Joan Marcus
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Kimberly is a teenager, although she looks like her own grandmother thanks to a rare genetic disorder that ages her rapidly. She’s celebrating her sweet sixteen while concerned with her inevitable premature death. At home, she has to juggle her alcoholic father, her unfortunately pregnant and often injured mother, and the schemes of her should-be ex-con aunt. At school, she’s the new kid (isn’t that hard enough?), making friends with the sexually confused show choir outcasts and developing a crush on the puzzle-enthusiast tuba player.
It doesn’t exactly sound like a feel-good show or one of the best shows you’ll see all year, and yet, somehow it’s both. That’s what makes the North American Tour of Kimberly Akimbo, a resident at D.C.’s National Theatre for the next two weeks, so spectacular — it’s the Tony winner that could, even though it really shouldn’t have.
The creative team, composer Jeanine Tesori and book writer/lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire (it’s based on his original play), are no strangers to unusual ideas. Tesori has written songs for characters like gingerbread men, washing machines, funeral home directors, and Hillary Clinton; Lindsay-Abaire’s plays have gone to Niagara Falls and fairy tale kingdoms (yes, their first collaboration was the Shrek musical) and record shops and dollar stores and skating rinks. These are not people or places that scream Tonys or Pulitzers or Broadway shows or Broadway tours, but the two have a knack for making the uncomfortable seem okay and life’s weirdness seem like its greatest treasure.
Joan Marcus
Kimberly is played by Tony nominee and Broadway veteran Carolee Carmello. It used to be that Broadway tours had Broadway stars. Remember? That happens less and less now as producers opt for cheap kids right out of college, so when we get a slugger like Carmello, it’s a real treat and not to be missed. Her sixteen-year-old never feels fake or false, she understands the pitch and energy and body language of her character so fully. She’s the honest and earnest force in a world of silliness, grounding the piece and keeping it in our world.
The other standout is Miguel Gil as Seth, the nerdy boy whom Kim crushes on. He’s not like other boys. Seriously, he’s not. He’s absolutely obsessed with anagrams and, despite growing up in New Jersey, doesn’t really understand the appeal of Bruce Springsteen. He’s different and she’s different and their budding relationship is perhaps the most impressive part of the piece’s tightrope walk. Gil is simply adorable, often earning big awwwwwws from the crowd (he earns sitcom-style reactions from the audience, sometimes almost as if there’s an applause-style sign in the house), and delightfully sings his way through Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire’s sweet, if often unmemorable, tunes.
The old theater adage is ‘Never perform with children or animals.’ Because, of course, they steal the spotlight. I’d like to amend that to ‘Never perform with children or animals or Miguel Gil.’ Not because he isn’t delightful, which he seems to be, but because you might as well be invisible if you’re sharing the stage with him. And yes, that even affects Ms. Carmello from time to time. He has the star power of a puppy.
Kimberly’s dysfunctional family (Laura Woyasz as mom, and real-life couple Jim Hogan as dad and Emily Koch as crazy aunt — both of whom did the show in New York) is the most upsetting aspect of her unusual life. Sure, Aunt Debra is worth a few laughs, but her get-rich-quick-and-illegally schemes drag the family down and parasitically infect Kim and her new friends. Mom’s pregnancy is, and she’ll pretty much admit this, an attempt to try again, to have a baby born without a terminal illness. And nothing gets this raised-by-a-single-mother critic like a deadbeat Dad character who forgets birthdays and promises Six Flags tickets he can never produce.
Joan Marcus
It’s practically a miracle that the musical is so lovely. Kimberly is determined to make the most of the time she has left. She knows that Make-A-Wish can only do so much (she asks for a treehouse even though they don’t even have a tree in their backyard), so she goes looking for hope in this Island of Misfit Toys. She believes her parents can be better parents, she considers Seth’s offer for kissing practice, and she dreams of a cross-country road trip. These may seem simple, but it’s what she can control in the short time she has left. As she sings to her classmates in the show’s best and most memorable song, ‘Getting older is my affliction / Getting older is your cure.’
Here’s how heartfelt this show is: at press night, the two older women seated next to me nearly got into a fistfight about a shared armrest and the loud wrapper crinkling of a throat candy. I wish I was kidding, but I am wholeheartedly not exaggerating at all when I say this happened during the opening number. They yip-yapped at each other for the next few songs before the show, I swear it was the show, melted their hearts to the point that they just … let it go. When a particularly well-timed (or poorly-timed, I suppose, depending on how you look at it) joke about the federal government’s shortcomings killed with this D.C. crowd, the two women, please believe me when I tell you this happened, laughed heartily, slapped their knees, looked each other in the eyes, shrugged, and let their animosity go. It was the power of Kimberly Akimbo! It’s hatred-proof.
Every once in a while, if you’re lucky, you’ll see a show that gets it all right. Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire’s show. Carolee Carmello and the supporting cast. Jessica Stone’s direction. Few tours are this good; the National is getting a few of them next season, and it has one of them right now.
Kimberly Akimbo runs about 2 hours 25 minutes including intermission. The show is recommended for ages 13 and up. The show contains some strong language, crude humor, references to alcohol use, and authentic New Jersey vernacular.
Kimberly Akimbo runs through June 1 at Washington DC’s National Theatre. Other cities on the schedule include Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Tampa, Dallas, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Orlando, Baltimore and more. Visit the official website for more information. Use our Ticketmaster link to purchase tickets.
Kimberly Akimbo – National Tour
Kimberly Akimbo Musical
Check our Ticketmaster link for ticket availability.
