Tony winner Kimberly Akimbo is aging nicely (don't miss today's Weekly Blast!)
Show features the best new Broadway song in years
Shalom, Broadway lovers! In today’s Weekly Blast: a review of Tony Best Musical winner Kimberly Akimbo; Broadway Blasts about The Music Man, Damn Yankees, and A Chorus Line; and a very funny musical version of a popular Hollywood movie.
Registration is now open for August classes:
• a Sondheim Master Seminar on two more Tuesdays in August at Noon ET: Merrily We Roll Along (August 22) and Into the Woods (August 29). This course is co-taught by Broadway Maven David Benkof and author and critic Peter Filichia. $12 per session.
• a Sunday series meeting at Noon ET: Ragtime/Parade (August 20) and Wicked (August 27). It’s $9 per session.
This Weekly Blast contains:
A) a REVIEW of the charming musical Kimberly Akimbo, currently on Broadway (included here FREE in this Preview edition);
B) a BROADWAY BLAST about The Music Man;
C) a YouTube GEM that’s a musicalized version of a popular Hollywood film;
D) a BROADWAY BLAST about Damn Yankees;
E) a SURVEY about recent Tony Best Musicals;
F) HOMEWORK VIDEOS on Parade and Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along; and
G) a LAST BLAST about A Chorus Line (included here FREE in this Preview edition).
Just like the central character in Kimberly Akimbo, the power of a good Broadway song will never get old.
You’ll find several excellent tunes in that reigning Best Musical Tony winner, but the Act One closer “This Time” (see video above) is my favorite new song to come out of Broadway in years. Its exuberance and optimism have earned it star status on my “Best Show Tunes” playlist.
The protagonist of Kimberly Akimbo suffers from a rare illness that causes her to age at four times the normal rate. In the show, she’s a 16-year-old high school student who looks like an old woman. In fact, the typical life expectancy for someone whose body ages as Kimberly’s does is 16 — the birthday she marks in the show.
The cast is stellar, especially Best Actress winner Victoria Clark as Kimberly. Her portrayal is so spot-on that when I saw her at the stage door she looked like a teenager.
(Fun fact: The Playbill mentions that as a 16-year-old — “the last time” that is — she played 71-year-old Rebecca Nurse in her high school production of The Crucible. And now she’s a 63-year-old playing a 16-year-old on stage.)
Another standout is Justin Cooley as Kimberly’s friend and love interest Seth, whose occasionally blank look hides deep intelligence. Unfortunately, Best Featured Actress winner Bonnie Milligan (who plays Kimberly’s Aunt Debra) was on vacation and her understudy’s performance was – let’s just say not quite Tony-worthy.
Kimberly Akimbo was created by a near-perfect composer-lyricist duo: Jeanine Tesori (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Fun Home), and David Lindsay-Abaire (High Fidelity, Shrek the Musical).
Lindsay-Abaire’s book (script) is rich in symbolism for dying early: skating on thin ice, writing bad checks, candy necklaces, playing UNO. The characters are well-drawn, even if the teen romances are a bit entangled.
Beyond “This Time,” several other songs are memorable, especially “Anagram” and “Great Adventure.”
The catchy anthem “Better,” though, may (ironically) be for the worse, since it points to some moral rot among the characters. It’s Kimberly’s aunt’s paean to law-breaking — as long as it makes “your shitty life better.” Aunt Debra admits to having engaged in theft, immigration fraud, exploiting the elderly, and even a murder of sorts. The show makes few noises to reject the song’s ethos, and in fact ends with Kimberly engaging in some really awful conduct.
Like in many Broadway shows (Finian’s Rainbow, Aladdin, Into the Woods) “three wishes” is an important theme of Kimberly Akimbo, but in this case it’s her requests to the Make-a-Wish Foundation (she wants to be a fashion model and to own a treehouse, among other things). It’s an example of how the show connects to the musical theater tradition while dealing with an un-musical-like subject.
Not all big Tony winners have long runs (A Strange Loop could barely last nine months). Let’s hope that doesn’t happen with this show, because Kimberly Akimbo has no business dying before its time.
For your Ragtime/Parade homework, watch the 10-minute summary of Parade below. What is the theme of the show? Explain your answers in the comments.
For your Merrily We Roll Along homework (part of Sondheim August), watch the video conversation between Peter Filichia and David Benkof that’s below. How does the show’s reverse structure affect its plot, meaning, and themes? Explain your answers in the comments.
Note: links to register for ALL classes are always available at TheBroadwayMaven.com.
• Sunday, August 20 Ragtime and Parade (Noon to 1:00 pm ET, $9)
• Tuesday, August 22 Merrily We Roll Along (Noon to 1:15 pm ET, $12)
• Sunday, August 27 Wicked (Noon to 1:00 pm ET, $9)
• Tuesday, August 29 Into the Woods (Noon to 1:15 pm ET, $12)
And coming up in November:
• a new survey course on The Golden Age of Broadway
• Gail Leondar-Wright on Sweeney Todd
• David Armstrong on The King and I
LAST BLAST: A Chorus Line’s trademark mirrors are more than mere stage props evoking the look of a dance studio. They are a metaphor for the self-examination and introspection that director Zach imposes through his unorthodox “interview” method of auditions for the chorus. Val’s opting for plastic surgery, Diana’s painful school memories, and especially Paul’s struggle with homosexuality become “reflections” that offer a peek into the inner lives of the dancers. They link the show’s visual and thematic aspects in a way that heightens its emotional impact.