The new show that opened at the Atlantic Theater Company concerns a teenager who’s suffering from a horrible rare disease that causes her to age at over four-and-a-half times the normal rate, meaning that she’s already reached her probable life expectancy. Her father is a hopeless alcoholic, her mother is hypochondriacal and pregnant with a second child whom she prays won’t suffer from the same affliction, and her aunt is a homeless, recently released ex-con who enlists Kimberly and her high-school friends in a dangerous, illicit check forgery scheme.
So naturally Kimberly Akimbo is a musical comedy.
Adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire from his acclaimed 2000 play (first seen here at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2003), the show featuring music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics by the playwright proves too quirky for its own good, suffering from jarring tonal and narrative shifts that don’t do the problematic subject matter any favors. But the musical also has charm to spare, thanks largely to Victoria Clark’s affecting performance in the title role and the touching central relationship at the story’s core.
[Read David Finkle’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
That relationship isn’t between Kimberly and any of her dysfunctional family members, vividly portrayed by Steven Boyer, Alli Mauzey and a scene-stealing Bonnie Milligan as the larcenous aunt respectively, but rather with her nerdy classmate Seth. As beautifully played by newcomer Justin Cooley (a 2021 Jimmy Awards finalist from Kansas City, here making his NYC theatrical debut), the tuba-playing, anagram-obsessed Seth brings some much-needed warmth and humor to the sometimes overcaffeinated proceedings.
You would think that Kimberly’s dramatic health issues would provide more than enough fodder for the evening, which makes it puzzling that Lindsay-Abaire felt the need to pile on so many contrived plot elements. The show works best when it’s at its simplest, such as the touching song “Make a Wish,” in which Kimberly tries to decide what exactly she’ll ask of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, or the character-defining ballads that Kimberly’s parents sing to their unborn child. Too often, though, Kimberly seems merely a peripheral figure in the overly farcical proceedings, which are admittedly very funny at times (there’s a priceless sight gag involving Mulligan and a mailbox) but too often reduce the show to a sitcom level.
Running nearly two-and-a-half hours, the musical feels padded with extraneous material, including lengthy interludes devoted to anagrams and ice skating and a song devoted to a school project about scurvy (don’t ask). We long to get to know Kimberly better, especially since Clark delivers such a beautifully sung, poignant turn as the winsome teenage girl trapped in an elderly woman’s body. One of the most effective moments features her dressed up as a grandmother (again, don’t ask), making clear in visual terms the illness that will end her life prematurely.
Under the too strenuous direction of Jessica Stone, the talented cast filled does their best to bring humanity to the proceedings. Boyer and Mauzey seem ill at ease with their unlikeable characters, and Milligan tears into the aunt’s vulgarity with such hilarious comic gusto she regularly brings down the house. Olivia Elease Hardy, Fernell Hogan II, Nina White and Michael Iskander amusingly portray Kimberly’s fellow high school students.
As is often the case, Tesori’s music is technically very proficient but not quite memorable, with none of the songs, at least upon a first hearing, quite managing to stick in one’s memory. Lindsay-Abaire’s lyrics are frequently very funny, if too often resorting to a broadness that sacrifices pathos for cheap laughs.
In its quieter moments, Kimberly Akimbo displays a poignancy and tenderness that will seep into your heart. It’s good enough, in fact, that you wish it had been just a little bit better.
Kimberly Akimbo opened December 8, 2021 at the Linda Gross Theater and runs through December 26. Tickets and information: atlantictheater.org
