Meet the lead of the musical inspired by the life of the Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter
How did Maleah Joi Moon get her start?
A middle-school production of The Little Mermaid set Maleah Joi Moon on her path to Broadway stardom. She wasn’t actually in the show, though—her friends were, resulting in a serious case of FOMO. “I was so jealous because I wanted to be a part of the Saturday rehearsals and hang out with my friends on the weekends,” recalls Moon, who went on to audition for The Wizard of Oz the next year, eventually landing the role of Dorothy. She had officially caught the acting bug: “I did every educational theater show I could do from then until the time I graduated.”
Why did she initially turn down an audition for Hell’s Kitchen?
Theater remained Moon’s passion until 2022, when she was selected for Disney Television Discovers: Talent Showcase, an annual event that gets emerging actors in front of casting directors and agents. “I fell in love with film and TV,” she says. “It was this new sparkling penny that I wanted to be a part of.” She was so focused on that goal that she initially turned down the opportunity to audition for a new musical written by Alicia Keys. “I was whining to my agent that I didn’t know the songs and that I don’t know how to play piano, and this monologue’s really long,” she remembers, “but I just couldn’t lie to myself— I loved the material.”
How did Alicia Keys influence her?
Of course, Moon scored the lead in that show, Hell’s Kitchen, which is inspired by Keys’s early life in the titular Manhattan neighborhood. After a sold-out run at The Public Theater in New York, the musical opened on Broadway last month, and it features both new and familiar songs from the Grammy-winning artist. Unsurprisingly, Moon is a lifelong fan, which she says helps her performance: “A lot of her choices, musically, as an artist, rubbed off on me growing up anyway, so by the time this show came around we were kind of in the same sweet spot as far as tone and style.”
What’s next?
Moon spotted plenty of famous faces (Lucy Liu, Angela Bassett) in the audience during Hell’s Kitchen’s run at The Public, but she’s excited to see an entirely different sort of fan when the curtain goes up at the Shubert Theatre. “What I think really makes this Broadway experience for me is the little kids or the high school students who come to see a show like this,” she says. “I’m so excited to make art that people who usually don’t get to see themselves on Broadway can feel reflected in. I hope that it’s inspiring for little girls and boys who look like me.”
