New York theater critics have given generally positive reviews to the new Off-Broadway musical Kimberly Akimbo, adapted by Jeanine Tesori (music) and David Lindsay-Abaire (book, lyrics) from his 2001 play. The creative team also includes Jessica Stone (direction), Danny Mefford (choreography), Chris Fenwick (music direction), David Zinn (sets), Sarah Laux (costumes), Lap Chi Chu (lights), Kai Harada (sound), Lucy MacKinnon (projections), J. Jared Janas (hair & makeup), and John Clancy (orchestrations). The cast includes Steven Boyner (Buddy), Victoria Clark (Kimberly), Justin Cooley (Seth), Olivia Elease Hardy (Delia), Fernell Hogan II (Martin), Michael Iskander (Aaron), Alli Mauzey (Pattie), Bonnie Milligan (Debra), and Nina White (Teresa). The show continues its limited engagement at Atlantic Theater Company through January 2.
Victoria Clark
New York Stage Review (David Finkle): [Lindsay-Abaire’s] a playwright who sees the world through his own akimbo instincts, something both director Jessica Stone and choreographer Danny Mefford fully understand. So, as Kimberly Akimbo passes, it remains cheerily akimbo. It retains a cuteness while never dipping into cutsie-poo-ness. … Best yet is the closing number, “Great Adventure,” with its lyric advising, “So just enjoy the view, because no one gets a second time around.” Any musical ending as strong as this does is lucky, for sure. … If you enter without your arm and head akimbo, you’re likely to leave arm and head fully akimbo-ed. 4 out of 5 stars.
New York Times (Jesse Green): Unlike adaptations that do little more than nail vocal Sheetrock onto bare studs of borrowed story, and have approximately the same elegance, this one … remakes the original on new terms, with songs that beautifully tell us new things. This is done without undue violence to the ingenious original premise, which makes comedy, as we all must, of tragedy. … Kimberly Akimbo is already the rare example of a good play that has become an even better musical. It warms up the zaniness of the original without overshooting and making it “normal.” … “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 … but in this case, leavened by exceptional craft, it makes a totally satisfying meal.
Time Out (Adam Feldman): 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 … 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. … Mortality is in every beat of this show, but less like a clock like a pulse. As Kimberly sings: “I know I might be dying” — aren’t we all? — “but I’m not dead.” 4 out of 5 stars.
Vulture (Helen Shaw): The way teenagers in the new musical Kimberly Akimbo express love … is by making anagrams of each other’s names. 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. … Puzzles require attention, which is the first component of love. To change David Lindsay-Abaire’s poignant 2001 comedy into this fresh and gorgeous musical required this same deep-play, letter-by-letter concentration. Lindsay-Abaire and the composer Jeanine Tesori pick up the original (Kimberly Akimbo the play) and rearrange its pieces carefully (Kimberly Akimbo the musical), and in doing so they find hidden, sideways beauty.
Wrap (Robert Hofler): This almost never happens to a novel, movie or play when it’s turned into a musical. Typically, when songs are added, the narrative needs to be made simpler, character motivations get scrunched and so the original source material ends up being compromised. Something different has happened to David Lindsay-Abaire’s play Kimberly Akimbo on its way to becoming a new musical. … It’s still funny and quirky and very off-center, but … Jeanine Tesori’s music grounds the story in a way that gives the source material resonance, makes it more substantial and far more emotionally engaging. … It’s a real musical-theater breakthrough.