MEMPHIS:

Broadway (2009)

• "As Huey, Chad Kimball bursts into Broadway stardom after several promising supporting roles, including a memorable turn as the cow in "Into the Woods." Resembling a young George W. Bush both physically and vocally, Kimball combines laid-back charm with an irresistible rough energy. He really does appear to be an uneducated country boy with an ear for what the kids will listen to rather than just another New York singer-actor putting on a Southern accent."
  David Sheward, Backstage.Com (Oct, 2009)
  
  
• "Chad Kimball’s summoning up of Huey is so perfect that not for a moment do you believe that it is only acting. This is a performance hewn out of live flesh and blood."
  John Simon, Bloomberg (Oct, 2009)
  
  
• "Kimball, coming across like an older, Southern-twanged version of Christian Slater in "Pump Up the Volume," makes for an offbeat but unforgettable leading man, and his hilarious and ultimately deeply moving performance will be well remembered come awards time."
  Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter (Oct, 2009)
  
  
• "No one works harder than Kimball, who affects an odd Southern drawl and stooped posture for Huey. He gives the part everything he's got, never once shying away from Calhoun's ignorance, selfishness, or ambition -- yet making a possibly unappealing character someone you genuinely root for."
  Brian Scott Lipton, Theatremania (Oct, 2009)
  
  
• "Kimball - with his porkpie hat, bitter-lemon voice and motor-mouth patter - makes us believe that Huey is inventing himself right along with shock-jock radio, early TV and seismic racial change."
  Linda Winer, NewsDay.Com (Oct, 2009)
  
  
• "Mr. Kimball is a quirky, boyish presence, with a thick, honeyed drawl that slides away when he breaks into song. His voice is strong, with just enough real ache in it to supply the feeling that the songs sometimes do not."
  Charles Isherwood, New York Times (Oct, 2009)
  
  
• "But then it helps also that "Memphis" has been expertly cast and is superbly sung, particularly by its two leads, Chad Kimball as the brash, irrepressible Huey and a striking Montego Glover as Felicia. Kimball has a deceptive baby-face charm that masks a gritty, soul-tinged voice and the hard edge of Huey's stubborn personality that is not entirely likable."
  Michael Kuchwara, The Canadian Press (Oct, 2009)
  
  
• "The fictional version of Phillips portrayed in Memphis is named Huey Calhoun, and, as played by actor Chad Kimball, he is the core of the show. Kimball gives an electrifying performance. Huey is not the most likable character, but Kimball's bold choice to completely inhabit and embody Huey results in a fascinating portrayal, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He is in perpetual motion, with plenty of stylized body language and movement that is choreographed even in the book scenes. Kimball's Huey, with his thick drawl, is quirky, over the top, and at times annoying. Yet Huey has his admirable and complex qualities too, supporting black music and performers by playing "race music" on mainstream radio at a time where that was not popular and in a segregated city where racism prevailed. He also dared to fall in love with a beautiful black singer. All in all, it is a star performance that is wonderfully sung, capped by a show-stopping and plaintive rendition of one of the show’s best songs, "Memphis Lives in Me."
  James Miller, Culture Catch (Dec, 2009)
  
  
• "Chad Kimball is a once-in-a-decade discovery...He shows great star power, the kind of thing Robert Preston brought to The Music Man, Yul Brynner to The King and I, Richard Kiley to Man of La Mancha, Robert Morse to How to Succeed in Business...In the book scenes [he] is as complex, wily and arresting as was Marlon Brando’s “Stanley” in Streetcar. Am I going hyperbolic? I urge you to see this performance and judge for yourself."
  Richard Seff, DC Theatre Scene
  

5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle (2009)

• "As he rises to the heap of hometown fame as a disc jockey and television host, Kimball, a Seattle native, is a true triple threat, and sells such songs as "The Music of My Soul," "Radio," "Crazy Little Huey" and "Tear Down the House" for all they are worth."
  David Edward-Hughs, Talkinbroadway.com (2009)
  
  
• "...Chad Kimball offers a refreshingly blemished leading man as the poor white ne'er-do-well, Huey Calhoun.... In Kimball's hands, Huey is a shuffling whirlwind who tears up his own fragile earth, hunched and gangling with a slurring, honky-tonk drawl."
  Gianni Truzzi, seattlepi.com (February 6, 2009)

La Jolla Playhouse (2008)

• "Retaining the likability honed as Milky-White in 2002's "Into the Woods" revival, Kimball adds an intense hyperactivity, torso and legs in ceaseless motion as he proselytizes for the new, raw sound through naughty ad libs and a parent-infuriating playlist. Huey's thumbs-up shout-out "Hockadoo!" paves the way for integrated musical tastes and -- we're led to hope -- a society to match."
  Bob Verini, Variety (September 4, 2008)
  
  
• " As Huey, Kimball turns in a vivid and committed performance that doesn't just flirt with quirkiness – it gives it a big hillbilly hug. He has a jerky kind of hayseed strut, like a rooster who's been dipping into the moonshine, and his earthy singing rasp could make him Janis Joplin's kid brother."
  James Hebert, signonsandiego.com (September 5, 2008)  
  
