Knowing she will not live much. The hodgepodge of elements is a lot for director Jessica Stone to fuse together, but she succeeds by latching onto a show-choir vibe. Now Kimberly Akimbo is in previews, and scheduled to open on Nov. 10. David Lindsay-Abaire, Jeanine Tesori and Jessica Stone on the Kimberly Akimbo set. The play was initially produced at the South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, California, from April 13 to May 13, 2001. 2 p.m. Dec. 3-24. "Theater to See in L.A. 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.. And we all have been close observers to adolescents. All I ever wanted to be in life was the star of that show. David, what were the instincts that led you to write Kimberly Akimbo 20 years ago? The good son, he sings. Discover a full timeline of the show's history below. Buddy: Kims dad, whose drinking undermines his well-meaning efforts to do his best for his daughter. Drama Desk Awards: The musical won Outstanding Musical and was nominated for eight additional awards for performance, writing, direction, and design. Pattie is convinced shes going to die soon, and is here breaking the news to her sister, Debra. LINDSAY-ABAIRE Look, I love my family very much. I look at some of my idols: Carol Burnett, Debra Monk, Donna Murphy. Yet watching the show again, I focused as much on Lindsay-Abaires lyrics, which retain the natural shape of expert dialogue quirky, characterful and sometimes even leggy without distorting the song forms or turning everything into operetta. Tony-winner Victoria Clark stars as a teenage girl with a genetic disorder that causes her to age rapidly in a wondrous new musical by David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori. It's good. (The finale of Kimberly Akimbo, a ukulele tune inevitably called Great Adventure, is a killer, so jaunty you cry.) They come across as being the same age. Performances will now run on extension through January 15, 2022, instead of the previously announced January 2. Kimberly Akimbo is at the Booth Theatre. Its not about a disease at all, unless its the one we all have: We grow up too slowly and then suddenly too fast. NINA WHITE (Teresa) is thrilled to be making her Broadway debut in Kimberly Akimbo after originating her role off-Broadway. (To Debra who passes from basement to exit house.) The seasons most moving new musical earns its place among the behemoths of Broadway. Here are all the major productions of the Kimberly Akimbo play and musical. They are the greatest art form. This Week, Including a Solo Show About Polka. It's good enough, in fact, that you wish it had been just a little bit better. Copyright 2023 New York Stage Review All Rights Reserved. And I like how funny it is.. Mature inside and outside, Kimberly is de facto caregiver for her dysfunctional New Jersey clan. Kimberly Akimbo. Audiences from 4 to 104 will be moved by Kim's story of finding one's people and making the most of life while one has it. Victoria Clark stars in a playful yet powerful musical about a girl who is aging too fast among adults who behave like children. Buddy strongly refuses and drives away. Intermissions are usually either 15 or 20 minutes long. Kim is a bright and funny Jersey teen, who happens to look like a 72-year-old lady. They include teenagers who are high school students as well as members of her family. We share the same sensibility of humor. The 16-year-old title character in the fascinating new Broadway musical "Kimberly Akimbo" is forced to deal with juvenile parents, a crazy aunt a body aging four times as fast as normal kids. Each of these subjects produces a wonderfully unexpected song that forwards the plot while deepening the characterizations. In any case, its the plot. Kimberly Akimbo takes place in 1999 in suburban New Jersey, where the title character is a 16-year-old high school student who looks like shes 72 because of a rare condition thats accelerated her aging. The two of them give each other really beautiful gifts, the shows director said of the actors. What makes Kimberly not cloying, as adults pretending to be kids usually is, is that she is an old soul because of her hard life. To that end, Milligan has seen a bit of a shift in recent years on Broadway, alluding to shows like Hadestown and Some Like It Hot, which have featured actors with plus-size bodies in principal roles. Knowing she will not live much beyond 16, she wants to experience everything she imagines the world has to offer road trips, a robot butler, puppy love while she can. "Kimberly Akimbo" is directed by SMCT regular cast member Lynda Mondragon. [1] [2] Its title character is a lonely teenage girl suffering from a disease similar to progeria, that causes her to age four and a half times as fast as normal, thus trapping her inside the frail physical body of an elderly woman. A musical dramedy set in New Jersey, "Kimberly Akimbo" tells the story of a teenager named Kimberly (played by