In 2003, David Lindsay-Abaire’s quirkily charming Kimberly Akimbo received loving treatment from the Manhattan Theatre Club. Lighting up that season, the play focused on titular character Kimberly as she’s turning 16. Because she’s afflicted with progeria, a rare aging disease (note the “geria” part of the word), she has already become a teenage geriatric. For her, a Sweet 16 party isn’t as much a welcome to advancing adolescence as a farewell rite.
Given the actual fun nonetheless enjoyed by Kimberly, family, and school chums (including a relative with criminal shenanigans on her fertile mind), is it any wonder that somebody or somebodies thought Kimberly Akimbo is a peachy-keen idea for musicalization? Aren’t we living in an artistic culture where any play or film or graphic novel that’s met even a modicum of success is fodder for being tuned up?
The newest example is the still-called Kimberly Akimbo as fashioned by Lindsay-Abaire himself. He’s fiddled around with his acclaimed work, adding lyrics to music by the ubiquitous Jeanine Tesori. (Reminder: They both worked together at a nifty pace on Shrek, and more power to them.)
[Read Frank Scheck’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
How well the transformation succeeds can be judged along a wide spectrum between impressive enhancement of the original material at one end or, at the other end, substantial loss to it. Deciding factors include how favorably the inserted songs click as well as whether the reshaping has eroded the initial script.
Question: As with any project of the kind, where does Kimberly Akimbo land? Answer: Just past the center towards the enhancement end. Lindsay-Abaire hasn’t fooled with the plot too drastically. Withering Kimberly still has a basically good relationship with her sometimes thoughtless yet well-meaning father, Buddy (Stephen Boyer), and with her mother, Pattie (Alli Mauzey), who’s pregnant and not having an easy time disguising her fear of giving birth to another progeria victim.
Kimberly also pals around, sometimes at the skating rink (yes, there’s a skating number), with slightly nerdy pals Delia (Olivia Elease Hardy), Martin (Fernell Hogan II), Teresa (Nina White), Aaron (Michael Iskander), and Seth (Justin Cooley), with whom she strikes up a modest teen romance. (Seth’s favorite pastime is making anagrams of friends’ names, a conceit that amuses for a while.)
There’s also Pattie’s helluva sister Debra (the scene-stealing Bonnie Milligan), a life-force in her own right, serving as counterweight to Kimberly likely impending death. A significant part of Lindsay-Abaire’s plot dances about Debra’s scheme to rob a mailbox and treat the letters so that any checks they contain can be laundered of writing and then made out to goody-two-shoes Seth.
Debra’s mail-tampering scam works, but, unless I missed it, there’s no indication of troubling consequences for the kids. Indeed, nothing of a highly dramatic nature occurs for any of the busy group. Well, there is Kimberly’s experiencing one of the late-life health problems common to progeria sufferers.
It could be said that that’s Lindsay-Abaire for you. He’s a playwright who sees the world through his own akimbo instincts, something both director Jessica Stone and choreographer Danny Mefford fully understand. So, as Kimberly Akimbo passes, it remains cheerily akimbo. It retains a cuteness while never dipping into cutsie-poo-ness. It may be worth noting that whereas in the songless MTC showing, Kimberly was played by Marylouise Burke with a decided ditziness around the play’s many edgy corners. Clark’s Kimberly is more seriously involved in her irreversible situation. Both approaches make complete arm-akimbo sense.
On to the Kimberly Akimbo songs-added spectrum. Several of the ditties, as conducted by Chris Fenwick, have a desired ditzy quality. “Better” has such taking ways that patrons may wish there were even more to it. As it is, Milligan, backed by the teens, establishes the bouncy item as a highpoint. Milligan and the teen contingent have a good time with “How to Wash a Check.” Best yet is the closing number, “Great Adventure,” with its lyric advising, “So just enjoy the view, because no one gets a second time around.” Any musical ending as strong as this does is lucky, for sure.
Now a few words on Jeanine Tesori’s place as a contemporary composer of musicals. She occupies an unusual niche: providing music for the specialized musical ilk. This season alone, she’s represented by the revived Caroline, or Change, on which she worked with Tony Kushner, who perhaps wrote his autobiographical piece as a straight play before Tesori and he began collaborating. She’s also the composer of Tony-winning Fun Home for which Lisa Kron adapted Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel. In short, Tesori has established herself as the go-to person for these projects. She never lets anyone down, but has she established a major style of her own?
Speaking of enhancement, Kimberly Akimbo is further appealingly akimbo thanks to set designer David Zinn, costume designer Sarah Laux, lighting designer Lap Chi Chu, sound designer Kai Harada, and projects designer Lucy MacKinnon. If you enter without your arm and head akimbo, you’re likely to leave arm and head fully akimbo-ed.
Kimberly Akimbo opened December 8, 2021 at the Linda Gross Theater and runs through December 26. Tickets and information: atlantictheater.org
