The Great Adventure that is KIMBERLY AKIMBO

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Written by Craig L. Byrd

Is there a greater adventure for any of us than life itself?

How often have we marveled at how others live their lives?  You know the people – the ones who understand that life is short and they make the most of it. Those who live life to the fullest. How often have we thought we should be more like them?

The stories that present answers to these questions are often the stores we love most. Let me introduce to you a 5-time Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and Drama Desk Award winning musical that not only answers these questions but does so with a sense of joy that is guaranteed to inspire you. That musical is KIMBERLY AKIMBO – the most celebrated show of the 2023 Broadway season.

Kimberly Akimbo tells the story of a soon-to-be 16-year-old girl, Kim, who has moved with her family to suburban New Jersey and is the new kid in town. Kim appears to be in her early 70s because of a disease she’s been battling since birth that finds her aging four-and-a-half times faster than others. Imagine all the complications of being in a teenager while trapped in a body that makes her look like her new schoolmates’ grandmother.

Kim is new in town, but her “seize the day” attitude helps her discover her own community of like-minded misfits. Though she looks different, she’s still dealing with the same issues her five friends are. Perhaps they don’t have an alcoholic father, a pregnant mother who is also a hypochondriac and an aunt who fancies herself a bit of a criminal mastermind. But Kimberly wants to be like other teenagers. She sings very early in the show that she wants to be “a model for a day, a famous fashion muse in a black Dior cocktail dress and a pair of Jimmy Choos.”

The musical, with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire (Pulitzer Prize-winner for his play Rabbit Hole and winner of two Tony Awards for Kimberly Akimbo) and composer Jeanine Tesori (who won her second Tony Award for this show with her first Tony Award having been for the score of Fun Home, a win which she shared with Lisa Kron, and which holds the distinction for being awarded to the first all-woman team in this category.), is an adaptation of Lindsay-Abaire’s comedy of the same name.  This marks their second collaboration, the first being the hit Broadway show Shrek: The Musical.

Lindsay-Abaire’s play was first produced at South Coast Repertory in 2001. Twenty years later the musical debuted off-Broadway before moving to Broadway in the fall of 2022.

It was Tesori’s idea to musicalize Lindsay-Abaire’s play after the playwright told her that he wanted them to collaborate on another musical but to work differently than they had for the high-profile Shrek. 

Once Tesori mentioned Kimberly Akimbo, they went to work. Lindsay-Abaire explains the show’s title, “’Akimbo’ felt like it described the play itself. A teenager looks like an old lady, the grown-ups behave like children, it’s April but it’s snowing. Kim spends most of the play wanting to be seen for who she really is, not as a dying old lady, but as a vibrant teenage girl who wants to experience life.”

It might seem as though this story must be dark or depressing. Jesse Green, chief theatre critic for the New York Times, praised the show’s sense of humor. He also said in his review, “It’s not about a disease at all, unless it’s the one we all have: We grow up too slowly and then suddenly too fast.”

Composer Tesori described to Playbill how KIMBERLY AKIMBO reflects the journey we all take in our lives: “If you’re lucky in this life, you can have great adventures. The rides are different – some of them go way up and some go way down. But if you’re lucky and you choose to do it, you can choose the way that you look at things. That’s what you can call your life.”

One of KIMBERLY AKIMBO’s greatest strengths is its ability to make this story so enjoyable. So full of life. So optimistic. So relatable.

In the song Anagram, Kim sings a few lines that, I believe, reflect this wonderful musical:

I like the way you see the world
I like your point of view
A little sly, a little strange
A little bit askew
I like the way you look at life
And think outside the box
A little odd, a little off
A bit unorthodox

Now this award-winning musical is on tour. Amongst the pleasures to be found is the return of Carolee Carmello to the stage as Kim. She’s been in 16 Broadway musicals (including Parade, Kiss Me Kate and Sister Act) and has earned, so far, three Tony Award nominations. 

Joining her are six cast members from the original production: Miguel Gil as Seth, Kimberly’s best friend; Emily Koch as Aunt Debra, Jim Hogan as Kimberly’s father Buddy, Skye Alyssa Friedman as her schoolmate Theresa, as well as Darron Hayes as Martin, and Valerie Wright as the standby for Kimberly.

Kimberly Akimbo gives its cast, the characters and, most importantly, the audience a great adventure through the highs and lows of life. Utilizing humor, pathos, great songs and powerful storytelling, the journey of life, with all its twists and turns, is fully realized in a musical that will make you glad to be alive.

So just enjoy the ride. Enjoy the view. Enjoy the time. No one gets a second time around.

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Article written by Craig L. Byrd • Publisher of the performing arts website Cultural Attaché

Sources:

• Jeanine Tesori interview with Playbill
• David Lindsay-Abaire quote from The Science Survey
• Jesse Green New York Times Review