Victoria Clark) who has a disease akin to progeria, which causes her to age at a. Clark is responsible for the carpe diem part, and it need hardly be said if you saw her Tony Award-winning performance in The Light in the Piazza in 2005 that her singing is phenomenally rich and specific. But the hope is just to have a career. That relationship isnt between Kimberly and any of her dysfunctional family members, vividly portrayed by Steven Boyer, Alli Mauzey and a scene-stealing Bonnie Milligan as the larcenous aunt respectively, but rather with her nerdy classmate Seth. By making it a musical, we had a way into the characters that the play did not have. Smallish, thoughtful, more narrowcast new musicals lets call them nerdicals are rarer: one per season, if were lucky. Here are the major awards the Kimberly Akimbo musical and play have won. Kimberly Akimbo Unisex Perspective Raglan. I did my grandmother's and she got Arabian Beard., I'm fine., Where have you been? Meet the artists HERE. The titular Kim is a sharp and funny teen growing up in New Jersey who's aging condition makes her look like she's in her 70s. Victoria Clark, left, as Kimberly and Justin Cooley as Seth in David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesoris musical Kimberly Akimbo at the Booth Theater in Manhattan. Was creating the musical a way to create more interiority for her? Here are all the songs youll hear in Kimberly Akimbo on Broadway. .more Get A Copy Amazon Stores Libraries Paperback, 120 pages It is on theme, Lindsay-Abaire said. 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 . Get tickets to Kimberly Akimbo on New York Theatre Guide today. 2003 Off-Broadway premiere (play): Burke, who starred in the 2001 premiere, reprises her role as Kimberly in the play's Off-Broadway debut at Manhattan Theatre Club. Regular price $35.00. If it still doesnt, well, this is a nerdical, after all. . Kim boldly decides to live every day like its her last. Her aunt Debra (Bonnie Milligan) is a cheerful, amoral tornado of bad ideas who squats in the Levaco basement to further a check-forging scheme. When the show premiered Off Broadway last winter at Atlantic Theater Company, Jesse Green, the chief theater critic for The New York Times, called it a funny and moving new musical. Led by the producer David Stone (no relation to the director), the show sold out its run, and a Broadway transfer was quickly announced. Those characters want to sing to me, their emotions are deep. Milligan has the most obvious showstoppers, one per act, in which she introduces her crew of goody-goodies now including Kimberly and Seth to the thrilling anarchy of selfishness. Anyone can read what you share. February 25, 2022. The off the wall parents and aunt who make up Kimberly's emotionally shipwrecked family are somewhat easier to replace. Kimberly Akimbo opened December 8, 2021 at the Linda Gross Theater and runs through December 26. Carolyn Hayes Harmer, Encore Michigan. LINDSAY-ABAIRE During Shrek, I said to Jeanine, I would love to write a musical the way that I write a play, where it would just be us figuring it out for as long as we needed to figure it out. And then Jeanine said, Well, how about one of your plays? 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. 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. The playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, the composer Jeanine Tesori and the director Jessica Stone discuss their quirky Broadway musical, which was first a play. It cant have been easy to find the right moments and tone for songs in a double-sided story like this, where each joke is also a memento mori, and vice versa. Like when you move a lamp, and you keep going to the same place to turn it on in the dark, even though you moved it across the room weeks ago. "A zany, disturbing and strangely affecting comedy. We long to get to know Kimberly better, especially since Clark delivers such a beautifully sung, poignant turn as the winsome teenage girl trapped in an elderly womans body. 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. Outer Critics Circle Awards: In addition to Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, 2001 world premiere (play): South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California hosted the world premiere of the acclaimed. You get so used to someone being there, it takes your body a long time to adjust. Each is beautifully portrayed in songs that give the actors a chance to shine. The sweetest love scene on a New York stage right now involves neither Left Bank bohemians, Orpheus and Eurydice nor even that freak with the mask. Leaving the ironies to us, she refuses to condescend to the character. And I also got the chance to put all of my high school friends up onstage. Kimberly Levaco becomes. So paired with Tesoris peppy, jingle-like, adequate score is a heap of sadness. (619) 231-3586. Lindsay-Abaires lyrics are frequently very funny, if too often resorting to a broadness that sacrifices pathos for cheap laughs. Jeanine, how did you write a catchy song about white collar crime? Tesori stood up, muttering, I have to close that door myself. Which prompted Stone to bend over in laughter. 