Kimberly Akimbo

Yeah.

Take those Kimberly Akimbo roles, you know, take them with grace, be in spelling bee, do all these young plucky things while you can.

Because when you get to that age where you start to age out of things, which I am starting to feel these days, it is a harrowing experience.

You know, like there's a day in your life when you're no longer going to be able to be in Spring Awakening.

Oh my God, okay.

So coming up, we'll be talking about Kimberly Akimbo, Jane Eyre, the musical, and the closing performance of Hercules, as well as all the latest news about Beetlejuice, West Side Story, Death

Note,

and more.

That's

a happy time.

Right, still to come, we're discussing Kimberly Akimbo, Jane Eyre, and the closing performance of Hercules.

Therapy's biggest impact doesn't show up in some dramatic breakthrough.

I do.

Kimberly Akimbo was my favorite.

It was so good.

I went to it by myself and because I was by myself, I was on a business trip.

This is part of the 2022 to '23 Broadway season.

I believe it was part of about 40 openings within that period, and as of right now, even though it didn't win the Tony Award for Best New Musical, it lost that one to Kimberly Akimbo, it is the only production which opened during that season that is still running.

By some margin as well.

If we take a look at this list, the last one that closed before this, I mean, there were a great many that shut down earlier.

We're looking at Shucked, Some Like It Hot, A Beautiful Noise, and, uh, Kimberly Akimbo as some of the more successful.

We had earlier closures for Almost Famous, Bad Cinderella, KPOP, New York, New York.

It's actually an interesting statement on the staying power of jukebox musicals that the, uh, penultimate show standing from this season I think may have been A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond musical, although nearly making it just as far was the revival of Sweeney Todd at the Lunt-Fontanne.

And with the show which won the Tony Award for Best New Musical on Broadway having made a great adventure over to the UK for its European premiere, I was hopeful, if not convinced, that it would play as well to a British audience as it had on those previous three occasions.

The show is Kimberly Akimbo.

I am here to tell you all about the material, what this non-replica UK production is like, and of course, all about the London cast.

But just before I do, oh my God, hey, welcome back to my theater-themed YouTube channel, or hello to those of you listening to this review on podcast platforms.

And I am obsessed with all things theater.

I am a full-time theater critic, as well as a content creator here on social media.

And back when I first went to New York in 2023, Kimberly Akimbo, then playing at the Booth Theater, was one of the first musicals that I saw there.

It was a very special experience.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that very much.

Maria Friedman, Kimberly Akimbo, continues at the Hampstead Theatre in London until the 7th of November.

And you can find the film of Maria Friedman's production of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along on most of the streaming sites.

Earlier this month, as part of a package of proposals to empower Scottish culture and identity, the Scottish Government announced that it planned to pilot a Scottish artists' minimum income scheme, similar to the scheme already up and running in Ireland, which gives 2,000 artists €325 a week, no strings attached, to free them up for creative work.

The next episode, we're going to come back in about two weeks, and there will be a full review episode of my London trip covering seven West End shows.

The Sinatra musical, Kimberly Akimbo, Avenue Q, Cats in Regent's Park, Midnight at the Neverget, the Thelma and Louise musical, and How the Other Half Loves.

If you haven't joined the Patreon green room yet, you will get a lot of that material early.

You will also get exclusive audio vlogs or blogs.

Yeah, it was Greek people.

Oh, I did see that Kimberly Akimbo at Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center.

And it was really wonderful.

And it didn't feel too long.

Well, I think we should start with new musicals.

And in the spirit of it being back to school, I think we should focus on a very special 16-year-old played by multi-award winning performer Maria Friedman in the UK premiere of Janine Tazori and David Lindsay-Aber's Kimberley Akimbo, which is currently in previews at the Hampstead Theatre.

Yeah, just started at Hampstead.

It's really exciting.