Delaware dancer makes her Broadway debut in Alicia Keys' new show 'Hell's Kitchen'

Over the past seven years trying to make it as a professional dancer in New York City, Bear's Onyxx Noel nearly quit twice as the pressures of auditions, the pandemic and financial strains squeezed.

And then she earned a spot as an understudy in "Hell's Kitchen", the new musical from 16-time Grammy Award singer Alicia Keys, which kicked off its Broadway run Saturday, April 20, at the 1,500-seat Shubert Theatre. (Tickets cost $48-$344.)

By the time she got to meet Keys in rehearsals, it felt like a dream as she was suddenly face to face with the singer she had listened to growing up before her days as a Paul M. Hodgson Vocational Technical High School student.

If "I've made it" had a feeling, this must have been it. And it came in the form of a giant hug.

"When she first walked into the room, my heart dropped to the soles of my feet," says Noel, who first started dancing at the age of 3 at the Christina Cultural Arts Center in downtown Wilmington. "She has given so much to me through her songs and now I get to give back to her through this show she is creating. It's very humbling."

Noel made sure to tell Keys about how she would listen to her song "Unbreakable" every morning before school.

In retrospect, it was an appropriate song even if it was a love song a little over the then-teenager's head. It ends with Keys repeating the same line: "We're living our dreams/We're living our dreams."

From 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' to 'Hell's Kitchen'

Noel's Broadway debut as a "Hell's Kitchen" swing, a performer who can step into multiple roles on a moment's notice, came at just the right moment as she was questioning her future as a dancer once again.

It had been a few years since her last big break as a dancer on Netflix's Academy Award-nominated "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," which found her working with actors Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman, along with producer Denzel Washington.

The audition for Keys' jukebox musical came in late 2022 before the show's sold-out run off-Broadway at The Public Theater. Once the show was prepared to make the leap to Broadway, Noel got the call along with the rest of the cast to the big stage.

It's an exciting time now that the show's preview performances have come to an end in January and its official run kicked off over the weekend, filled with new songs from Keys. Keys does not appear in the show, which tells a story that very closely parallels her own Hell's Kitchen upbringing.

Middletown resident, in-demand musical director and four-time Grammy Award nominee Adam Blackstone (Rihanna, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Usher) serves as music supervisor for the show, adding another dash of The First State into the mix.

When Noel finally steps into a role and takes the Broadway stage for the first time, she will make a call back home to her mother, Annette Johnson, and stepfather Clifton so they can hustle north to New York to see the big moment.

Until then, she's in a bit of limbo as she watches from the sideline as the main cast of actors and dancers launch the musical with eight shows a week, awaiting her time to shine.

"Not being able to experience [it all] is hard and I miss performing and the jubilation ― dance is a visceral experience for me," she says. "I moved to New York to perform. Not to watch other people do it."

The reviews are in ...

After Saturday's opening night, theater critics weighed in with their thoughts. And most were positive.

The New York Times' Elisabeth Vincentelli called it "thrilling from beginning to end, and easily stands out as one of the rare must-sees in a crowded season."

"As is standard for Broadway these days, the dancing is ensemble-based, but [choreographer Camille A. Brown] and her troupe brilliantly find the individual in the group, and each one exists, like the dancer blowing gum bubbles in the middle of a number," she continued.

Variety's Aramide Tinubu wrote, "'Hell’s Kitchen' is a sparkling story paying homage to New York, to that beautiful and heartbreaking transition between girlhood and womanhood and to the women who hold our hands through it all."

And the New York Post's Johnny Oleksinski gave the show three out of four stars, saying the show has "the best singing you’ll find on Broadway."

"It’s a show that’s true to its city," he concluded. "And at the end, when the cast sings the lyric “concrete jungle where dreams are made of,” the crowd walks out into Times Square fully believing it."

Her road to Broadway started on Wilmington's Market Street

Noel's road to Broadway started on Wilmington's main drag, Market Street, where a then pint-sized young woman began her dance career at the Christina Cultural Arts Center, which dates back to 1945.

Even though she studied dental laboratory technology at Hodgson and aspired to be an orthodontist when she was younger, a career in dance is where her heart led her after graduating from Philadelphia's University of the Arts in 2017 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance.

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Her dance training may have started in Wilmington (and also at Heidi's Academy in New Castle), but she eventually ended up in Pennsylvania. She had been training with choreographer Shawn Lamere-Williams in Wilmington before joining him in Philadelphia at his Eleone Dance Theatre at the age of 16, with Noel's mother driving her back and forth to class to help her chase her dream.

Once she graduated from college, Noel moved to New York immediately. And while she had dance on her mind, she had to work plenty of odd jobs as a struggling artist, working as an auditor, admissions assistant and customer care advisor for various companies to support herself and help pay for her Brooklyn apartment. She is also a collaborator with choreographer Camille A. Brown's New York-based dance company.

"My family has been so supportive. They don't want me to worry or stress about anything and I appreciate it," Noel says.

In fact, in her moments of doubt about dance, it was hard for her family to see her struggle: "My mom wanted me to come back home. Even still now, she does so I don't have to stress about rent and all these other things," she adds.

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Now with a Broadway musical on her resume and some wind in her sails, she's looking to build on her new Broadway experience once her time with "Hell's Kitchen" comes to an end.

Each taste of success fuels her desire to keep marching forward in dance.

"Yes, Broadway was the goal and it was achieved, which I am thankful for, but the next step is landing a role where I'm able to perform regularly and not stand in when somebody is out or sick," she says.

In the meantime, she waits in the wings, prepared to step in at any time for any of the show's eight dancers.

"Honestly, all of this hasn't even hit me yet. I do feel grateful, but at the same time, I'm often reminded about all the hardship and rejection," she says. "Those things are traumatic and it can take away from the happiness in the moment sometimes. You really learn a lot about yourself. It's a lot of blessings and lessons."

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (@ryancormier).

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: In Alicia Keys' Hell's Kitchen, Onyxx Noel goes from Bear to Broadway