In the opening moment of Kimberly Akimbo, a misfit New Jersey teenager waiting for a ride home stretches her candy choker into her mouth and chomps down on it. Hovering midway between parody and homage, this modernist rendering of a justifiable classic proves neither illuminating nor much fun. I dont need to be famous, but I just love to work. You can win free tickets from Vivid Seats. (As the producer of musicals like Next to Normal and If/Then, Stone is no stranger to an out-of-the-box concept.) 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 . This is a life that's being. 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.. 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. 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. And dont let its pure enjoyability mislead you into thinking its not a tragicomedy. 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 . You know, when your hands are on your hips, then your arms are akimbo. Her aunt Debra is a serial scammer who pulls Kim and her classmates into her schemes. Nor, though Stones work with the actors was exceptional, did the physical production (scenic design by David Zinn, lighting design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew) impress me much. [8] It was critically acclaimed, and won Best Musical prizes at the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. Father Buddy (Steven Boyer) struggles to control his drink and his temper; moony mother Pattie . She lives in New Jersey with her dad (who's always drunk), her pregnant mom . What is surprising is that Kimberly Akimbo, based on the 2000 play of the same name by David Lindsay-Abaire, manages a similar feat. The Kimberly Akimbo musical features a book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, who adapted his 2001 play of the same name. And in the basement, Aunt Debra (Bonnie Milligan), a grifter with big attitude and little conscience, is concocting a check-forging scheme. It began previews on Broadway on October 12, 2022 and opened on November 10 at the Booth Theatre.[9]. Im gonna die, Kim. I'm sorry I forgot, honey. 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. And of course I focused you cant help it on Clark. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. He starts to sort of mimic that work ethic and he starts to explore and basically copy that approach. 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. 2023 Tony Awards eligibility rulings (round 1): 'Kimberly Akimbo,' 'Into the Woods,' '1776' and a change in voting procedure by Sam Eckmann. I do see a shift. And I also got the chance to put all of my high school friends up onstage. The whole dynamics between parents and teenagers that I was sort of making up 20 years ago, now I know it deeply and personally. Nobody. 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. We were just so used to it? Cooley, by the way, is a gifted comedic actor who nails every punchline. Something different has happened to David Lindsay-Abaire's play "Kimberly Akimbo" on its way to becoming a new musical, which opened Wednesday at the Atlantic Theater Company. 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. "Kimberly Akimbo," presented by Moxie Theatre at the Lyceum Space, Horton Plaza, 79 Broadway Circle, San Diego. The hodgepodge of elements is a lot for director Jessica Stone to fuse together, but she succeeds by latching onto a show-choir vibe. (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. Pattie is convinced shes going to die soon, and is here breaking the news to her sister, Debra. Clever, touching and idiosyncratic, Kimberly Akimbo is the best new musical of 2021, and Jessica Stone's well-cast world-premiere production at the Atlantic does it justice. By Charles Isherwood. 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. Performances will now run on extension through January 15, 2022, instead of the previously announced January 2. The play didnt have monologues for Kimberly, but it did have monologues for her parents. Now Kimberly Akimbo is in previews, and scheduled to open on Nov. 10. The dark absurdist . The production starred Rosemary Prinz as Kimberly. But Kimberly finds a friend in a nerdy fellow sophomore student who loves word games, especially anagrams, and has a unique way of looking at life and at her. Most of the numbers are choreographed by Danny Mefford with quirky unison gestures that make frequent use of the bopping students. All I ever wanted to be in life was the star of that show. 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. Buddy strongly refuses and drives away. Victoria Clark as Kimberly in Broadway's "Kimberly Akimbo." (Joan Marcus) Article. 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. The oldest and first dedicated online New York Theater Guide Read news on over 150 Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. (My Blacker Olive!) Even the parents are given chances to redeem themselves in song. I think Kimberly Akimbo could be a musical. I kept forgetting she was dead. The musical . (Kimberly continues to clear the table.) Kimberly Akimbo is at the Booth Theatre. Quick View. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. I often missed the grounded power of the writers excellent play, Good People.. Here are the major awards the Kimberly Akimbo musical and play have won. It's good enough, in fact, that you wish it had been just a little bit better. Debbie-downer Pattie injured both her hands while filling desserts at the Sunshine Cupcake Factory and wears two sight-gag casts. Kimberly Akimbo Unisex Point of View Hoodie. 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. It will be one of the hottest tickets in town. The mounting insanity almost becomes too much. 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. David, what were the instincts that led you to write Kimberly Akimbo 20 years ago? . Set in the wilds of suburban New Jersey, Kimberly Akimbo is a hilarious and heartrending play about a teenager with a rare condition causing her body to age faster than it should. KIMBERLY AKIMBO is at once a shrewd satire, a black comedy and a heartbreaking study of how time wounds everyone." NY Times. Please try again. Kimberly Akimbo tickets are available now. 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. 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 more. Good People, about a blue-collar single mother in South Boston, premiered on Broadway in 2011. Corey Regensburg, a recent graduate of the University of the Arts . (For further proof, see Caroline, or Change, now on Broadway.) Here's how. And if Milligan has her way, an onscreen romance could very well be in her future, along with other film, television and theater projects. (In a neat parent-child reversal, Kimberly must feed her.) Getting older is my affliction. Delia, Martin, Aaron, and Teresa: Kims fellow students, who get drawn into Debras moneymaking grift. Our tickets are 100% verified, delivered fast, and all purchases are secure. To my family and dearest loved ones, this is for you from the bottom of my heart! . [6], Kimberly Akimbo ran from January 21, 2005 through March 6, 2005 at TheaterWorks in Hartford, Connecticut, directed by Rob Ruggiero. So the two of them give each other really beautiful gifts. Kimberly Akimbo is a play written in 2000 by David Lindsay-Abaire. One thing Aunt Debra in Kimberly Akimbo shares with Milligans characters in Head Over Heels and other shows is an unapologetic sense of self. When she and her family flee Secaucus under dubious circumstances, Kimberly is forced to reevaluate her . To these five characters, all in the play, the musical adds four others, high school classmates of Kimberly and Seth who in the Atlantic production sometimes seemed to be borrowed from Glee. They are so desperate to finance their show choir costumes that they agree to be Debras accomplices. I did my grandmother's and she got Arabian Beard., I'm fine., Where have you been? Healthy enough to write, damaged enough to want to write. So naturally Kimberly Akimbo is a musical comedy. Kimberly Akimbo. 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. DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE I was writing what I hoped would be a great part for an actress that I loved and adored: Marylouise Burke [who starred in the play Off Broadway in 2001]. Because Im so invested in the parent side of the story, and in the mortality side of the story, and in the how-do-you-choose-to-live-your-remaining-days-on-this-planet side of the story, I forget about the delight, the tremendous luxury of hope and time, that teens have. 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. Knowing she will not live much. To see an old hand like Clark make sparks with a newcomer like Cooley is to feel how quickly the world spins forward. Anyways, he gets so desperate he snorts some of the bath salts in the bathroom. Stu is a cocaine addict at the party, and he replaced the face powder in the bathroom with cocaine during the party, however, someone else uses it, causing some hilarity. It is like dumping a bunch of puzzle pieces onto the table, he said. I love stories that weave together pain, and hilarity and absurdity. So thats how I approached Debra. Kimberly Akimbo is the rare example of a good play that has become an even better musical. February 25, 2022. It's.bent. What's akimbo? She knows whats happening in Kims life. The actor, singer and and body diversity advocate is giving a star-making performance in "Kimberly Akimbo," an unconventional new musical. [3] Lindsay-Abaire received the Kesselring Prize in November 2001 for this production. . Was creating the musical a way to create more interiority for her? Which is not to say she or it is a downer. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . Music by Jeanine Tesori. 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