Review: Kimberly Akimbo (Broadway)

December 15th, 2022

I don’t get it. I don’t get it! Help me. Maybe I am stupid and lost— but I thought this show was a big fat cheesy miss. I thought it reeked of Tony bait and forced awe. I got nothing out of it and I think this idea should not have come to fruition in the first place.

Nothing against the performers or production, I think it was put together just fine with a lot of great individual performances, but I just can’t get over that it was a bad idea for a show and that neither the book nor the music made up for that. Unfortunate, too, because I love Jeanine Tesori.

In my opinion this show was an example of just the kind of sanded-off, uninspired “innovation” that capitalism breeds. We know we can make money off of spoon-fed fake-complex happy endings that nobody can argue with (besides me apparently), so we made Kimberly Akimbo.

I don’t know, the person I saw it with loved it and so did everyone else I guess, so maybe this one just went over my head.

The ice skates were cool. Probably not worth the time and expense it took to get them onstage, though, especially because it felt like that whole song was just a vehicle for the ice skates.

Did I cry: I don’t think so, actually. I don’t remember for sure.

Photo by Joan Marcus