"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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"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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"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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"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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"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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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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"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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"As is often the case, Tesori’s music is technically very proficient but not quite memorable, with none of the songs, at least upon a first hearing, quite managing to stick in one’s memory. Lindsay-Abaire’s lyrics are frequently very funny, if too often resorting to a broadness that sacrifices pathos for cheap laughs. In its quieter moments, Kimberly Akimbo displays a poignancy and tenderness that will seep into your heart. It’s good enough, in fact, that you wish it had been just a little bit better."
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