Kimberly Akimbo NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsMember Reviews (243)
See it if You want to see something original, quirky but not fluffy, in fact it’s borderline profound. Somehow simultaneously serious, upbeat and fun.
Don't see it if You can’t appreciate quirky outside the box shows. This one sort of defies description. If you want a good time just go see it. Read more
See it if Wonderful vocals. Touching bittersweet perspective on life. Zany dysfunctional family and confused teens. Broadway ready production.
Don't see it if You don't enjoy musicals where you need to suspend your disbelief a lot.
See it if you've ever wanted anything from your family. Its a phenomenally positive take on remarkably negative circumstances with moments of magic
Don't see it if you don't like moving theater with excellent music. Everything about this show is delightful.
See it if Clarke is wonderful in a difficult role playing a 16 yr old in a 70 yr old body; amazing how she believably fits into both roles.
Don't see it if u can't accept a 16 yr old in a 72 yr old body - she is certainly the adult in any room; u don't like tragic comedies especially in musicals
See it if This is a terrific production of a very good musical.Victoria Clark is perfection in the role.And that voice!What a gift to us all.
Don't see it if you don't like musicals or stories that are sometimes hard to hear.It is sad and triumphant and beautiful. If you have a heart, go see it!
See it if you enjoy a great contemporary musical comedy
Don't see it if comic depictions of aging issues offend
See it if you are fans of actress Victoria Clark and playwright David Lindsay-Abaire.
Don't see it if you believe that original plays of moderate success should never be turned into a musical version of it's self. Read more
See it if you want to a unique story told well. Great performances by Clark, Boyer, Milligan, Mauzey, and newcomer Justin Cooley!
Don't see it if you prefer big musicals or don't enjoy stories centered around teenage themes. However, this has a clever spin.
Critic Reviews (15)
"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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"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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"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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"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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"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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