And now, with the addition of songs (music by Jeanine Tesori; lyrics by Lindsay-Abaire) that turn the carpe diem dial to maximum, the director Jessica Stone has turned up the hilarity dial as well, to keep all that emotion in balance. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Scene 4 Cleverly Akimbo. The musical . 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. Kimberly Akimbo is a 2021 musical with music by Jeanine Tesori, and lyrics and book by David Lindsay-Abaire.It is based on Lindsay-Abaire's 2001 comedy of the same name.. The cute new musical Kimberly Akimbo, which opened Thursday night on Broadway, piles on weirdness with a dump truck. "I was bowled over by the singular theatricality of David Lindsay-Abaire's KIMBERLY AKIMBO. Victoria Clark and Justin Cooley in 'Kimberly Akimbo.' (Photo: Ahron R. Foster) "Kimberly Akimbo" will transfer to Broadway this fall. 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. Victoria Clark stars in a playful yet powerful musical about a girl who is aging too fast among adults who behave like children. TESORI Thats what makes you a storyteller. But among many smart adjustments made to the show for Broadway, the four schoolmates (Olivia Elease Hardy, Fernell Hogan, Michael Iskander, Nina White) have been incorporated more clearly and fully as a kind of Geek Chorus. Her mother, Pattie (Alli Mauzey), is ludicrously hypochondriacal, as if atoning for the chromosomal accident that produced her quick-aging child. 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. Kimberly the musical and the character have a strong underdog appeal and a warmth that keeps the audience firmly on its side. Meet the artists HERE. Kimberly: An outcast 16-year-old grappling with an aging disease that makes her look like shes in her 70s. Pattie is convinced shes going to die soon, and is here breaking the news to her sister, Debra. Quick View. Kimberly Akimbo opened December 8, 2021 at the Linda Gross Theater and runs through December 26. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Seize the day! We were just so used to it? You get so used to someone being there, it takes your body a long time to adjust. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. Her father, Buddy, drinks to distraction, while her pregnant mother, Pattie, imagines shes got every medical malady in the book. Almost yours: 2 weeks, on. Suddenly theyre gone forever. Buddy: Kims dad, whose drinking undermines his well-meaning efforts to do his best for his daughter. 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. The Booth Theatre opened in 1913 and was named for Edwin Booth, the notorious brother of John Wilkes Booth. One day hes bringing me cabbages from his garden, the next day he drops dead. "Kimberly Akimbo" is directed by SMCT regular cast member Lynda Mondragon. Its just animal instinct taking over., She went on to note: Shes also a charismatic person that you want to be around. 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. 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. Lindsay-Abaires lyrics are frequently very funny, if too often resorting to a broadness that sacrifices pathos for cheap laughs. Kim is a bright and funny Jersey teen, who happens to look like a 72-year-old lady. "Theater to See in L.A. It is like dumping a bunch of puzzle pieces onto the table, he said. Kimberly Akimbo Unisex Point of View Hoodie. Her overprotective father neednt worry about her getting pregnant, she reminds him, because she went through menopause four years ago. David Lindsay-Abaire, Jeanine Tesori and Jessica Stone on the Kimberly Akimbo set.CreditVictor Llorente for The New York Times. 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. He connects with Kim on a school science project and, eventually, they grow close on a more personal level. Pattie: Kims mom, a pregnant hypochondriac who tends to overlook her daughter. 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. Book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, based on his play. Youll have to keep reminding yourself that Im not here anymore. Lindsay-Abaire is an award-winning writer whose work includes plays and musicals and subject matters both serious and comic. Tesori is a composer who won a 2015 Tony Award for the musical Fun Home, a family drama based on Alison Bechdel's memoir. Kimberly is played by Lindsay-Abaire's unlikely but adorable muse, Marylouise Burke, 62, whose face does indeed look surprisingly girlish, despite the natural signs of age, when placed underneath. He starts to sort of mimic that work ethic and he starts to explore and basically copy that approach. 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. Clark, in her 60s, and the . 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). Most of the numbers are choreographed by Danny Mefford with quirky unison gestures that make frequent use of the bopping students. 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. 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. Its exhilarating.. Doesnt that say everything?. Later on, Kimberly calls Seth and agrees to meet at the library later for the interview, as he is learning about progeria. Nobody. And what intelligent acting it is, drawing on everything she knows. 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. Kimberly's last name isn't really "akimbo." But her stance is increasingly headed that way. Kimberly Akimbo is a coming of age story with a bittersweet twist. Jessica, how did you direct Victoria Clark, who is 63, and Justin Cooley, who plays her boyfriend, Seth, whos now 19? 