Imagine being a fish in a reservoir whose dam just collapsed. And you are cognizant of it. Would you jump with joy at the thought of imminent freedom – or cry with fear that your safe haven is gone?

“If you don’t know what you want for yourself, then you’ll never, never get there … You’ll always be deterred.” Alicia Keys told Oprah at age 20. Now she preaches this self-determination.

“Hell’s Kitchen,” a musical inspired by the singer-songwriter’s teenage years in New York, is set to open Off