[Tesori pats Lindsay-Abaires arm, remarking, Wow.] I dont feel messed up by them. Victoria Clark stars in a playful yet powerful musical about a girl who is aging too fast among adults who behave like children. Kimberly Akimbo. We share the same sensibility of humor. Full cast album coming soon! Good Kid is in fact the name of one of Seths numbers, which Cooley, in a flawless Broadway debut, delivers with charm that does not obscure their ruminative, perseverative nature. Victoria Clark as Kimberly in Broadway's "Kimberly Akimbo." (Joan Marcus) Article. 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. Buddy strongly refuses and drives away. And yet her aging disease may be the least of her problems. Smallish, thoughtful, more narrowcast new musicals lets call them nerdicals are rarer: one per season, if were lucky. We are gone (but lets hope the show isnt) before we know it. Meet the artists HERE. David Lindsay-Abaire, Jeanine Tesori and Jessica Stone on the Kimberly Akimbo set.CreditVictor Llorente for The New York Times. It warms up the zaniness of the original without overshooting and making it normal. Instead of cowering as if embarrassed by the dimension music can bring to drama, it embraces the ability of song, even in tragicomedy, to extend emotion into bigger realms. Olivia Elease Hardy, Fernell Hogan II, Nina White and Michael Iskander amusingly portray Kimberlys fellow high school students. Schedule varies. Victoria Clark and Justin Cooley in 'Kimberly Akimbo.' (Photo: Ahron R. Foster) "Kimberly Akimbo" will transfer to Broadway this fall. Through it all, even though people with her condition have an average life expectancy of 16 years, Kimberly learns to be young and unafraid after years of taking on adult responsibilities. 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. And that, to me, is David and Jeanine, and their work and their sensibility, said Stone, 52, who has been attached to the musical since 2019. Seize the day! She has ie shat, tied atthe lace slag over her 'holder. TESORI [laughs] Its exposition, which is generally not great for a song. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. So at almost 16 (her birthday is coming up) she looks like a lady in her early 70's. They love Debra [Kimberlys aunt, played by Bonnie Milligan], because they love a rule breaker. and more. Her aunt Debra is a serial scammer who pulls Kim and her classmates into her schemes. 44 views 19K views 6 years ago Liza Minnelli, the one. I understand much more acutely the fear of losing a child. 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. Kim wants to act like a regular teenager and for her parents to behave like responsible adults. Sarah Ruhls newest work proves a deeply moving meditation on life and the afterlife, Sarah Ruth's epistolary homage to late poet Max Ritvo, Kate Whoriskey directs, Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan star in Anne Kauffman's revival of this long-neglected work by the author of "A Raisin in the Sun. Forced to maneuver family secrets, borderline. What's akimbo? Buddy: Kims dad, whose drinking undermines his well-meaning efforts to do his best for his daughter. First theres the main character, Kimberly (Victoria Clark), who is 16 but suffers from a rare unnamed condition that makes her age at an accelerated rate. Photo credit: Kimberly Akimbo (Photos by Joan Marcus). (To Kimberly.) Whats apparent in Kimberly Akimbo is that she can also write inerrantly for any kind of show. He starts to sort of mimic that work ethic and he starts to explore and basically copy that approach. This light but mildly provocative comedy has interesting three-dimensional characters and witty dialogue. So paired with Tesoris peppy, jingle-like, adequate score is a heap of sadness. As portrayed by Milligan, however, the scene-stealing character becomes the kind of brassy antihero Bette Midler might have played in her prime. Jeanine Tesori composed the music for the Kimberly Akimbo musical. KIMBERLY AKIMBO Two hours and 30 minutes at the Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th Street. Quick View. It opens with a woman waiting on a bench, shivering from cold. Speaking of teenagers, theres a duality to the show. No matter how much life wants to sideline them, they insist on having the spotlight, and even the sequins. Debra: Kims aunt, a street-smart schemer who is always on the lookout for another illicit scheme and pawns to use to her advantage. Directed by David Petrarca, the cast starred Marylouise Burke as Kimberly. Kimberly Akimbo runs through October 20. Review: Kimberly Akimbo, Both Great and Small, Seizes the Day, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/theater/kimberly-akimbo-review.html. I look at some of my idols: Carol Burnett, Debra Monk, Donna Murphy. She steers the second act into a Catch Me If You Can if that movie was set at a Hackensack Dunkin Donuts. [8] It was critically acclaimed, and won Best Musical prizes at the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. One day hes bringing me cabbages from his garden, the next day he drops dead. . 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. And theyre not. 