Kimberly Akimbo
Kimberly Akimbo
88

Kimberly Akimbo NYC Reviews and Tickets

88%
(286 Ratings)
Positive
97%
Mixed
3%
Negative
0%
Members say
Entertaining, Clever, Delightful, Funny, Great acting

New musical by Tony Award winner Jeanine Tesori & Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (286)

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68 Reviews | 4 Followers
100
Delightful, Funny, Great acting, Refreshing, Must see

See it if you want a feel good show with a masterclass performance from Victoria Clark.

Don't see it if I can't think of a single reason not to see this show. Read more

80 Reviews | 11 Followers
100
Great staging, Entertaining, Delightful

See it if you love the imaginative music of Jeanine Tesori. You want to smile and be reminded of what’s fun about theatre and life.

Don't see it if you don’t enjoy good, creative fun! Or stories about terminal illness or family disagreements worries you.

Gen
68 Reviews | 9 Followers
100
Profound, Great acting, Funny, Delightful, Clever

See it if you want to be delighted and surprised. Freshest new musical I've seen in years, and the balance of profundity and hilarity is flawless.

Don't see it if you struggle with suspension of disbelief; you need large-scale productions; you don't like your emotions and thoughts challenged.

57 Reviews | 4 Followers
100
Resonant, Delightful, Hilarious, Great singing, Great acting

See it if You enjoy highly original, perfectly cast, delightfully winning, unusual and touching musicals with unexpected themes.

Don't see it if You can't take occasional broad humor or stories in which the hearts involved (and possibly being broken) are teenaged

207 Reviews | 34 Followers
100
Great writing, Great singing, Great acting, Delightful, Absorbing

See it if just see it. It is masterful. The score is incredible. Vicki Clark is perfection.

Don't see it if DO see it! It's one of the best shows this year

205 Reviews | 66 Followers
100
Must see, Great singing, Entertaining

See it if You like small musicals in an intimate setting You like a moving story with great singing ❤️ Victoria Clark & Bonnie Mulligan

Don't see it if Only enjoy big Broadway musical

193 Reviews | 29 Followers
100
Profound, Intelligent, Funny, Delightful

See it if There is top tier talent in the book & music. And the actors are amazing. Vicki Clarke is heaven. The kids are wonderful

Don't see it if If you don't like to see serious family struggles done with humor. The illness of the teen could br difficult for some people

67 Reviews | 4 Followers
99
Masterful, Must see, Refreshing, Clever, Absorbing

See it if You want to see a fresh, wonderful musical with great songs, great story, great activity –– everything works perfectly! It's SO good.

Don't see it if You don't want yet another musical about high school.

Critic Reviews (15)

The New York Times
December 8th, 2021

"CRITIC’S PICK...And don’t let its pure enjoyability mislead you into thinking it’s not a tragicomedy. To see an old hand like Clark make sparks with a newcomer like Cooley is to feel how quickly the world spins forward. “No one gets a second time around,” they sing in the finale (though “Kimberly Akimbo” fortunately did). It may be an old-style “carpe diem” message — or a “mad recipe,” as Seth might have it — but in this case, leavened by exceptional craft, it makes a totally satisfying meal."
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Time Out New York
December 8th, 2021

"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. The dark absurdist comedy of Lindsay-Abaire’s original play—reminiscent of Christopher Durang, John Guare and the playwright’s own Fuddy Meers—remains, but it is tempered by the addition of a four-person chorus of students and by Tesori’s winding, agile melodies; material that might have been rendered merely as zany has a more human dimension."
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New York Theatre Guide
December 9th, 2022

"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. Such a kid thing to do. 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. Like the nibbled necklace, the show gives you something to chew on as it looks at life, death, and what comes in-between."
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New York Magazine / Vulture
December 8th, 2021

"The Atlantic Theater Company production is probably bound for Broadway. The size of the talents involved demands it, and the show has the gorgeous sheen of something that has its eyes on larger audiences. Director Jessica Stone has done beautifully detailed work, as has the entire design team, but it’s all stuff that should scale up well, and choreographer Danny Mefford could use a little more space for those triple lutzes in the ice-skating scene."
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Theatermania
December 8th, 2021

"I hasten to add, Kimberly Akimbo is still worthwhile viewing, with a cast that couldn't be better. In addition to Clark (who is so convincing, especially in Sarah Laux's costumes, that I really can't get over it), Stone has elicited a performance of megawatt comic proportions out of Milligan, who steals the show every single time she's on stage, and a thoroughly charming one from Cooley, a young actor making his New York stage debut as a 62-year-old's love interest. Boyer and Mauzey deliver impeccable work as well. In an era when musical adaptations do nothing more than pad dialogue with unnecessary songs, Lindsay-Abaire and Tesori have found a smart way of making Kimberly Akimbo sing."
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Lighting & Sound America
December 10th, 2021

In its original form, Kimberly Akimbo was cartoonish and emotionally manipulative, too ready to cash in on easy laughs and even easier tears. But Lindsay-Abaire, acting as librettist, and composer Jeanine Tesori use the stylization of musical theatre to create a distinctive comic fable set in an oddball, inherently absurd universe that regards Kimberly with something like depraved indifference. The show treads a wire-thin tightrope between farce and tragedy and, remarkably, it never loses its step.
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Talkin' Broadway
December 8th, 2021

"If you didn't see the play, also by Lindsay-Abaire, you'll probably be delighted by Kimberly Akimbo's wacky story and tuneful score. But if you remember the original, you may be surprised by what you see onstage. Granted, it was almost twenty years ago that Marylouise Burke's hilarious and heartbreaking portrait of Kim won rave reviews and the play was heralded as one of the best of the season, despite its off-Broadway pedigree. But, while the Atlantic's new incarnation of Kimberly Akimbo has many charms, in the service of turning his play into a musical Lindsay-Abaire may have done serious damage to his wondrous original."
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New York Stage Review
December 8th, 2021

"Kimberly Akimbo is further appealingly akimbo thanks to set designer David Zinn, costume designer Sarah Laux, lighting designer Lap Chi Chu, sound designer Kai Harada, and projects designer Lucy MacKinnon. If you enter without your arm and head akimbo, you’re likely to leave arm and head fully akimbo-ed."
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