For those of us who are exhausted by the constant bombardment of national, international, and global events of today’s oppressive newsfeed, step into the world of Kimberly Akimbo, David Lindsay-Abaire & Jeanine Tesori’s Tony-winning musical time capsule from the quieter, gentler, 1990s. On the surface, even with an impressive sweep of major Tony wins (2023’s Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress), the show seemed like the biggest marketing nightmare since Urinetown. A weird, out-of-context title, based on an obscure play that only made it to off-Broadway over 20 years earlier, with subject matter that sounds potentially uncomfortable, the piece still only has a cult following of Broadway insiders. But when given a chance, Kimberly Akimbo takes us back to, as the setting states, “1999. Before kids had cell phones. Somewhere in Bergen County NJ.” This simple fact turns out to be exactly the remedy for today’s constant barrage of stress, noise, and negativity. Treat yourself to this sweet reprieve, the opportunity to return to a time when kids were kids and families were families and life in the suburbs was a comfortable world. Even in New Jersey.
The initial audience house preset features what seems to be a video recording screen. To modern theatre fans, this immediately calls up parallels to another contemporary Tony-winning teen-centric musical, Dear Even Hansen. But lay those predispositions aside. This sweet, funny, deeply human musical couldn’t be further from that high-tech social media disaster that turns out to be the titular anxiety-ridden teen’s worst nightmare. In Lindsay-Abaire’s smart, sweet, and quirky book (based on his own stage play form 2001), we are presented instead with a young woman on the verge of her 16th birthday who suffers from an unnamed genetic condition that causes one to age at 4 times the natural rate, so young Kimberly Levaco is a high school student who has the appearance and health concerns of a 64-year-old woman. But that’s not the biggest issue in young Kimberly’s world. Her dysfunctional family is comprised of a narcissistic mother who is pregnant with another sibling, an irresponsible recovering alcoholic father, and a chaotic aunt who is running from a felonious past. Thankfully, to balance her traumatic home life, Kimberly is befriended by a kind soul who works at the local skating rink and a quartet of refugees from her school show choir (a charming trope that actually predated Glee by a decade). The nine-member company’s unexpected escapades would sound ridiculous to describe, and, trust me, it’s more fun to know as little as possible as their stories intertwine and unfold throughout the show. And it’s the small scale intimacy of this little company in their modest low-tech sets and American Eagle costumes that captures all the unexpected charm and sincerity you didn’t see coming.
Ann Morrison as Kimberly has a daunting task, as a mature woman trying to evoke the youthful spirit of a 16-year-old (ask any Gen Z-er who you try to sell Mary Martin as Peter Pan to). But Morrison is wholly sympathetic as you buy into her anachronistic combination of elderly physicality, teenaged awkwardness, and the wise-beyond-her-years understanding and acceptance of her condition as she may be entering her statistical last year of life. Her preternatural teenaged perspective that life is finite and should be embraced while you can resonates with those nearer her physical age and inspires those nearer her chronological age. The role, which won Broadway darling Victoria Clark a Tony, is a stretch for any actor, but Morrison throws her all into the game.
As her newfound companion Seth, Marcus Phillips is the most endearing member of the cast. Phillips walks off with the audience’s heart as he stabilizes her chaotic world with his sweet honesty and gentility. Quirky and observant, his savant mind is fascinated with the art of anagrams (wherein he gives us the title of the show). Kimberly’s understanding of life is given fresh eyes through Seth’s youthfully hopeful perspective, and the musical’s celebration of their very special friendship is the heart that the piece unexpectedly hands us. His Seth is the friend we all wish we had waiting around the corner to improve our lives.
As her parents, Pattie & Buddy, Laura Woyasz and Jim Hogan are accomplished character actors who are well versed in physical comedy. Far from model parents, they are that kind of dysfunctional model that so many family sitcoms of the era were based around (Roseanne, Malcolm in the Middle) and not only do they work well together but, flawed as their characters are individually, they are a perfect united front against the disturbing arrival of Pattie’s felonious sister Debra (at this performance, Sarah Lynn Marion).
Marion is a force of nature as the rowdy, comical Debra, and, in a score full of intimate near-recitative character songs, Marion takes a cue from her showstopper “Better” (the only such of the show), a musical resume of the best of Debra’s rap sheet that “made [her] shitty life better”. Paraphrasing her lyrics, Marion “takes the bull by the horns and…life by the balls” as she embraces this runaway train character of the show, slaughtering her theme song with a killer voice while committing further grand larceny as she steals the show with all the outrageous bravura and hilarious comic aplomb reminiscent of a young Melissa McCarthy. When Debra infiltrates her reticent family’s home and takes Kimberly’s misfit friend group under her wing as her new crime ring, she’s equally impressive in the second act delivering her initiation to bank fraud “How to Wash a Check”, as her reluctant protégées prove to be a challenge to their tutor.