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. But I also wanted to explore mortality and what it means to truly live in the moment. Its not about a disease at all, unless its the one we all have: We grow up too slowly and then suddenly too fast. Here's how. Copyright [2023] Mighty Actor, DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES FOR TEENS/KIDS (BOYS), DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES FOR TEENS/KIDS (GIRLS). The theatre is located at 222 W 45nd St. between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Its sad, but you need to be prepared. What I probably didnt know at the time was that I was also writing about my family in many ways, and things that I was afraid of and angry about. Its just animal instinct taking over., She went on to note: Shes also a charismatic person that you want to be around. (One number is called The Inevitable Turn.) Its sound world including ukulele tunes, surprise double-melodies and genial pastiche most resembles that of the stage musical Shrek, another collaboration with Lindsay-Abaire, but it takes its own inevitable turn, becoming richer and more yearning as the material demands. The toilets wouldnt stop flushing. Adapted by writer David Lindsay-Abaire and composer Jeanine Tesori from the 2001 play of the same name, "Kimberly Akimbo" follows a lonely 15-year-old named Kimberly Levaco (played by Victoria Clark) who has grown up with a premature aging condition similar to progeria, thus making her appear to be well into her 70s. LINDSAY-ABAIRE Nothing has made me happier than seeing gaggles of teenagers really love the show. 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. And if Milligan has her way, an onscreen romance could very well be in her future, along with other film, television and theater projects. You get so used to someone being there, it takes your body a long time to adjust. Kimberly Levaco becomes. If they rarely last as long as, say, Six or Moulin Rouge seem likely to, these shows prove their immense value in the time theyve got. And that enables so much in terms of imagination and promise. Tickets and information: atlantictheater.org Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes. But the musical also has charm to spare, thanks largely to Victoria Clarks affecting performance in the title role and the touching central relationship at the storys core. How They Assembled the Kimberly Akimbo Puzzle, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/theater/kimberly-akimbo-broadway.html. 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. And dont let its pure enjoyability mislead you into thinking its not a tragicomedy. I think Kimberly Akimbo could be a musical. Thats how its gonna be when Im gone. Prepare to Fall in Love! 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. Its about youthfulness, but its also about mortality. Its hard when you say, Hey, 20 people, come on in and lets do this puzzle together. But if its just the two of you I have this corner; Im working on the edges; lets get to the middle then it comes into focus. The craziness doesnt stop in the classroom. 2 p.m. Dec. 3-24. Born with a fatal aging disorder akin to progeria, Kimberly Levaco (Victoria Clark) is a 15-year-old girl whose body resembles that of a woman well into her 70s. Ive written often about Tesoris chameleonic brilliance, the way in shows as distinctive as Fun Home, Caroline, or Change and Shrek she seems to have at her disposal an infinite thesaurus of musical styles so that each setting is as expressive as possible. (My Blacker Olive!) Even the parents are given chances to redeem themselves in song. That was already the case in the play by David Lindsay-Abaire on which it is based, a play that begins, as the musical does, with a visual joke: a grown-looking woman, outside a skating rink, dressed like a teenager and nibbling a candy necklace. February 25, 2022. In role after role particularly as an anxious mother in The Light in the Piazza, for which she won a Tony Award in 2005 she makes music not an afterthought to character, but the thought itself. A little off. Copyright 2023 New York Stage Review All Rights Reserved. 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. Anyone can read what you share. Running time: two hours and 30 mins. This time around, good work is done . The joyous and quirky show, starring Victoria Clark, glides onto Broadway. Pattie: Kims mom, a pregnant hypochondriac who tends to overlook her daughter. What's an anagram for "hit musical"? I said to Jeanine, he said, trying to keep a straight face as another toilet flushed, I wish we could write a musical the way that I write a play, where theres not a team of other people involved.. Its far from a tragedy, though, thanks in part to the quirky characters: Kimberlys pregnant mother is a hypochondriac; her best friend, Seth, loves anagrams and plays the tuba; and her aunt is trying to persuade her to commit some white-collar crimes. Kimberly Akimbo Unisex Distressed Logo Tee. I think the cancers spread to my memory cells. Let us be thriving, let us be attractive, let us be fully formed people because we are in the world.. These are edited excerpts from the discussion. They were really intrigued by the relationship between Kim and Seth, not because its a traditional love story. 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. Nothing better., Isnt that enough? Tesori responded. 2021 Off-Broadway premiere (musical): The, 2022 Broadway premiere (musical): Clark and the entire Off-Broadway cast of the, Kimberly's last name isn't Akimbo; it's Levaco. That may well be the fate of Kimberly Akimbo, the profoundly funny and heartbreaking new nerdical that opened on Thursday at the Booth Theater. . The skill that Vicki brings to the process of exploration cant be created in Justin. Enter Kims Aunt Debra (Milligan), a street-smart grifter who, much like the Artful Dodger of Oliver Twist, recruits her niece into an illicit, moneymaking scheme that could help her and her classmates fulfill their dreams that is, if no one gets caught. The show works best when its at its simplest, such as the touching song Make a Wish, in which Kimberly tries to decide what exactly shell ask of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, or the character-defining ballads that Kimberlys parents sing to their unborn child. But what has become even richer since Kimberly Akimbo premiered at the Atlantic Theater Company last year is her profound and uncritical immersion in youthfulness. Im gonna die, Kim. 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