Review: Kimberly Akimbo by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione

There are thousands of ways to tell a story and quite often the telling of the story is the story itself. Writers rely on old tropes like en media res, the hero cycle, or nonlinear narratives to tell a classic story in a new way. Sometimes this adds an extra dimension to the tale (e.g., Memento, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind), but often the storytelling style dominates the subject’s substance (looking at you ,Quentin Tarantino!). Kimberly Akimbo regales its audiences with the story of a little girl who has a fatal, genetic disorder that causes her to age four and half times faster than a normal person does. The writers have chosen a unique device to help tell the story: the anagram.  Just as an anagram scrambles the letters of a word or phrase to create a new word or phrase, the protagonist’s life is scrambled by her disease. In homage to the anagram, the producers of this show have inserted an easter egg into the set design (hint: keep an eye on the letters on the bookshelf).

 

 

 

The title character’s affliction is based on a real condition called progeria which causes the body to age rapidly thus changing their appearance and besetting them with the health problems that normally only come from old age. Caused by spontaneous genetic mutation, progeria destabilizes the victim’s cellular structure so severely that their life expectancy drops to approximately fifteen years. David Lindsay-Abaire, who wrote the play upon which the musical is based, chose to leave the name of the disease out of his work and focus instead on themes of maturity, morality, and agency.

 

His play debuted in California in 2001 and won the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for Writing. It received musical treatment only twenty years later when it was premiered by the Atlantic Theater Company with book and lyrics by the original author and music by Jeanine Tesori. This was the pair’s second collaboration; they'd previously worked on Shrek the Musical together. Kimberly Akimbo opened on Broadway in 2022 and snagged five Tony awards: Best Musical, Best Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Featured Actress, Best Score, and Best Book.

 

The musical tells the story of six teenagers in Bergen County, New Jersey, all of whom feel in one way or another that they are misfits or victims of unrequited love. Yet, it is not just about sad high schoolers. We also witness the woes of Kimberly’s family which are by no means restricted to their relationship with her.  Like the teens, they also are struggling to find their place in the world. Kimberly's accident-prone, pregnant mother and drunken, disorderly father offer her very little guidance as she's simultaneously dealing both with puberty (internally) and menopause (externally). The only character who seems confidently at home with herself is Kimberly’s Aunt Debra, the agent of chaos whose life philosophy is encapsulated in the lyrics “Make your sh*tty life better!” With that song Aunt Debra etails her willingness to cross all sorts of legal, familial, and moral boundaries to do just that. The play’s subplot details her attempts to win the teenagers over to her way of thinking.

 

 

Ann Morrison took over the title role on July 29^th of this year, and she has attacked the role with unbridled enthusiasm. She joins what can only be described as a perfectly-cast cast. Emily Koch as the mischievous, mulleted Aunt Debra channels Melissa McCarthy in her comedic prime, creating a character so infectiously charming you root for her even when she justifies robbing the blind to get what you want.  Similarly, Jim Hogan as Buddy wields SNL-style look-at-me moments of hilarity that are delightfully tempered when he sings the Ben-Folds-esque ballad “Hello Baby.” This is in stark contrast to his earlier song “Happy for Her,” which is pure delightful parody. Miguel Gil as Kimberly’s first love Seth embraces the jarring awkwardness of his character so adroitly that he belongs in the pantheon of classic sit-com nerds-from-next-door types. He’s shy, caring, scared, and excited in rapid succession, still managing to maintain authenticity. It’s due to Gil and the other student characters that Kimberly Akimbo appears from the outside to be a darker version of  High School Musical. 

 

 

 

Tesori’s score seesaws between nursery rhymes and the stylings of a Disney musical from the very outset. It's utterly saccharine. The choreography is fun thoughy simple, and the set design is strong (though the garish orange wallpaper and the olive-green refrigerator feel much more seventies than late nineties). The dancing on ice skates and the snow falling on the stage during the first act are simple effects that get big reactions, but the true star of the show remains Ann Morrison. She so convincingly plays Kimberly’s plight one might reasonably ask oneself if she's a young actor in older makeup or an older actor with the spirit and moves of a far younger one. Morrison, who has a solid history of doing one-person productions, is entertaining enough to do this production alone, but when you add in the incredible supporting cast the resulting sum is much greater than its parts.

 

---

Kimberly Akimbo
touring company

September 30 - October 5, 2025

Bass Concert Hall, Austin