8 p.m., Sun. Kimberly AkimboThrough Jan. 2 at the Linda Gross Theater, Manhattan; atlantictheater.org. Wed.-Sat. Victoria Clark is one of our great singing actors. (He loves puzzles and word games; the shows title is a partial anagram.) 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. The show tells the story of a lonely teenage girl, Kimberly Levaco, who suffers from a condition similar to progeria that causes her to age rapidly, thereby giving her the appearance of an elderly woman, and how, according to . It causes children to age rapidly, starting in their first two years of life. Thats because the girl, Kimberly Levaco, born with a genetic aging disorder akin to progeria, appears to be in her 60s even though shes just turning 16. She meets another misfit (a teenage boy) and the two form an attachment to one another that borders on attraction, but their situation is not helped by Kimberly's rapidly deteriorating health. She aoe a her watch, She wer hooded park aud too. The production starred Rosemary Prinz as Kimberly. Thank you, Stone said, as Tesori returned to her seat in the basement lounge of the Broadway theater. What's akimbo? Clark, better known for playing grandiose characters who arent teenagers in plaid shirts, radiates compassion in the part. Prepare to Fall in Love! Purchase tickets online 24 hours a day or by phone 1-800-515-2171. . He was previously the editor of Stages Magazine, the chief theater critic for the Christian Science Monitor, and a theater critic and culture writer for the New York Post. Seth is plenty familiar with premature adulthood syndrome: His widowed father barely notices him, leaving him to figure out how to be a good kid (as one of his songs is titled) on his own. So the two of them give each other really beautiful gifts. The Tony Awards Administration Committee met for the first time during the 2022-2023 Broadway season on January 31 to discuss eligibility of 20 productions for the 76th Annual Tony Awards in 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. [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. A old woman sit sie 'ring. It's still funny. The most recent musical to run at the theatre was the Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal, which opened in 2009; the improv hip-hop show freestyle love supreme also played there in 2021. And these characters, they reminded me of people I grew up with, they reminded me of people in my family and not always people who are center stage, especially in a musical. The cast also included John Gallagher, Jr. and Ana Gasteyer. Or do you remember when Cinnamon died, and we still kept going to put the table scraps into his dog bowl? Regular price $35.00. TESORI Thats what makes you a storyteller. (New York, NY, February 25, 2022) - The critically-lauded and wildly popular new musical, Kimberly Akimbo, will transfer to Broadway this fall, beginning previews on October 12th and officially opening on November 10th at a Shubert Theater to be announced. Most of the numbers are choreographed by Danny Mefford with quirky unison gestures that make frequent use of the bopping students. General Manager: 321 Theatrical Management; Company Manager: Tyler Siems; Associate Gen. Mgr: Rachel Kaufman; Assistant Co. Mgr: Anna Wheeler Production Manager: Juniper Street Productions; Production Stage Manager: Arabella Powell; Stage Manager: Mario-Mars Wolfe; Assistant Stage Mgr: Kate Wellhofer . Don't miss a beat. Running time: two hours and 30 mins. Youll have to keep reminding yourself that Im not here anymore. Debra: Kims aunt, a street-smart schemer who is always on the lookout for another illicit scheme and pawns to use to her advantage. Critics have called it "The Best Musical of the Year - by far" (The Wall Street Journal); "Profoundly funny and heartbreaking; the season's most moving new musical" (The New York Times); and "A howlingly funny heartbreaker of a show" (The New Yorker). Cooley, by the way, is a gifted comedic actor who nails every punchline. Kookiest of all is Kimberlys aunt Debra (Bonnie Milligan), a bulldozer who has just gotten out of prison, spends 10 days squatting in the school library and later steals a blue US mailbox. 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. Monologue from "Kimberly Akimbo" 978 views May 31, 2011 2 Dislike Share thechocolatechipcookie 19 subscribers Comments Add a comment. Which is not to say she or it is a downer. Kimberlys schoolyard love interest Seth (Justin Cooley) speaks fluent Elvish from J.R.R. And dont let its pure enjoyability mislead you into thinking its not a tragicomedy. 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. 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