What is surprising is that Kimberly Akimbo, based on the 2000 play of the same name by David Lindsay-Abaire, manages a similar feat. Now Kimberly Akimbo is in previews, and scheduled to open on Nov. 10. Some of the most enjoyable moments in Theatre Horizon's very entertaining production of KIMBERLY AKIMBO are those involving the character, Jeff, a somewhat nerdy outcast at school who strikes up an ambivalent relationship with Kimberly during the completion of a class project. Running nearly two-and-a-half hours, the musical feels padded with extraneous material, including lengthy interludes devoted to anagrams and ice skating and a song devoted to a school project about scurvy (dont ask). Choreographed by Danny Mefford. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . Akimbo can be a puzzle of a musical, but, like a clever anagram, you smile when it all comes together in the end. The seasons most moving new musical earns its place among the behemoths of Broadway. Kimberly Akimbo Tickets. She moves to Bergen County, New Jersey, with her parents, Buddy (Steven Boyer) and Pattie (Alli Mauzey), who are negligent, cartoonishly cruel morons. She knows whats happening in Kims life. / Getting older is your cure.. We've received your submission. Jeff is her bright spot; his cautious attentions are a lovely bit of fantasy, and his winning depiction by John Gallagher Jr. inspires great confidence in this young actor's future. Faced with the reality that shes not likely to live much beyond her 16th birthday, Kimberly is eager to check off the milestones of the teenage experience a first kiss, a Disney World road trip before its too late. Nobody. Cleverly akimbo. Performances will now run on extension through January 15, 2022, instead of the previously announced January 2. While never rapturous, Akimbo is always enjoyable and ultimately touching. Doesnt that say everything?. "Theater to See in L.A. The New Jersey setting is clearly and wickedly characterized but the era, supposedly 1999, is not; the fathers arc is not sharply inscribed; and the use of the high school students to fill out songs they dont otherwise belong in feels unmotivated. Lindsay-Abaires lyrics are frequently very funny, if too often resorting to a broadness that sacrifices pathos for cheap laughs. Kimberly Akimbo Unisex Perspective Raglan. It's a perfect start to this funny-sad musical treat by composer Jeanine Tesori and writer and lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire, based on his play. Suddenly theyre gone forever. TESORI I feel it in my body when something sings, I cant put it into words. Everything you need to know about 'Kimberly Akimbo' on Broadway, Do not sell or share my personal information (for California residents only), 2003: The play debuts off Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club in February, also with Burke. The oldest and first dedicated online New York Theater Guide Read news on over 150 Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. . Cooley and Clark reveal a surprisingly meaningful and lively connection that makes us root for them, even though their future is impossible. And I like how funny it is.. The dark absurdist . The Seagull: Not Your Great-Great-Great-Grandmothers Chekhov, The Seagull/Woodstock, NY: The Chekhov Updating You Didnt Need, Letters From Max, a ritual: A Playwright and Poet Open Their Hearts, Letters From Max, a ritual: Intimate Teacher-Student Work, The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window: Lorraine Hansberrys Largely Forgotten Play Shows Signs of Life, A Bright New Boise:Hunters First Play in off-Broadway Premiere, Endgame: A Fine-Tuned Production of Becketts Favorite Play, Kimberly Akimbo: The Sweet Musical Treat We Need Right Now, Leopoldstadt: Stoppard Examines His Roots, in Extraordinary Fashion. She was reeling from the premature closing of Head Over Heels when she first learned of Kimberly Akimbo, ahead of its premiere staging off-Broadway, in early 2020. Kimberly Akimbo opened December 8, 2021 at the Linda Gross Theater and runs through December 26. Soon, Kimberly's family gets mixed up in some crazy money schemes, and the family is emotionally destroyed. David Lindsay-Abaire, Jeanine Tesori and Jessica Stone on the Kimberly Akimbo set. . So at almost 16 (her birthday is coming up) she looks like a lady in her early 70's. As the past and the present interpenetrate in Clarks performance, you may feel, as I did, the themes of Kimberly Akimbo recombining to achieve an even sharper focus. The upside is that it draws her to the ber-nerd, Seth, played in a terrific New York debut by the 18-year-old Justin Cooley. We could crack open Kimberlys heart, and let her express all of those feelings and emotions and fears and desires and longings, that are only subtext in the play. The earnest young quartet played by Fernell Hogan, Michael Iskandar, Nina White and Olivia Elease Hardy are an exuberant highlight and happily bring to mind the scrappy cast of Stranger Things.. "Kimberly Akimbo" is directed by SMCT regular cast member Lynda Mondragon. Kimberly Akimbo is at the Booth Theatre. . And he said, I just want you to know that Im going to go out and live life more fully tomorrow. My eyes welled up and then he was gone into the night. Victoria Clark as Kimberly, who appears to be in her 60s though. You would think that Kimberlys dramatic health issues would provide more than enough fodder for the evening, which makes it puzzling that Lindsay-Abaire felt the need to pile on so many contrived plot elements. The scene changes to Pattie, Kimberly's mom, talking to a sound recorder to her unborn child about her life and how she believes she's a 'good mother'. The theatre is located at 222 W 45nd St. between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. My crablike love!) form a kind of descant to her rapturous discovery of his askew point of view: I like the way you look at life and think outside the box, she sings. If you can have a gaggle of teenagers skipping out of the show, and then this grumpy old man with