The Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2023, Kimberly Akimbo, is already on tour. And in an opening night performance at San Francisco's Curran Theater on Thursday, star Carolee Carmello brought down the house in the hard-to-pull-off lead role.
Musicals that make it to Broadway are rarely as quirky or as tightly plotted as Kimberly Akimbo. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole; Shrek, the Musical) originally wrote the story of 16-year-old Kimberly Levaco as a play which went to off-Broadway in the early aughts. Kimberly suffers from a rare genetic disorder that is never named, but is similar to progeria, in which she ages four to five times faster than everyone else. At age 16, which is the average life expectancy for the condition, she therefore looks like a woman in her 60s.
Victoria Clark won a Tony for her performance as Kimberly, a role that requires an older actress to appear and act girlishly 16. And in the touring cast, multiple Tony nominee Carolee Carmello takes on the role with astounding success, convincingly conveying the sheepish awkardness of a teenager, and bringing with it the powerful belt of her Broadway bona fides.
The nine-person ensemble is essential to the story, beginning with Kim's imperfect mom and dad. As endearing but selfish mom Pattie, Dana Steingold does a terrific job, creating a character that's deliciously likeable and unlikeable all at once, and beautifully singing one of the show's most moving songs, "Father Time." And as booze-loving dad Buddy, Jim Hogan also shines.
Kim's aunt Debra, the catalyst for much of the show's forward motion, arrives with a whirlwind of chaos, and Emily Koch is marvelous and funny in the role — which has many of the show's funniest lines, and the great Act 1 number, "Better."
And as friend/romantic interest Seth, Miguel Gil is immensely watchable and compelling, and skilled as a singer and wordsmith, with the character being passionate about anagrams — leading to him anagramming Kim's name as "Cleverly Akimbo."
The quartet of dorky teens who define Kim's high school experience in Bergen County, New Jersey is also talented and a thrill to watch, with both boys, Darron Hayes and Pierce Wheeler giving especially great, excitable performances.
Jeanine Tesori's score is at times lurching and rife with a spoken-word, recitative quality, but also awash with melodic and moving moments, like the Act One closer "This Time."
And the show itself, dealing with such tragic, scary subject matter — imminent mortality — manages to be nonetheless delightful, hilarious, and exuberant at every turn. In particular, the closing number "Great Adventure," is as rousing, optimistic an anthem as Broadway has every produced.
Having told a complete story, with a tight three-act structure (in two actual acts), Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire's Kimberly Akimbo becomes that rarest of shows that doesn't exist simply to glue together a series of tunes. It is something more sublime and satisfying than that — a great play that is also a great musical.
'Kimberly Akimbo' plays at The Curran through December 1. Find tickets at BroadwaySF
