Victoria Clark, who won a Tony Award in 2023 for her role as Kimberly Akimbo, was asked to fill her shoes on the Tony-winning tour of David Lindsay Abaire’s and Jeanine Tsori’s musical.
We have the answer. Carolee Carmello is a Broadway veteran and three-time Tony Award nominee. She’s heartbreakingly beautiful in this national tour that arrived at the Fox Theatre with a quirkily cute form.
Kimberly Levaco is a teenager from New Jersey with a rare genetic disorder which accelerates aging. She’s gone through menopause while her peers are still going through puberty. In reality, what should be the start of her life has become the end.
Seth, a Miguel Gil winner, proposes to Kimberly that they work together on a presentation in class about her condition. She informs him that people with her condition have a life expectancy of only 16 years. Kimberly will soon celebrate her 16th Birthday. It sounds sad, but not the way you think.
Kimberly Akimbo, a show based on Lindsay-Abaire’s 2000 play, is a hilarious, off-kilter take on a life-affirming story. Seth, a puzzle-loving anagram lover, scrambles Kimberly Levaco’s name to Cleverly Akimbo. This flamboyantly fun musical is described as “akimbo” in the sense that something has gone awry or askew (as if a person’s woken-up hair was awry).
Lindsay-Abaire’s book, lyrics, and Tesori’s Broadway pop music are a riot of wit and levity that never becomes maudlin. Jessica Stone’s production doesn’t hide the delicate melancholy in the story.
Kimberly begins to appreciate the way Seth views the world. In “Anagram,” she sings, “I like the manner in which you think.” I like how you think. This song is “a little weird, a little wise, /… a little out of sync”. It evokes that same warmth and comfort generated by the indelible “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’ ditty “It’s you I like”, especially when reinterpreted by Sherie Scott in her Broadway show “Everyday Rapture” in 2010.
Kimberly, who is wise beyond her years, and Seth are forced to grow up very quickly. Kimberly discovers that Seth lost his mother after she inquires about the ring hanging from a chain around Seth’s neck. For either character, death is not an abstract concept. They share a deep understanding of death, but that’s not all they have in Common.
Kimberly’s and Seth’s families are immature. Seth doesn’t have a father or brother. But we can tell from his conversations with Kimberly that he is just as lonely as she is. Kimberly’s blatantly dysfunctional parents appear in the show.
The first time we meet Buddy (Jim Hogan), he is hours late in picking up his daughter from the skating rink. He has been drinking as usual and is counting on Kimberly’s help to cover his parental mistakes. Pattie is a bubbly, narcissistic woman who is expecting a healthy child, as opposed to her daughter. Kimberly believes her mother has already planned to replace her.
Pattie’s not overly sensitive: she is a piece. She has been in two casts for her arms after undergoing double surgery to treat carpal tunnel syndrome. This makes her unable to feed herself. Kimberly is forced to take care of her mother, who has done little for her.
Debra, Kimberly’s aunt (Emily Koch), who is still on parole after committing a shocking crime, puts Kimberly’s parents in an even more shady light. Debra is still on parole. She devises a scheme to commit check fraud and recruits Kimberly and Seth, as well as their classmates (who act like a dynamic back-up chorus when needed) to help her.
The second act of this show is dominated by a money-making caper. The amorously mismatched show choir students Delia (Grace Capeless), Martin (Darron Hayes), Teresa (Skye Alyssa Friedman), and Aaron (Pierce Wheeler) add to the exaggerated merriment. The musical’s heart, however, belongs to Carmello, Kimberly and Gil Seth thanks to their unexpected tenderness.
Kimberly writes a letter to the Make a Wish Foundation in the first issue of “Make a Wish.” It’s not the treehouse she wants. It is to be viewed as a real person with dreams and hopes, not as an impending tragedy. Seth offers her this. Seth doesn’t care that she is beginning to look like a grandmother. He can see the youth within her, despite her wizening exterior.
Gil’s sensitivity is born of hardships and losses. Seth’s geeky goodness is made to seem one of earth’s true wonders by Gil. Kimberly is both eternally young and old, like a freshly bloomed rose that has already lost its petals.
Her singing conveys this double reality, not only in her acting. Carmello received a Tony nomination for her role in the Broadway premiere “Parade.” She finds a youthful tone for Kimberly, but infuses it with hints at her powerful maturity in her last numbers.
In the song “Great Adventure,” the lesson is that everyone is “sailing towards a distant coast,” and to “enjoy the view because no one will get a second chance.” But sometimes, there are second chances. The Broadway production was a hit, but I enjoyed the quirkiness of the St. Louis production of “Kimberly Akimbo.”
It’s impossible to predict when a show is going to speak to you. But this touring production, which was sensationally staged and acted, is excellent in every way. Carmello makes Kimberly into her own, by inhabiting the teenage senior from within.
