there’s a generosity of spirit in Keys’ willingness to spread the wealth of her solo songbook to other vocal artists, an unselfishness rewarded by the four central performances well represented by numerous tracks on the album: the deliciously melismatic rasp of newcomer Moon’s “The River” and “Kaleidoscope,” the seductive syrup of Brandon Victor Dixon’s “Not Even the King” and “Fallin’,” the rafters-raising electricity of Shoshana Bean’s “Pawn It All” and “No One,” and, best of all, the richness and warmth  of Kecia Lewis’ “Perfect Way to Die,” “Authors of Forever,” and “Like Water.” — Dan Rubins