On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [4] The production received the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Writing in 2001. Winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Playwright, David Lindsay-Abaire's Kimberly-Akimbo focuses, with uncanny depth and quirky wit, on a sixteen-year-old girl suffering from a disease that causes her body to age nearly five times faster than it should. As portrayed by Milligan, however, the scene-stealing character becomes the kind of brassy antihero Bette Midler might have played in her prime. And he said, I just want you to know that Im going to go out and live life more fully tomorrow. My eyes welled up and then he was gone into the night. Her overprotective father neednt worry about her getting pregnant, she reminds him, because she went through menopause four years ago. Choreographed by Danny Mefford. And in the basement, Aunt Debra (Bonnie Milligan), a grifter with big attitude and little conscience, is concocting a check-forging scheme. Far from it: Though an underground river of sorrow gives Kimberly Akimbo its keenness, the surface is shiny comedy. Kimberly Akimbo is a play written in 2000 by David Lindsay-Abaire. ", 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. . Running time: two hours and 30 mins. 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. But these are really minor complaints about a show that gets so many major things so right. Discover a full timeline of the show's history below. Here's how. Forced to maneuver family secrets, borderline. Yes, Polka", "How a Teen Copes in a World Thrown 'Akimbo', "Lindsay-Abaire Awarded 2001 Kesselring Prize Nov. 18 w/, "Acclaimed Musical 'Kimberly Akimbo' Announces Broadway Venue", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kimberly_Akimbo&oldid=1141059158, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Kimberly, a teenage girl with an aging disease who struggles to find happiness in a chaotic family where nobody understands her, Buddy, her father, an alcoholic (becomes sober midway through the show) who only wants what's best for Kim, Seth, a nerdy boy who is basically Kimberly's love interest, who is neglected by his father at home, Pattie, Kimberly's mother who thinks she is dying and is pregnant with her second child, Debra, Pattie's sister who causes the family some problems and lives with them on and off, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 04:02. 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. Purchase tickets online 24 hours a day or by phone 1-800-515-2171. But they really responded to that deep friendship. And so I wanted to write an amazing part for a great actor. 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. 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? Im older than these two. At 16, she looks 72. We are gone (but lets hope the show isnt) before we know it. As experienced artists, how do you keep that youthful tone intact? Nothing should stop the How of the play KIMBERLY AKIMBO ACT ONE Scene 1 A bs of eld wind, unde of winter wind hurling, maybe Lights come upon a bench ouside. [My sons] think its hilarious. A little off. Suddenly theyre gone forever. They were really intrigued by the relationship between Kim and Seth, not because its a traditional love story. He starts to sort of mimic that work ethic and he starts to explore and basically copy that approach. But I also wanted to explore mortality and what it means to truly live in the moment. Kimberly Akimbo Unisex Distressed Logo Tee. And Vivid Seats will help get you there. It's good enough, in fact, that you wish it had been just a little bit better. In any case, its the plot. Steven Boyer, right, with Clark and Cooley. It is like dumping a bunch of puzzle pieces onto the table, he said. I feel like I need to do at least one Hallmark Christmas movie in my life, she quipped. Jessica, how did you direct Victoria Clark, who is 63, and Justin Cooley, who plays her boyfriend, Seth, whos now 19? Victoria Clark. 44 views 19K views 6 years ago Liza Minnelli, the one. Kimberly Akimbo 634 subscribers Subscribe 626 47K views 3 months ago All we wanna do is make your life "Better", so we made a music video! 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. Jeanine, how did you write a catchy song about white collar crime? If you continue to use the site, your agreement will result in cookies being set. 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. It is on theme, Lindsay-Abaire said. And yet her aging disease may be the least of her problems. Nor is her father (Steven Boyer) any more capable; when he finally gives her a present she actually wants passes to Great Adventure theyre expired. And seldom does that happen with a musical.. Bonnie Milligan, center, as Kimberlys scheming aunt, with, from left: Olivia Elease Hardy (foreground), Michael Iskander, Clark, Cooley and Nina White. . It's.bent. Her mother, Pattie (Alli Mauzey), is ludicrously hypochondriacal, as if atoning for the chromosomal accident that produced her quick-aging child. and her teenaged daughter, Kimberly, who has a disease that causes premature aging. Delia, Martin, Aaron, and Teresa: Kims fellow students, who get drawn into Debras moneymaking grift. I had to hope and pray that it would come back, she recalled, because something about this material felt like it was mine.. (The bookworm. Before you step back into the '90s with Kimberly and the gang, learn more about the show's cast, history, and production information. He is currently a New York correspondent and arts writer for The Hollywood Reporter. 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. It's still funny. The performance is a pleasant blend of optimistic and worldly. Mom is pregnant, films loony confessional videos for her unborn child and prattles on about her unfulfilled dreams of becoming a Solid Gold dancer. What is surprising is that Kimberly Akimbo, based on the 2000 play of the same name by David Lindsay-Abaire, manages a similar feat. 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.. 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 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. 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 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. A high-school student, Kimberly, crushes on the tuba-playing, Elvish-speaking Seth, and the two nerdy adolescents express their affection by making word scrambles. 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. Before that, she honed her craft in off-Broadway shows like Ryan Scott Oliver and Hunter Fosters Jasper in Deadland, as well as on the concert stage, where shes affectionately known to fans as Belting Bonnie.. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. (To Kimberly.) Which is not to say she or it is a downer. As its star demands, too. . Kimberly writes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation sweetly asking for a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz and a chartered yacht vacation for 50 friends who dont exist, when all she really wants is for her deadbeat parents to make dinner for once and be nice to her. 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). They love Debra [Kimberlys aunt, played by Bonnie Milligan], because they love a rule breaker. 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. Two hours and 30 minutes at the Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th Street. 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. 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]. By Charles Isherwood. And dont let its pure enjoyability mislead you into thinking its not a tragicomedy. The seasons most moving new musical earns its place among the behemoths of Broadway. Look at Mr. Hicks. Victoria Clark plays a teenager afflicted with an illness that makes her grow old prematurely in the new musical by David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori. He connects with Kim on a school science project and, eventually, they grow close on a more personal level. She brings Kimberly to life so believably and gorgeously. One thing Aunt Debra in Kimberly Akimbo shares with Milligans characters in Head Over Heels and other shows is an unapologetic sense of self. Rather, its between a tuba-playing, Elvish-speaking high school ber-nerd and a girl who looks like his grandmother. . Buddy: Kims dad, whose drinking undermines his well-meaning efforts to do his best for his daughter. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . 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