Latest news with #KimberlyAkimbo
Time Out
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
This hilarious star-studded musical by Melbourne Theatre Company has scored major awards on Broadway
Take a heist, an out-of-the-ordinary coming-of-age tale and an unexpected love story – throw them all together and you've got Kimberly Akimbo: A Musical. Produced by Melbourne Theatre Company with State Theatre Company South Australia, this production is set to warm the hearts of both theatregoers and first-timers alike. Kimberly Akimbo's life isn't what you'd call normal… But then again, whose is? She's got a dropkick dad, a narcissistic mum and a criminal aunt. She's also kind of born with a rare genetic disease where she ages four times faster than her teenage peers. Follow the 16 going on 60 year old in 1999 New Jersey as she navigates high school dramas and a debatably illegal get-rich-quick scheme. The production boasts some major Australian names. Starring as Kimberly is Aussie musical royalty Marina Prior (Les Misérables The Arena Spectacular, The Phantom of the Opera). She's joined by Christie Whelan Browne (Singin' in the Rain, Muriel's Wedding the Musical) and Australian Idol sweetheart Casey Donovan (& Juliet, Sister Act). During its time on Broadway, Kimberly Akimbo: A Musical racked up five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Now it forms part of Melbourne Theatre Company's 2025 season, and even better, showgoers under 30 years old can score preview tickets for just $37.50.
Sky News AU
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
Casey Donovan unrecognisable in first look at new musical Kimberly Akimbo after admitting new diet ‘isn't easy'
Casey Donovan has offered the first glimpse at her latest stage role in the musical version of Kimberly Akimbo and opened up about her recent weight loss journey. Donovan, who shot to fame after winning Australian Idol at just 16, returned to the stage as Aunt Debra in the new production which premiered at Adelaide's Her Majesty's Theatre on Tuesday. The show, which follows a teenager with a rare genetic condition which makes her age rapidly, will transfer to Melbourne's Art Centre from 26 July for a month-long run. The role comes hot on the heels of Donovan's successful national tour in Sister Act in the lead role originated by Whoopi Goldberg in the iconic film about singing nuns. Donovan's weight loss was noticeable in new promotional material for Kimberly Akimbo shared via her official social media accounts. The 36-year-old recently lost a significant amount of weight after overhauling her lifestyle, including the use of a GLP-1 weight loss medication Juniper. GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Juniper help regulate appetite and are increasingly being used in medical weight loss programs. The beloved songstress regularly shares updates with her followers about her weight loss journey, including her favourite healthy recipes to beat junk food cravings. 'This journey isn't always easy, but I've never had to figure it out alone,' Donovan wrote recently on social media. 'So grateful for the steady support from my @ health coach Emily.' Casey's new gig comes after the singer revealed the moment she decided to embark on her health journey. 'I'm 36 now and I finally realised that, if I want to be healthy and fit at 40, I need to take some real and lasting preventative measures now,' she told New Idea magazine last month. Donovan also told the magazine that she was hoping to start a family with her fiancée Renee Sharples in the 'semi-near future', revealing she was "in such a good place in my life right now".
