"Kimberly Akimbo" at Booth Theatre

Official logo borrowed from kimberlyakimbothemusical.com

This is one of those cases where the play has a name I've heard of for years, but no idea what it is/was or what it's about. And then someone has turned it into a musical, which is now on Broadway. OK, that suggests there is something there. And then a friend or two rave about how I really have to see it. Great: let's go!

The Play

I have no idea how this play relates to the original, non-musical play of the same name. I assume it's at least reasonably close, as the program says that the book and lyrics are by David Lindsay-Abaire, who also wrote the play. And then we layer in music by Jeanine Tesori, who is a known quantity. So I'll assume this is roughly the same story, but now with music.

The story features Kimberly, who appears to be a teenager played by a much older actor, which is true as far as it goes. I at first assumed this was some kind of flashback, with Kimberly looking back on her younger self, which seemed like it could be interesting. But it turns out Kimberly has a rare genetic disease that causes her to age 4-5 times more quickly than normal, so although she is just shy of her 16th birthday, her physical age is more like 70.

So that explains why she's something of an outcast, exacerbated by the fact that her family has only recently come to town (somewhere in Bergen County, NJ) from Lodi (but we're not supposed to talk about that). It doesn't help that her dad, Buddy, is a drunk and a jerk, and her mother, Pattie, is pregnant and a narcissist (and pretty useless, as she just had surgery on both of her arms, so can't really do much). Eventually she befriends another outcast of sorts: Seth, the nerdy, tuba-playing kid who works at the roller rink in town (because this is 1999, and apparently everyone roller skates).

There is also a foursome of kids who each have crushes on another member of the group, none of which are mutual, so it's sort of a ring of misery, complicated by the fact that half of them are straight and half are gay, and none of them seems to know any of this. But they sing and dance (sometimes on skates), and are hoping to compete in the national show-band championships, but they can't afford fancy costumes, so they're really bummed about that, too.

And finally we have Kimberly's aunt Debra, who is the reason the family fled Lodi (something about killing a neighbor and other misdeeds), but who has tracked them down in New Jersey. Anyway, it turns out that Debra isn't actually a terrorist, just a scam artist, and since everyone needs money, she gets all the kids to help out in her big scam that will score enough money for everyone's needs. Yay!

Oh, and there's a ticking clock (figuratively) because people with Kimberly's disease rarely live past the age of (you guessed it) sixteen. So she needs money to take her family's dream vacation to Graceland and Disney World and such.

The Production

It's Broadway. They've got a pretty big budget. They've even got two stand-by actors for Buddy (one of whom performed in the matinee we attended). There's even a real tuba. Victoria Clark portrays Kimberly, and I guess she really is older, which is effective, but somewhat limits what the character can do in the singing and dancing department. The other kids are all pretty young, and can plausibly pass for teenagers.

Pattie (Alli Mauzey) has a terrific singing voice, but her character is really, really unlikeable. The same is pretty much true of Buddy (Jim Hogan in our performance). Debra (Bonnie Milligan) turns out to be pretty likeable for a psychopath, but again, you can't really feel like rooting for her when she's so manipulative.

So no one except Seth (Justin Cooley) has Kimberly's interests at heart. Her parents seem to have occasional pangs of guilt and responsibility, but they are rare and short-lived. So pretty much all the fun and aughs come at Kimberly's expense, which feels pretty mean spirited. So it's Kimberly and Seth against the world, which might be easier to take if either of them had a bit more dimension to their characters. I mean, they have more than the rest, but that's not saying a lot.

The Bottom Line

I thought it was pretty fun for a while, but ultimately I just found it kind of unsettling and basically cruel. The music and dance are fine, and the show works, such as it is, but truly, I didn't find much to like or enjoy about it.

So I would probably take a pass. Unless you like that sort of thing, I guess.