Friends and Neighbors

For most young people, “living in the moment” means taking advantage of your youth – doing the things you won’t be able to once you’re grown up. But for Kimberly Velaco it’s different. She has a medical condition that causes her to age at four times the natural rate, so at 15 she looks like she’s in her late sixties. Kimberly is a person who has to learn that you’re only young once when she’s never really had the chance to be young at all.   And yet, somehow, that’s the least of her problems.

The Tony-winning musical Kimberly Akimbo, with music by Jeanne Tesori and a book by David Lindsay-Abaire (based on his play) centers around Kimberly as a girl who grew up too fast while her family seems to not have grown up at all. Her father Buddy is an alcoholic man-child, her mother Pattie is an insecure and paranoid hypochondriac (not helped by being pregnant) and her aunt Debra is a chronic screw-up who is always in and out of prison and constantly thinking up new scams to run.  All the while, Kimberly is just trying to make it through high school where she predictably feels ostracized, although during the show she does find herself making a connection with the puzzle-obsessed Seth as they work on a school project together and eventually also a group of Show Choir needs who serve as something of a Greek chorus for the show while also navigating the various crushes they have on each other.

All of these characters fit into a dynamic that is fairly familiar, almost bordering on sitcommy. Kimberly tries to get her parents to be more normal, she builds her friendship with Seth, and eventually Aunt Sylvia ropes her in to a check-washing scam. Meanwhile, there are family secrets and deep-seated insecurities at play that will inevitably get revealed. All of these individual parts are things we’ve seen before, but the writing of Lindsay-Abaire and Tesori’s delightful music, as well as the tonal control of director Jessica Stone are so deftly executed that you never lose the humanity during your laughter. A ton of credit also goes to the cast. Kimberly is played by stage veteran Ann Morrison (whose credits include the original Broadway run of Merrily We Roll Along) who is able to capture both the youth and vulnerability of the character beautifully.

A key element of a character like Kimberly is that despite her physical aging and the fact that she often has to serve as a grounding rod for her own parents, she’s still a teenager, with all the insecurity and recklessness that comes with that. Her parents try to do their part, but tend to express themselves in the worst possible ways, often to hilarious effect. Jim Hogan as Buddy tries to be protective of Kimberly when he sees her obvious crush on Seth (Marcus Phillips), but as he escalates and escalates it becomes so over-the-top that he ends up scaring himself straight when he sees how upset Kimberly has become. Laura Woyasz as Pattie truly seems to enjoy being a mother, but ends up focusing almost all of her maternal instincts on her unborn child rather than Kimberly. She spends a lot of time recording video messages to her baby that seem to be as much for her, as she’s constantly reminding her future child to tell everyone she was a good person, so matter what anybody else tells them. Meanwhile, as Aunt Debra, Emily Koch drops into the story like a hand grenade, stealing almost every scene she’s in with expect comedic skill. Shamelessly vulgar and undeniably herself, you can see why people keep getting drawn to her despite her obvious shadiness.

Kimberly in particular is drawn to Debra’s energy because the idea of living in the moment is particularly resonant for her. As much as Kimberly tries to be a normal teenager, she’s constantly being reminded of how little time she has left, and yet despite that the show is never depressing. Indeed, it is life-affirming, as we see Kimberly finally take advantage of her own time and live the life she wants to.

Kimberly Akimbo is a musical for everyone who has felt like an outsider, for everyone who thinks they’re too different to fit in, and for anybody who thinks having a difficult personal or family life means they don’t deserve to be happy. A show like this shows the importance of finding your own happiness and how discovering your own strength can also help build up the people around you. It’s a wonderful show, filled with laughs, beautifully performed songs, and powerful performances from the entire cast.

KIMBERLY AKIMBO plays at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts through March 1st.