Where Gospel Meets Broadway: HELL’S KITCHEN

 

From Polk and Co (Polk & Co.)

Where Gospel Meets Broadway: Where Gospel Meets Broadway

Broadway has always borrowed from the church. The call-and-response. The sweat. The belief that music can lift a room and move a people. This January, HELL’S KITCHEN leans fully into that lineage, transforming Martin Luther King Jr. Week into something closer to a revival—equal parts theater, testimony, and tribute.

As the Alicia Keys–inspired musical continues its red-hot run, HELL’S KITCHEN is pausing to honor the roots beneath the music with “Legends of Gospel Week,” a three-night celebration of gospel giants whose voices didn’t just soundtrack lives, but shaped movements. The timing is deliberate. The week lands alongside the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who understood that songs—especially sacred ones—could carry courage further than speeches ever could.

At the center of it all is Yolanda Adams, currently starring in the show as Miss Liza Jane. Adams doesn’t just enter a stage; she consecrates it. For more than three decades, the multi-GRAMMY Award winner—often called the Queen of Contemporary Gospel—has blurred the lines between gospel, R&B, jazz, and inspirational music, carrying faith into spaces that don’t always expect it. Night after night, she brings that authority to Broadway, grounding the production with a voice that feels both timeless and urgently present.

“Legends of Gospel Week” opens Tuesday, January 20, with a salute to Donald Lawrence, a GRAMMY Award–winning composer and producer whose fingerprints are all over modern gospel. With more than 30 Stellar Awards and inductions into both the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame and the Black Music Hall of Fame, Lawrence represents a generation that refused to treat gospel as small or secondary. His work demanded excellence—and got it.

Wednesday, January 21, brings a Christian Cultural Center takeover, honoring its founder, Rev. Dr. A. R. Bernar,d and celebrated gospel vocalist Darwin Hobbs. Bernard, a Brooklyn mainstay for over four decades, has built a ministry rooted in civic engagement, education, and unapologetic leadership. Hobbs, known for songs like “Everyday” and “He Is,” bridges worship and mentorship, with collaborations spanning CeCe Winans, Donnie McClurkin, and Michael McDonald. Together, they represent gospel not just as music, but as infrastructure—something that builds communities from the inside out.

The week closes Thursday, January 22, with an honor for Hezekiah Walker, the two-time GRAMMY Award–winning pastor whose anthems—“Every Praise,” “Souled Out”—have become global sing-alongs. As founder of Love Fellowship Tabernacle and leader of the Love Fellowship Choir, Walker helped define contemporary gospel by keeping one foot in the church and the other in the world, never letting either side dull the message.

Fittingly, the final honor of the week circles back to the woman anchoring it. Adams will receive the Cissy Houston Lifetime Achievement Award, a newly established honor recognizing a lifetime of artistic excellence and spiritual impact. Named for the late gospel icon and beloved mother of Whitney Houston, the award underscores Adams’ role not just as a singer, but as a cultural bridge—someone who carried faith into mainstream spaces without sanding down its power.

Each night will also feature post-show talkbacks with Adams, cast members, and the honored legends, digging into what it means to build a dream, protect it, and do the work required to make it real. Hosting duties rotate across gospel media heavyweights Toya Beasley, Meta Washington, and Liz Black, with Emmy Award–winning producer A. Curtis Farrow co-hosting and moderating throughout the week. The conversations promise candor, history, and at least one musical surprise before the lights go down.

The week is supported by McDonald’s Gospelfest, a cultural institution in its own right, alongside media partners Audacy’s 94.7 FM The Block, WBLS 107.5 FM, SiriusXM Kirk Franklin’s Praise, Black Gospel Promo, Gospel Music Buzz, and The Christian Times. Together, they amplify a message that feels especially resonant now: gospel is not a genre on the sidelines. It is central. It always has been.

Collectively, Adams, Lawrence, Bernard, Hobbs, and Walker represent a lineage of faith-driven artistry that refuses to be quiet, polite, or contained. Their music carried people through marches, funerals, Sundays, and setbacks. In honoring them, HELL’S KITCHEN isn’t stepping away from its story—it’s going deeper into it.

Dr. King understood that truth long before Broadway did. His movement was fueled by hymns and hope, by voices raised together in defiance and belief. During Legends of Gospel Week, HELL’S KITCHEN doesn’t just remember that legacy. It lets it sing—loud, full, and alive—right in the heart of New York City.