Rounding out the cast is a sweetly funny quartet of high school innocents who befriend Kimberly. Show choir nerds Aaron (Max Santopiertro), Martin (Darron Hayes), Delia (Gabby Beredo), and Teresa (Skye Alyssa Friedman) all modestly dream of raising enough money for glitzy costumes for their Dreamgirls medley (another cute reference that grounds the show in the post-Michael Bennett 90s, those of us who were wowed by Effie White’s now infamous onstage transformation during “I Am Changing” laughed significantly longer and harder then the generation who are only familiar with Beyonce’s diluted movie version of the show). In a cute and clever twist from a time when gender and sexuality were not announced on Instagram pages, each member of the group infatuated with another on–Aaron with Martin, Martin with Delia, Delia with Teresa, and Teresa with Aaron–but all unrequited as they deal with their teen-aged heartbreak. The function as the entire ensemble of the show, and, as great show choir kids do, break into solid 4-part harmony when written (and at one point, on cue from Debra’s criminal instructions).
David Zinn’s Set Designs are true to the era. Real 3-D set pieces that move in and out, no LED screens or massive projections signifying scene or time passing (save for Lucy MacKinnon delightfully sweet finale video, which explains the house preset image as the audience enters), no present day glitz and flashy tech effects, just modest era (and economic) appropriate real sets for 1999 New Jersey. His approach is consistent with the smaller, intimate scope of the musical. His best work is the skating rink where they all gather for social events.
Same goes for Sarah Laux’s Costume Designs. Everyday casual GAP wear for the suburbanites and school kids, with a period perfect denim jumper for Kimberly and primary color patterns for the ensemble. Again, nothing flashy or hip or contemporary, just filling the bill of the play and the era.
Jeanette Oi-Suk Yu’s Lighting Design and Kai Harada’s Sound Design are effective and unobtrusive, doing their jobs solidly without anything too showy to detract from the action and story.
LIndsay-Abaire’s charming book is obviously form his own play, which may explain why the show seems more like a play than a major Tony-winning musical. Much like how Barry Levinson’s Diner and Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway, when adapting their own material for stage, he seems equally married to his initial words and feel to the show. But Lindsay-Abaire scores much better then the others since his previous source was at least a creature of the stage. So while the story is quirky to downright loopy at times, it never drags or seems belabored like the other examples do. Clearly aiming both properties at his target New York audiences (the book contains more New Jersey jokes the The Toxic Avenger), he also has provided us with an everywoman heroine who, though afflicted with an incredibly specific and serious, almost off-the-wall genetic condition, somehow makes her story less about that which makes her different and focuses on the common human experience as she approaches her journey with optimism. This uniting and poignant treatment of Kimberly testifies to our common ability of the human spirit as she is determined to find happiness along the way instead of dwelling on the inevitable darker outcome. It is also charming how nine out-of-sync, disjointed characters, even from the same nuclear family, find connection and a degree of happiness from each other–ironically in an era and society that are considered disconnected by today’s standards. Again, a plug for a better time before cell phones and social media.
Tesori’s score is underwhelming (save for Debra’s rousing “Better”, which may owe more credit to Tony winner Bonnie Milligan and this tour’s Marion and their tear-the-house-down deliveries than to Tesori’s composition), which is typical for her scores. Smaller character solos and quietly harmonic duets and quartets (reminiscent current composers who strive, with mixed success, to be the next Sondheim) make up the bulk of the score. But that also works, like the sets and the costumes and the lights, and Lindsay’Abaire’s gentle humor, in not upstaging the characters or the story-telling. It is similarly appropriate that the one larger-than-life character has the single larger-than-life musical number. It’s not out of the question to say that her music is actually unnecessary and, with the single exception of Debra’s showstoppers, adds nothing to the story. This could also be a casualty of Lindsay-Adaire being too firmly attached to his nonmusical script as he knows it to make room for musical interpretation.
Director Jessica Stone (Water for Elephants) does a perfect job weaving these gentle components together in a way to take us back to a quieter time and makes a potentially preposterous and difficult story seem perfectly embraceable. She guards LIndsay-Abaire’s delicate characters and brings out the humanity and honesty in their unlikely situations. Stone makes a great case that, as we’re learning in todays too-fast, too-connected world, this kinder, gentler era of the last millennium offers hope that less can definitely be more, and certainly more satisfying, a celebration of how a life can be ordinary and extraordinary at the same time.
In closing, this show that, except for their Tony recognition, doesn’t have a lot of PR buzz outside of New York. But the one complaint I hear ad nauseum from the theatre community today is “Give us more original musicals! No juke box shows! No movies on stage!”. Well here is your chance to put your money where your mouth is. In recent Broadway seasons that have included musical adaptations of Death Becomes Her, The Outsiders, Some Like it Hot, Back to the Future, Beetlejuice, and Pretty Woman, and rumored coming productions like The Devil Wears Prada and First Wives Club, here is a show that is as original a musical as you can get. And you’ll be surprised how good it feels to nostalgically unplug and disconnect for a few hours to enjoy the fruits of your wishes.
Photos courtesy of Joan Marcus
The show has a running time of 2 hours and 30 minutes with one 15 minute intermission
Kimberly Akimbo runs through May 3, 2026, at the Hippodrome Theatre in the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center at 12 N. Eutaw Street. For tickets call the box office at 410.752.7444. or purchase them online