Chicago Tribune
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘Kimberly Akimbo' arrives in Chicago, a moving musical about a teenager facing mortality
At the Tony Awards this year, a delightfully quirky little musical called 'Maybe Happy Ending' beat out big competitors and walked off with the big prize. Although it's about family dynamics rather than robotic romance, 'Kimberly Akimbo,' a similarly small and unusual show that won best musical in 2023, paved its way. Nearly three years after its Broadway bow, the touring version of director Jessica Stone's original production of that Jeanine Tesori tuner has finally reached downtown Chicago. Carolee Carmello, who has graced this city's stage several times with outstanding success in Stephen Sondheim musicals and elsewhere, is on the road in the title role originally played by Victoria Clark. And the rest of the nine-person cast includes at least two long-standing romantic couples, which might explain why much of the cast seems to be so close up there. 'Kimberly Akimbo,' the musical, is based on a play of the same name by David Lindsay-Abaire, which I first reviewed at A Red Orchid Theatre back in 2005, with Roslyn Alexander playing the lead. As Broadway fans will know, the show is about a teenager with progeria, a rare medical condition that causes the human body to age at over four times its normal rate. When she is 16, as she is in this show, Kimberly's appearance suggests a woman in her 60s. And, as logic would suggest, life also blossoms and expires for Kimberly at a far accelerated rate. Most of us, of course, don't know our likelihood of dying early so the play, and thus the musical, with book and lyrics by its original author, allows us to see life through the eyes of someone who knows more than most of its unavoidable brevity and the importance of living in the present, rather than the past or the future. In the musical, Kimberly's schoolmates (played by Grace Capeless, Skye Alyssa Friedman, Darron Hayes and Pierce Wheeler) become a little Greek chorus of show-choir nerds, trying to reconcile their adolescent angst with the problems faced by the young woman aging before their eyes. Kimberly has yet more to deal with, too. Her family is composed of narcissists: a mostly clueless mom, Pattie (Laura Woyasz), an alcoholic dad, Buddy (Jim Hogan) and a whack-a-doodle aunt, Debra (Emily Koch), who interjects a criminal caper plot into the days around Kimberly's Sweet 16 birthday. I greatly enjoyed 'Kimberly Akimbo' on Broadway and this first national tour is in excellent shape. It's never especially helpful to most people to compare performances, but if you were to twist my arm, I'd say that whereas Clark focused intently on achieving the inner life and spirit of a teenager in her portrayal, Carmello leans more into the character's sense of her own mortality. Both takes strike me as legitimate, although they are quite different. Carmello's Kimberly is a little sadder and more careworn, although she certainly also makes the final carpe diem number work quite beautifully and, as her perhaps boyfriend, Seth, Miguel Gil is a true, thoroughly guileless delight. I'm a big Tesori fan. Lyric Opera audiences heard her extraordinarily potent music quite recently in the opera 'Blue,' with the stirring Tazewell Thompson libretto. Although she clearly remembers what it is like to be young and have fun, Tesori's 'Kimberly Akimbo' score makes no easy choices; it focus intently on the show's complex emotional landscape as Kimberly strives to teach those far older than herself, and wishes for that one great adventure we'd all like to have before we go. Review: 'Kimberly Akimbo' (3.5 stars) When: Through June 22 Where: CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes Tickets: $35-$125 at
Axios
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Taco Week, the Arts Festival and other Columbus weekend events
🌮 Taste $2 taco specials during the final days of Columbus Taco Week, which ends Saturday. 🎨 Immerse yourself in the Columbus Arts Festival, featuring four stages and over 250 artists on the downtown riverfront. 11am–10pm Friday, 10am–10pm Saturday and 10am–5pm Sunday. Free! 🐶 Take your pup paddleboarding during a Quarry Trails Metro Park "yappy hour." 5-8pm Friday, 2600 Dublin Road. Free! 🧹 Watch a "popular" movie — "Wicked" is Easton's first Friday Night Flick of the season. 6-9:30pm Friday, Town Square. Free! ⚾ Catch a rivalry game as the Clippers face the Toledo Mud Hens all weekend long. 7:05pm Friday (with fireworks!) and Saturday, 1:05pm Sunday. $5+. ⌚ Find the time to see " Kimberly Akimbo," a hit Broadway musical at the Ohio Theatre that puts a twist on a "coming-of-age" story. 7:30pm Friday; 2pm and 7:30pm Saturday; 1pm and 6:30pm Sunday. $55+. 🐔 Wing it during the Chicken and Beer Festival at Dodge Park. 1-3:30pm or 3:30-7pm Saturday, 218 West St. $34.
Washington Post
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
This couple screams at each other onstage. It's only made their bond stronger.
A couple for the better part of seven years, Emily Koch and Jim Hogan attribute their tension-free romantic life of late to a liberating routine: Eight times a week, the actors shriek at each other onstage. The opportunity arrives in the second act of 'Kimberly Akimbo,' during the combustible song 'The Inevitable Turn.' Playing brother- and sister-in-law who happen to despise each other, Koch and Hogan funnel any underlying issues into that moment when their characters' simmering resentments boil over.