  
• "Huey is a nonconformist, a man ahead of his time. As played by Chad Kimball (who made such a strong impression, despite being in a cow costume, in the 2002 revival of "Into the Woods"), he's lovable but a bit of a pill. Dirt poor and not expected to amount to anything, he advances through sheer force of will. He's so wound up that his mere presence is exhausting."
  Daryl H. Miller, Los Angeles Times (Sept 8, 2008)
  
  
• "Kimball is quirky yet impassioned as Huey... ...his voice is on fine display throughout the show, and his singing is especially thrilling in "Memphis Lives in Me.""
  Rob Stevens, Theatremania.Com (September 4, 2008)
  
  
• "...Kimball has a surprisingly sturdy singing voice,..."
  Martin Jones Westlin, San Diego City Beat (September 9, 2008)

TheatreWorks (2004)

• "Chad Kimball (Milky White in the Broadway revival of Into the Woods plus the original Huey at North Shore) has excess energy as he bounces about the stage. His has the movement and manner of a Jerry Lee Lewis, and I could not help thinking of Dennis Quaid's portrayal of the rock star. Kimball has the posture, the pointing arm, the arched back and a cute little laugh that comes out about every paragraph. He moves constantly about the stage and only holds still when Huey is downtrodden in the second act. Kimball has a good, powerful voice and his good ol' boy Tennessean accent is right on the mark."
  Richard Connema, Talkin' Broadway (2004)
  
  
• "Kimball and Derrick B. Baskin (as Gator) offer some fine singing as well. Both in singing and acting, Kimball is rangy enough to follow Huey's challenging arc. His Huey remains sanguine and likable, even when he hits his lows..."
  Marianne Messina, Metroactive (2004)
  

North Shore Music Theatre (2003)

• "Much of that sparkle resides in the two very likable leads, played by Boston Conservatory graduate Chad Kimball and Montego Glover, who was last seen hereabouts playing the young Alberta Hunter in ``Cookin' at the Cookery'' with the Huntington Theatre Company. Both are fine singers and even better actors. It is amazing how Kimball, who looks like a cross between Patrick Swayze and Jack Paar, can make the same head swivels and hand gestures connote naivete in the first act and braggadocio in the second."
  Ed Siegel, Boston.Com (Sept, 2003)
  
  
• "... a terrific cast headed by Boston Conservatory graduate Chad Kimball, a geekily messianic fireball as "happy white boy" Huey..."
  Carolyn Clay, Bostonphoenix.com (Oct, 2003)
  

 BABY:

Paper Mill Playhouse (2004)

• "Chad Kimball is a find as Danny. He is a counterculture-type musician transformed into an incipient husband by impending fatherhood. Kimball captures the delightful, slightly goofy fun of Danny while eschewing the excesses to which his role is prone. His approach enhances the delight of his folk song “I Chose Right.”"
  Bob Rendell, Talkin' Broadway (2004)
  
  
• "Chad Kimball plays Danny, all nervous energy, intent on creating his own music. His heartfelt "I Chose Right" is lyrical and romantic. In addition, he moves into a "rock" persona as he looks for ways to support his child."
  Liz Keill, Curtain Up (April 4, 2004)
  

 MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE:

Playwrights Horizon (2003)

• "Kimball is a bit too robust and cute for us to connect him with the more intense Carver. He is more convincing during the falling in love scenes at Balbec-by-the-Sea than during jealous guardianship after he hustles her away from her high-living, Lesbian friends. This miscasting does not apply to his voice which does full justice to some of Ricky Ian Godon's best songs-- like the "The Different Albertines" duet with Carver and the second act's terrific epistolary musical exchanges with Albertine..."
  Elyse Sommer, Curtain Up (March 12, 2003)
  
  
• "Chad Kimball, entirely credible as a younger version of Carver, is very good as the petulant youth Marcel."
  Brooke Pierce, Theatremania (March 14, 2003)
  

 INTO THE WOODS :

Broadway (2002)

• "...Good as they are, though, none of these performers can rescue the production from the doldrums the rest of the cast thrusts it into.

  One person can, and that's Chad Kimball. The character of Jack's cow, Milky-White, was represented by a prop in the original production, but is now a major player in the action. In Kimball's hands (and feet), Milky-White blinks her baleful eyes when sad, twitches her ears, runs to Jack when threatened, and prances across the stage like nothing else in the world matters. Kimball gives a top-quality performance here, making Milky-White lovable, funny, sympathetic, and heart-rending.

  But Kimball is so exciting, creating such a full-bodied character, he overshadows everyone else on the stage, a more dangerous real-world equivalent of Dench's giant. No one else can possibly compare, and almost no one comes close."
  Matthew Murray, Talkin' Broadway (April 30, 2002)

• "The most noticeable change from the original production--the revival is again directed by Lapine--is that Jack's cow, once a pull toy, in now an actor in a floppy cow suit, the better to express the bovine's very human emotions. This scene-stealing creature is played by the nimble Chad Kimball, who reveals himself at the curtain call. "
  David Finkle, Theatremania (May 1, 2002)

 GODSPELL:

Theatre at St. Peter's (2000)

• "Chad Kimball is adorable throughout, even when someone's bouncing a tambourine off his butt."
  Melissa Rose Bernardo, Theatremania (August 11, 2000)

 SWEENEY TODD:

Signature Theatre (1999)

• "The young lovers have terrific voices. ...Kimball seems perfectly cast..."
  Les Gutman, Curtain Up (September 15, 1999)