Thank you Nicolosi! Leaving the ironies to us, she refuses to condescend to the character. As beautifully played by newcomer Justin Cooley (a 2021 Jimmy Awards finalist from Kansas City, here making his NYC theatrical debut), the tuba-playing, anagram-obsessed Seth brings some much-needed warmth and humor to the sometimes overcaffeinated proceedings. And yet her aging condition may be the. Pattie: Kims mom, a pregnant hypochondriac who tends to overlook her daughter. Olivia Elease Hardy, Fernell Hogan II, Nina White and Michael Iskander amusingly portray Kimberlys fellow high school students. The Kimberly Akimbo characters include various people in 1999 New Jersey. So naturally Kimberly Akimbo is a musical comedy. We were just so used to it? Smallish, thoughtful, more narrowcast new musicals lets call them nerdicals are rarer: one per season, if were lucky. As experienced artists, how do you keep that youthful tone intact? [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. How odd and enlightening that, now 17 years older, Clark is playing a version of that child herself. 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. Victoria Clark as Kimberly in Broadway's "Kimberly Akimbo." (Joan Marcus) Article. STONE My kids, 13 and 15, were here, and they loved it. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. 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. Recognizing that trait in each other, Seth and Kimberly bond over their parallel irregularities: his obsession with anagrams and her genetically scrambled codons. 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. Soon, Kimberly's family gets mixed up in some crazy money schemes, and the family is emotionally destroyed. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. www.ovationtix.com. Jessica, how did you direct Victoria Clark, who is 63, and Justin Cooley, who plays her boyfriend, Seth, whos now 19? This musical adaptation of the same-named David Lindsay-Abaire play, with music by Jeanine Tesori, premiered off Broadway in 2021 and has made the move to Broadway. Lindsay-Abaires lyrics are frequently very funny, if too often resorting to a broadness that sacrifices pathos for cheap laughs. Speaking of teenagers, theres a duality to the show. (The finale of Kimberly Akimbo, a ukulele tune inevitably called Great Adventure, is a killer, so jaunty you cry.) I had to hope and pray that it would come back, she recalled, because something about this material felt like it was mine.. Intermissions are usually either 15 or 20 minutes long. This is done without undue violence to the ingenious original premise, which makes comedy, as we all must, of tragedy. Katrina Lenk as Bobbie and Claybourne Elder as Andy in Company. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes. But I feel messed up just enough to be the writer and be the person that I am. It's good enough, in fact, that you wish it had been just a little bit better. The craziness doesnt stop in the classroom. Cooley, by the way, is a gifted comedic actor who nails every punchline. In the funny and moving new musical Kimberly Akimbo, which opened on Wednesday in an Atlantic Theater Company production at the Linda Gross Theater, Victoria Clark brings her to life so believably and gorgeously that you find yourself rooting for a kiss you might otherwise find creepy. Victoria Clark. 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. Kim is a bright and funny Jersey teen, who happens to look like a 72-year-old lady, and yet, her aging disease may be the least of her problems. [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. Her best song the shows best, actually is Anagram in which she starts to fall for Seth as he rearranges the letters of her name into a new phrase. She knows whats happening in Kims life. Monologue from "Kimberly Akimbo" 978 views May 31, 2011 2 Dislike Share thechocolatechipcookie 19 subscribers Comments Add a comment. LINDSAY-ABAIRE The first time in, I was really accessing my teenage years and stuff about my parents and my family, but really homing in on the Seth character who is very close to me in very many ways. Bonnie Milligan, a beloved fixture of New Yorks cabaret circuit for years, is finally getting a chance to establish herself as a full-on theatrical powerhouse by way of Broadways Kimberly Akimbo, this seasons most unconventional new musical. That Tesori can write any kind of music is old news. All the jokes work that way. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Scene 4 Cleverly Akimbo. Thanks for contacting us. By turns, it can be profoundly funny or deeply moving. 2023 Tony Awards eligibility rulings (round 1): 'Kimberly Akimbo,' 'Into the Woods,' '1776' and a change in voting procedure by Sam Eckmann. Project description: "This funny and heartwarming play is about a teenager with a rare condition that causes her body to age faster than it should." Roles Collapse All Roles Actors & Performers. Its not about a disease at all, unless its the one we all have: We grow up too slowly and then suddenly too fast. These are edited excerpts from the discussion. 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). It opens with a woman waiting on a bench, shivering from cold. Tesori stood up, muttering, I have to close that door myself. Which prompted Stone to bend over in laughter. 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. So remote is she from the bellowing divadom of those tourist-bait extravaganzas that Im tempted to call what she does not singing at all, but acting on pitch. Though acute in its emotional detail, Jessica Stones staging, on a vague set by David Zinn and with choreography by Danny Mefford, is physically underpowered. Anyone can read what you share. 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. Frank Scheck has been covering film, theater and music for more than 30 years. Kimberly AkimboThrough Jan. 2 at the Linda Gross Theater, Manhattan; atlantictheater.org. 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. Steven Boyer, right, with Clark and Cooley. 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. But Milligans road back to Broadway was marked with setbacks that could have discouraged a less tenacious artist. [8] It was critically acclaimed, and won Best Musical prizes at the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. Buddy, meanwhile, is a foolish drunk who leaves his daughter, biologically a senior citizen, sitting on a bench in the snow for three hours. So thats how I approached Debra. 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. Clark, in her 60s, and the . As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. "Kimberly Akimbo" is directed by SMCT regular cast member Lynda Mondragon. Cadence Theatre Company in partnership with Barksdale's Theatre Gym is pleased to present Kimberly Akimbo at Barksdale's Theatre Gym October 13-November 2, 2011.This hilarious black comedy will feature Richard Koch (Buddy), Matthew Mitchell (Jeff), Jill Bari Steinberg (Debra), Debra Wagoner (Pattie) and Irene Ziegler (Kimberly), and is directed by Anna Johnson. And of course I focused you cant help it on Clark. Quick View. Victoria Clark, who plays the lead . That may well be the fate of Kimberly Akimbo, the profoundly funny and heartbreaking new nerdical that opened on Thursday at the Booth Theater. David Lindsay-Abaire's "Kimberly Akimbo" plays like a pilot to a really good sitcom that . Bonnie Milligan, center, as Kimberlys scheming aunt, with, from left: Olivia Elease Hardy (foreground), Michael Iskander, Clark, Cooley and Nina White. Let us be thriving, let us be attractive, let us be fully formed people because we are in the world.. 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. Here are all the major productions of the Kimberly Akimbo play and musical. To my family and dearest loved ones, this is for you from the bottom of my heart! Adolescent years are always a challenge, and that goes double, actually quadruple, for 16-year-old Kimberly in the hit musical Kimberly Akimbo. Most of the numbers are choreographed by Danny Mefford with quirky unison gestures that make frequent use of the bopping students. The play didnt have monologues for Kimberly, but it did have monologues for her parents. 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