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. Because Im a fixture in your life. At the time, an audition seemed out of the question, given that shed returned to her native Ohio to tend to her father Bill, who had recently been diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer. ", Author of The Whale and A Case for the Existence of God plants his Idaho roots in this 2010 play set in a Hobby Lobby break room, Bill Irwin and John Douglas Thompson headline Irish Reps revival of the 1957 tragicomedy, David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori transform a quirky black comedy into a tuneful affirmation of life and difference, The philosophically loquacious playwright switches gears with a gripping personal chronicle, Henry VIIIs wives get the royal treatment in this 80-minute musical celebration of girl power. 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 she's 72 because of a rare condition that's accelerated her aging. It's a bit of youthful happiness unlike any other." Associated Press. Regular price $35.00. 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. The initial premise is less Act 1 of Dear Evan Hanson and more Season 5 of Greys Anatomy.. I watch him being elevated by the discipline and skill, and her surgical approach to figuring out Kim and mapping out Kims world and behavior. 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. At a reading of the play in connection with the 2001 Kesselring Award ceremonies, Edie Falco, John Bedford Loyd and Jan Leslie Harding proved excellent collaborators for Burke and Gallagher. 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. The focus and intimacy of that partnership, he said, made the musical the easiest thing Ive ever written., He compares writing a musical to working on a puzzle. Atlantic Theater Company at the Linda Gross Theater, 336 W. 20 St., NYC. But at the same time, at the end of the Atlantic run, a grumpy old man was walking up the aisle and he looked at me and I thought hes going to criticize the piece. Prepare to Fall in Love! . Purchase tickets online 24 hours a day or by phone 1-800-515-2171. 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. Regular price $35.00. (He loves puzzles and word games; the shows title is a partial anagram.) The playwright David Lindsay-Abaire was trying to talk about his collaboration with the composer Jeanine Tesori and the director Jessica Stone on their musical, Kimberly Akimbo, and in the background, the janitorial staff members of the Booth Theater were cleaning the bathrooms. Now Kimberly Akimbo is in previews, and scheduled to open on Nov. 10. Whats apparent in Kimberly Akimbo is that she can also write inerrantly for any kind of show. Buddy says no way is anybody going to do that to his little girl, but Kimberly likes the attention she sure doesn't get much at . Do you imagine this as the kind of show that parents can take their teens to? She aoe a her watch, She wer hooded park aud too. Buy Kimberly Akimbo Tickets & View the Schedule at Box Office Ticket Sales! She knows whats happening in Kims life. This Week, Including a Solo Show About Polka. Was creating the musical a way to create more interiority for her? 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 we all have been close observers to adolescents. 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. CUSTOMER SERVICE. Wed.-Sat. And if Milligan has her way, an onscreen romance could very well be in her future, along with other film, television and theater projects. 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. Soon, Kimberly's family gets mixed up in some crazy money schemes, and the family is emotionally destroyed. 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. Leaving the ironies to us, she refuses to condescend to the character. LINDSAY-ABAIRE Its a teaching song. 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. Good luck with that. Kimberly is a bright New Jersey teen with a great many problems, primary of which is that she has an aging disease like progeria in which she ages four to five times as fast as everyone else. Healthy enough to write, damaged enough to want to write. Its just messed up enough. We were talking about The Rain in Spain [from My Fair Lady], but its about check washing. Thank you Nicolosi! Her aunt Debra is a serial scammer who pulls Kim and her classmates into her schemes. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Rabbit Hole, a drama about a grief-stricken family that opened on Broadway in 2006. Unlike most new musicals based on previous material, the title. The mounting insanity almost becomes too much. Schedule varies. Im older than these two. 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. So naturally Kimberly Akimbo is a musical comedy. STONE Were all parents. At New York's Atlantic Theater Company through January 15. The Jessica Stone-helmed production began Off-Broadway November 6. November 10, 2022 at 10:00 p.m. EST. Far from it: Though an underground river of sorrow gives Kimberly Akimbo its keenness, the surface is shiny comedy. What's the matter? 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? Its sad, but you need to be prepared. His complete honesty, tabula rasa, complete truthful, youthful, wide-eyed innocence and sweetness its really hard to create that once youve lived, you know, 35 more years. (Possibly this one: sublime cast = best musical.) Kimberly Akimbo has become one of the top acts in the 2023 Musical world, delighting fans with a one-of-a-kind show. TESORI I feel it in my body when something sings, I cant put it into words. 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 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. 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. The theatre is located at 222 W 45nd St. between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. (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. She didnt have anybody looking out for her, so she looks out for herself, and thats how she talks herself into not feeling bad about scamming people because, well, who looked out for her? Rather, its between a tuba-playing, Elvish-speaking high school ber-nerd and a girl who looks like his grandmother. I often missed the grounded power of the writers excellent play, Good People.. As experienced artists, how do you keep that youthful tone intact? 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