tears in his eyes thats victory, said Lindsay-Abaire, right. He starts to sort of mimic that work ethic and he starts to explore and basically copy that approach. Unlike adaptations that do little more than nail vocal Sheetrock onto bare studs of borrowed story, and have approximately the same elegance, this one with music by Jeanine Tesori and a book and lyrics by Lindsay-Abaire remakes the original on new terms, with songs that beautifully tell us new things. So the two of them give each other really beautiful gifts. Monologue from Kimberly Akimbo YouTube April 1st, 2018 - Monologue from Kimberly Akimbo thechocolatechipcookie Loading Kimberly Akimbo monologue Duration 1 02 Timothy Regan 553 views 1 02 Kimberly Akimbo is Comedy but Not Farce November 1st, 2015 - EBSCOhost serves thousands of libraries with premium essays articles and other content including . Running time: two hours and 30 mins. Its just animal instinct taking over., She went on to note: Shes also a charismatic person that you want to be around. Its good enough, in fact, that you wish it had been just a little bit better. Shop with confidence thanks to the Vivid Seats 100% Buyer Guarantee. Victoria Clark stars in a playful yet powerful musical about a girl who is aging too fast among adults who behave like children. Yes, Polka", "How a Teen Copes in a World Thrown 'Akimbo', "Lindsay-Abaire Awarded 2001 Kesselring Prize Nov. 18 w/, "Acclaimed Musical 'Kimberly Akimbo' Announces Broadway Venue", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kimberly_Akimbo&oldid=1141059158, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Kimberly, a teenage girl with an aging disease who struggles to find happiness in a chaotic family where nobody understands her, Buddy, her father, an alcoholic (becomes sober midway through the show) who only wants what's best for Kim, Seth, a nerdy boy who is basically Kimberly's love interest, who is neglected by his father at home, Pattie, Kimberly's mother who thinks she is dying and is pregnant with her second child, Debra, Pattie's sister who causes the family some problems and lives with them on and off, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 04:02. Kimberly Akimbohas arrived on Broadway, where it opened to unanimous rave reviews. UMich grad. It is like dumping a bunch of puzzle pieces onto the table, he said. Pattie: Kims mom, a pregnant hypochondriac who tends to overlook her daughter. Rather, its between a tuba-playing, Elvish-speaking high school ber-nerd and a girl who looks like his grandmother. Kimberly Akimbo is a coming of age story with a bittersweet twist. All the jokes work that way. Do you imagine this as the kind of show that parents can take their teens to? Clark and Justin Cooley, who are reprising their roles on Broadway. . Theater Review: 'Kimberly Akimbo,' starring Victoria Clark, opens on Broadway at the Booth Theatre in NYC. And in the basement, Aunt Debra (Bonnie Milligan), a grifter with big attitude and little conscience, is concocting a check-forging scheme. Here are the major awards the Kimberly Akimbo musical and play have won. The Kimberly Akimbo musical had its world premiere off Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company in 2021, 20 years after the Kimberly Akimbo play premiered. Before you step back into the '90s with Kimberly and the gang, learn more about the show's cast, history, and production information. Tesori, 60, and Lindsay-Abaire, 52, first worked together on Shrek the Musical in 2008, and for the past seven years, transforming Lindsay-Abaires 2001 play Kimberly Akimbo into a musical was their passion project. Their classmates may have chosen scurvy and fasciolosis, but what they really suffer from is a bad case of adolescence, she sings. She suffers from an extremely rare disease that causes her to age more than four times faster than normal. JEANINE TESORI I dont know if you can open that door. She lives in New Jersey with her dad (who's always drunk), her pregnant mom . I would love to see us shift more, of course, and maybe cast a plus-size person as a romantic lead. Anyone can read what you share. He compensates by agreeing to take her to a burger joint for some food, where they meet Seth, the nerdy kid behind the window, who asks if Kim can do an interview for his project. And so I wanted to write an amazing part for a great actor. It began previews on Broadway on October 12, 2022 and opened on November 10 at the Booth Theatre.[9]. The craziness doesnt stop in the classroom. Anyone can read what you share. He is a bit akimbo too, a teenager who works hard, is a proud nerd, drily comic, anddespite his youthkeen to help Kim achieve her dreams to go on a road trip. Quick View. TESORI Thats what makes you a storyteller. [5], Kimberly Akimbo premiered Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club New York City Center Stage 1 on February 4, 2003 and closed on April 6, 2003. (To Kimberly.) Her mother, Pattie (Alli Mauzey), is ludicrously hypochondriacal, as if atoning for the chromosomal accident that produced her quick-aging child. Don't miss a beat. Jeff is the unlikely hero of David Lindsay-Abaire's 2001 play: a social outcast whose disregard for the superficial and interest in the heart of the matter offer an alternative to suffering and . TESORI [laughs] Its exposition, which is generally not great for a song. The staging shares the same DNA as The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Ride the Cyclone. David Zinns house-and-school set, however, does feel a little slight for even the intimate Booth. Less convincingly, Lindsay-Abaire ties them into the story as accomplices in Aunt Debras check-forging scheme; they hope to raise enough cash to buy spangly costumes for a show choir competition. Body diversity isnt something that weve always talked about, but I think [Broadway producers] are realizing the importance of audiences seeing themselves on the stage in a pleasant light as opposed to someone who is seen as unattractive. . 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