Review: KIMBERLY AKIMBO at Theater Palisades At The Odyssey

What a truly whacked out piece of real estate the mind of playwright David Lindsay-Abaire must be! And how very sporting of Theatre Palisades (TP) – with a big assist from the Odyssey Theatre – to take us on a tour through this corner of Lindsay-Abaire-iana.

TP’s production of Abaire’s KIMBERLY AKIMBO, the 2000 play, not the musical, is a potent concoction of pitch-black humor, family dysfunction and unexpected does of sweetness that one would not expect out of a tale this offbeat. Paced by the performances of Dey Young and Abigail Stewart as, respectively, a misfit New Jersey teen-ager and her nutcase of a mom, Cate Caplin’s production continues the nearly 65-year legacy of Theatre Palisades which lost its performance home in the 2025 fires. Concluding its three-weekend run this weekend as a visiting engagement at the Odyssey Theatre, the production is a testament that the show – like AKIMBO’S grimly resilient Levaco family, must go on.

Given what they have all endured, the Levacos are the human equivalent of cockroaches. Patriarch Buddy (played by Bradley Holzer) is an alcoholic gas station attendant who can’t do much of anything right; mom Pattie (Abigail Stewart) is a hypochondriac without the use of her hands who relies on everyone around her for absolutely everything and is hugely pregnant. Daughter Kimberly (Dey Young) – weirdly the anchor of the family and pitied by nobody - has a disease that makes her age four and a half times faster than normal, making her a teenager in the body of a 70 year-old. Finally, there’s Pattie’s sister Debra (Sallie Eskins) a homeless ex-con who comes back into the family’s life with a scheme to forge a bunch of checks and book it to Florida. The family now lives in Bogota, NJ having left behind Secaucus under shady circumstances. It’s April of 1999, and it is cold and snowy.

Although Kimberly, unquestionably our hero, is on something of a personal journey, the play is a snapshot more than a here-to-there plot. Most critically, the events overlap Kimberly’s 16th birthday which coincides with the return of Debra. Pattie is close to giving birth to what she is convinced will be her second daughter, a child she expects will not have any of Kimberly’s medical issues. Convinced she’s days away from dying of something or other, this very oddball of a matriarch carries around a tape recorder wedged between her bandaged hands into which she records messages of love and self-promotion to her unborn child. Eventually Buddy takes the recorder and gets into the act as well.

In the hands (or in Stewart’s case, the stumps) of Caplin’s company, the lunacy of Lindsey-Abaire’s world is an absolute given, and we can chortle or cringe through any feelings of judgment.  The three elder Levacos are by turns clueless, nasty, enabling, and entirely self-absorbed.  Young’s seen-it-all Kimmy can roller her eyes or utter an exasperated “Dad!” at some fresh antic, but she’ll also capitulate, whether it’s waiting out her dad’s late arrival, spoon-feeding her mother Frosted Flakes or helping her aunt drag a mailbox into the basement.

Truth be told, their outrageousness makes them twistedly endearing.  Playing against rather than into his boyish good looks, Holzer’s Buddy is a would-be rogue who can’t get away with anything. Eskins nails every one of Debra’s laughs, tapping into the scheming aunt’s nuttiness rather than any potential desperation. And as much as a self-focused, foul-mouthed force of nature as Pattie Levaco is, Stewart also locates the humanity in her and also makes Pattie a riot.

Tethering KIMBERLY AKIMBO’s difunctional clan ever so slightly to the real world is Jeff (Zakary Risinger), a deeply dweeby classmate of Kimberly’s who asks to write a report on her illness, but is actually nursing a bit of a crush. Saddled with a crazy homelife of his own, Jeff’s into anagrams, Dungeons & Dragons (He ropes the three female Levacos into learning a game) and certainly Kimberly. He also figures out and speaks aloud the truth that nobody else will utter: that Kimberly’s condition may mean she may not enjoy many more birthdays. Which, for Jeff, means that the time for action – be it innocent, gallant, or larcenous – is right now. The finely-wrought chemistry between Risinger and Young allows us to buy into this play’s unusual romance. We want them together.

Sherman Wayne’s scenery and the cartoon-like projections designed by Nick Santiago help propel Kimberly – and the audience – on an adventure from the snow-drenched roads of blustery Bogota, New Jersey to the wilds of a safari theme park. And from there, who knows? A ride with Kimberly Levaco is worth the journey. Just make sure your cringe and wince muscles are ready for what will be a workout.

KIMBERLY AKIMBO continues through August 30 at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., LA

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