Kimberly Akimbo is Fresh, Original, and Utterly Unforgettable

Carolee Carmello and Miguel Gil in the National Tour of KIMBERLY AKIMBO, photo by Joan Marcus.

Some people are true originals. Some musicals are too. And, in Kimberly Akimbo, onstage now at the Durham Performing Arts Center, you’ll find both. The musical’s main character, Kimberly Levaco  (Carolee Carmello), is like no one you’ve ever met before. She’s sixteen years old, a newcomer to Bergen County, New Jersey, and living with a disease that causes her to age about four and a half times faster than the average person. She also happens to be surprisingly positive and wonderfully sweet, especially given her not-so-ideal family and life situation.

A musical about a girl with a life-shortening condition and crappy parents sounds pretty grim, but, in this case, it’s really not. Yes, there are some dark elements, but, at its core, this show is full of lightness, humor, and a kind of logic-defying hopefulness. So, how does one pull off this head-spinning study in contrasts? Well, it takes an amazing creative team, which is something this story doesn’t lack. Featuring a book and lyrics by Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, music by Tony Award winner Jeanine Tesori, choreography by Danny Mefford, and direction by Tony Award nominee Jessica Stone, Kimberly Akimbo has a powerhouse at its helm, and it shows.

This quirky little tale, set in 1999, opens at Skater Planet, an ice rink, on a Saturday night. While the cool kids are off at parties somewhere, a different, more awkward, and more adorable crowd is gracing the ice. The show choir crowd—Martin (Darron Hayes), Aaron (Pierce Wheeler), Teresa (Skye Alyssa Friedman), and Delia (Grace Capeless)—is  there, and so are lonely Seth (Miguel Gil), who works at the rink, and Kimberly, who is waiting for her hours-late father to pick her up. 

As these characters interact at the rink, viewers quickly get the idea that there’s some unrequited love drama—actually a lot of unrequited love drama—going on with the show choir crew, a theme that gets explored later in hilarious ways. They also get to see the budding connection between Kim and Seth when he asks her to be his partner for a biology project on diseases, or, more specifically, her disease. And, when Kim’s drunken father, Buddy (Jim Hogan), finally arrives, they catch their first glimpse of Kimberly’s dysfunctional family . . . and it only gets worse from there. Her pregnant mom, Pattie (Laura Woyasz), is at home, talking to her soon-to-be baby via video camera and unable to use her hands due to a recent surgery, and later, her criminal-minded and devious aunt Debra (Emily Koch) arrives on the scene with a money-making scheme all plotted out.

Somehow, even amidst all this chaos, Kim manages to keep dreaming and believing in a better life. She writes a letter to the Make a Wish foundation, strikes up a friendship with Seth and the show choir kids, turns sixteen (against all odds), and plans the family vacation to beat all family vacations. And, through it all, Carmello plays this tender role with impressive skill. While the actress is, of course, an adult, she nails the sweet, youthful voice and the nervous composure that make Kimberly into a believable teenager. She’s also backed by a cast of talented young people. Those “show choir kids” are both goofy and touching as they navigate their painful adolescent interactions, and Gil makes for an incredibly endearing, wonderfully awkward Seth.

Similarly, the adult members of Kim’s family are brought to life beautifully. While these characters are infuriatingly imperfect, they’re also well-crafted and multifaceted, thanks to both Lindsay-Abaire’s clever, insightful writing and unforgettable performances from the cast. Woyasz’s Pattie is maddeningly selfish, yet a softer, sadder, and somewhat more sympathetic side of her is revealed when she sings “Father Time.” Likewise, Hogan’s Buddy is a stumbling, self-centered mess of a father, and Koch’s Debra is, as one character later realizes, a really terrible person, but each one is played with enough humor to make them more palatable. 

These funny-but-awful characters see Kim as a reflection of their imperfections and failures, yet their greatest failure of all is not seeing the gem she really is and not embracing the lessons—lessons about living in the moment and uncovering the good in what you have—she is trying to teach them. These aren’t perfect people by a long shot. They’re not even what most would consider “good” people, but they are real, damaged people in a difficult situation, and that stark realness is one of Kimberly Akimbo’s greatest strengths. Despite the cheerful rainbow logo that graces the program and the colorful 90s world the characters inhabit, this is a show that is unafraid to explore the darker side of life and people.

Props also must be paid to Stone’s impeccable direction. The musical vacillates from a slow, even pace to a frenzied stride (and back again) more times than you can count, and yet, the characters never lose their footing. David Zinn’s scenic design is also up for the challenge. He has created a set where pieces slide smoothly into place, practically in the blink of an eye, to create new spaces and new views of these richly written, thoroughly complex characters.

At its heart, Kimberly Akimbo is about finding light in the darkness, sourcing the perfect from the imperfect, and holding fiercely onto any scrap of joy you can find. These tough themes are tackled with unexpected weapons: surprising humor, bubbly choreography (including a great number done on ice skates), hard-hitting songs, and flowery costumes (Sarah Laux). The result is a production that’s as dark as it is sweet, as funny as it is disturbing, and way more heartwarming than you’d think. This is not your typical musical fare, but it’s the kind of musical we desperately need more of. Kimberly Akimbo, much like its title character, is bold, brave, and utterly original. It dares to be different and, in the process, creates an unforgettable, mindset-altering experience that will change you for the better if you let it.

-Susie Potter