How Hell’s Kitchen Stars Maleah Joi Moon and Kecia Lewis Found Friendship Offstage

If you were in New York City at any point during the first weeks of September, chances are you were at Usher’s Past Present Future Tour, or at the very least, you knew someone who was in the sweaty audience at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Tony winner Maleah Joi Moon was no exception. “A time was had,” Moon says over Zoom from her NYC apartment, recounting the night she just spent dancing and singing in a suite with her Hell’s Kitchen castmates. Fellow Tony winner Kecia Lewis organized the whole thing, but couldn’t go because she was on vacation. “I was just texting with AK,” says Lewis. “She was like, ‘Did everybody have a good time?’”

For the uninitiated, “AK” is Alicia Keys, the brains behind the 13-time-nominated Broadway show Hell’s Kitchen, which uses the Grammy Award winner’s music to tell the coming-of-age story of Ali, played by Moon. Lewis plays Miss Liza Jane, Ali’s neighbor turned surrogate mother, who helps Ali realize her passion for music and piano, and ultimately discover herself. The semi-autobiographical musical is set in the ’90s in, of course, the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. Baggy jeans, crop tops, and jerseys abound.

Both Moon, 22, and Lewis, 59, won the Tony award this year for best lead actress in a musical and best featured actress in a musical, respectively. Hell’s Kitchen marks Moon’s Broadway debut, while Lewis has been in the business for four decades. For both of them, it was their first ever Tony nomination—and win.

“It’s crazy now that I’m talking about it, the juxtaposition between me and Kecia in that moment,” Moon reflects. “Kecia is this vet, legend, staple of the community—especially in the Black Broadway community. And then me being an up-and-coming artist, a Black woman entering this community and being welcomed.”

The relationship that Moon and Lewis portray in Hell’s Kitchen has led to a closeness offstage. “With this particular show, we are blessed to have the vast majority of the cast making their Broadway debuts,” says Lewis. “I like to be able to see the magic that we [create] through fresher eyes, seeing that wonder and awe, because you can get jaded when you’ve been doing this for four decades.” For this reason, Lewis has become the show’s den mother. “I enjoy mentoring,” she says. “And thank God I do because if I didn’t, this show would be a torture,” Lewis says with a laugh.

Here, Moon and Lewis talk with Vanity Fair about their dynamic on- and offstage and the only time it’s okay to sleep in your makeup.

Vanity Fair: To kick it off, in what ways do you both relate to your Hell’s Kitchen?

Maleah Joi Moon: Mama, do you want to kick it off?

Sorry, did you just call Kecia ‘Mama’?

Moon: I did. For everybody down at the Kitchen, she’s the matriarch of our cast. We all look to her when we need grounding, peace, prayer, positivity—all the things.