Hell's Kitchen Investors Get Early Payout in Ovation Rights Deal

The investors behind Hell's Kitchen are getting an early payout, months after the Alicia Keys musical left Broadway.

Ovation Rights has entered a long-term partnership with Keys to acquire the economic interests previously held by the show's original Broadway production company, Deadline reported. The deal was announced Oct. 13. The price was not disclosed.

The pitch to investors is speed. They get cash now instead of waiting many years for future distributions, meaning their share of any future profits paid out over time.

That wait is normal on Broadway. A show is a small business. Investors put up the opening money. They get paid back from what is left after the weekly running costs come out of the box office.

Hell's Kitchen was capitalized at $22 million, meaning that is the money raised to get the doors open. The Broadway production was expected to return about 60% of that capitalization to investors. Additional returns were expected from touring and international productions.

In other words, Broadway did not pay everyone back in full. The road might still help.

What makes this stand out is the shortcut. Ovation Rights is buying that long tail. Investors trade the chance of more money later for certain money today.

Ovation Rights was founded by Jamie Hendry and Philip Green. Executive producer of Hell's Kitchen is Aaron Lustbader.

The show itself was a bio-musical created and inspired by Keys. She wrote the score and served as a co-arranger of the music. She worked on it for 13 years, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

It earned 13 Tony nominations. It played nearly 800 performances on Broadway, Billboard noted. It closed Feb. 22 after a nearly two-year run.

For fans, this means nothing changes in the seats. The Broadway run is over. The business behind it is still moving money around.