NEWS
Ann Morrison Will Lead National Tour of KIMBERLY AKIMBO
Carolee Carmello will play her final performance on Sunday, July 27, 2025.
By: Stephi Wild Jun. 13, 2025
‘Kimberly Akimbo’ at the Peace Center seeks happiness against the odds
Paul Hyde Greenville Journal
The Tony Award-winning musical “Kimberly Akimbo” poses a huge challenge for the actress playing the title role.She must portray a teenager with a rare aging disease that makes her look almost elderly.But veteran Broadway actress Ann Morrison feels the role was tailor-made for her — thanks to her youthful energy and outlook. “Friends tell me I’m a 16-year-old in a 70-year-old body,” Morrison said in a recent phone interview. “I can exhaust kindergarteners. The show really celebrates the idea of living in the moment,” she said, speaking from a tour stop in Minneapolis. “It’s a beautiful, heartfelt show, funny and uplifting.”
"Telling this story is a remarkably compact and pleasingly talented company of nine performers, led by the wonderful Ann Morrison as Kimberly. Her career stretches back to the early 1980s, but here she’s a convincing modern teenager, dealing with problematic parents (Jim Hogan and Laura Woyasz, both terrific in difficult parts) and the usual challenges of high school." ASHVILLE STAGES.
Kimberly Akimbo at the Tulsa PAC
TulsaWorld Review:'Kimberly Akimbo' Musical Effective as Dysfunctional-family Melodrama by James D. Watts Jr.
"It’s when the story focuses on dirty kitchen sink melodrama that is Kimberly and her family life that the musical is most effective, due in large part to Morrison’s phenomenal portrayal of Kimberly. Within a few minutes, she has you believing completely in the fact that this is a young woman determined to live and see as much of the world as she can in however brief a life she has."
King Herod in JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
Asolo Repertory Theatre
April-June 2025
Marty Fugate, The Observer
Ann Morrison’s King Herod steals the show with a shrill, malevolent glamour in “King Herod’s Song.” Instead of the typical campy character (a la Josh Mostel in the 1973 film adaptation), she leans into the song’s Roaring Twenties vibe.
She sits on a gilded throne like the queen (or king) of all flappers, with a pile of louche admirers below. Her sneering character wants Jesus to perform like a dancing monkey. Prove to me that you’re no fool! Walk across my swimming pool! Morrison totally sells it like some evil Betty Boop.
