GRHS grad on Broadway

Mykhel Duckett, Class of 2023 Glen Ridge High School graduate, is currently appearing on Broadway in “Hell’s Kitchen.”

She understudies for three roles, including the lead, and has appeared about 70 times on the Shubert Theatre stage where the show is running.

“I did drama club in middle school,” she said recently in a telephone interview. “Covid cut into that and I mostly performed with the Gas Lamp Players.”

Her first Gas Lamp show was “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” She played Lucy’s cat, a made-up role.

“The best show was ‘Chicago,’ she said. “That was one of my favorites and I was Thelma, one of the two leads.”

She attended Barnard College and performed with the Columbia Musical Theatre Society for three semesters appearing in “Next to Normal,”
“Footloose” and “Legally Blonde,” and then began rehearsals for “Hell’s Kitchen.” She is now on a leave-of-absence from school.

“From booking ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ I didn’t think I’d have the time,” she said. “It’s a long contract. So, I took the year off and will see what happens next.”
The show is her professional debut.

The musical is the coming-of-age story of Alicia Keys, 44, a bi-racial woman and a successful singer/composer, who used her music to escape the tough New York City area known as Hell’s Kitchen. She was signed by Columbia Records at 15 and wrote the score for the musical. She has also appeared on TV and the movies. Duckett said, in the show, “Ali” is a 17-year-old growing up in Hell’s Kitchen who lives with her mother in a one-bedroom apartment. She is very passionate, a girl on fire.

“I’m also bi-racial,” Duckett said, “and grew up living with my mom. I’m also definitely very connected to music. She figures out how to use that when she experiences pain. She turns to music. That’s something I can relate to — music, acting and singing are all my outlets.

“My dream was to appear on Broadway,” she continued, “so I got an agent at the very beginning of college and I was sent on auditions. I’d film self-tapes. I always auditioned and got some call-backs. I think it was October, 2024, when they sent me an audition for ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’”

The audition was to be part of an intense program and she got a call-back. The goal of the program was to create a pool of understudies for the Alicia Keys lead. For one week, Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., three young actors learned the role. Duckett lives in Glen Ridge and commuted to a studio to prepare.

“It’s a demanding role for such a young actor,” she continued. “I think they wanted extra time to develop and prepare the actors. They reached out to us way later. They asked me to understudy for Ali, the lead, and two other roles, Jessica and Tiny. The other girls are doing a national tour as Ali and Jessica with the Jessica actress understudying for Ali.”

Duckett said her first time on stage was as Ali. That was May 25. Since then, she has appeared in one role or another about 70 times.

“Ali is such a big, demanding, crazy role,” she said. “She’s on stage almost the whole time and she goes downstage to talk to the audience.

“And when I’m on for her, there’s someone from the director’s team watching and they’ll later send me emails. That’s helpful because there’s more I can be trying. The actor’s job is to portray the director’s vision. I try my best to do what is right for the show.”

Duckett’s mother, Kristy Graves, is a singer/actor herself having appeared on Broadway and, as a child, also in the title role of “Annie.”

“My mom is 100 percent the person I learned the most from,” Duckett said. “I didn’t grow up with acting or voice lessons. I did five Gas Lamp shows a year and my mom was always dressing them. I learned everything from her and she loves coming to see ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’” She takes lots of notes and later, it’s like, she’ll say, ‘Oh, you can do this.’”