Review: Kimberly Akimbo at Providence Performing Arts Center
May 5-10 at Providence Performing Arts Center
At it’s most basic, Kimberly Akimbo tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl who has a chromosomal disorder that makes her age rapidly. While that’s already an interesting premise, this musical goes much further than a typical ‘issues’ play and creates something wholly unexpected and quirkily delightful. It’s hard to write a review of something when even describing the plot feels like a spoiler, but to maximize impact, this is a show where I heavily advise potential audience members to go in cold and let the show bombard you with surprises.
Kimberly Levaco (Ann Morrison) is newly sixteen-years-old, but she looks about 60. She and her family have recently moved from Lodi, California to New Jersey, and like any girl of that age, she’s concerned with making new friends and trying to fit in. This is, of course, made more delicate due to her condition, but Kimberly comes off as a tough and resilient kid–at first. In addition to regular new kid/ teen girl problems, Kimberly’s family are overwhelmingly a hot mess. Her father, Buddy (Jim Hogan) drinks and is generally unreliable. Her mother, Pattie (Laura Woyasz) is self-absorbed, and pregnant with a new baby which is taking up most of her mental energy. There’s also the somewhat mysterious Aunt Debra (Emily Koch), who is possibly the worst influence anyone can be on a teenager. Everyone has demons and agendas and while they’re trying to improve themselves and their situation, there’s no magical solution, and sometimes improving yourself is awfully hard work, and tough to stick with.
The performances of the touring cast are excellent, and Ann Morrison’s Kimberly anchors the chaos very well. She’s a bit of a spikey character at times, but in a way that feels genuine and makes you not want to rescue her, but instead fascinated to see what she’ll do next. The only real hiccup with this production is that many of the songs are sung in a high register, and that the persistent audio issues at PPAC make it difficult to make out a lot of the lyrics. Thankfully, Aunt Debra’s songs are lower pitched, and are some of the best in the show. Emily Koch’s beautiful voice belting out some very shocking lyrics is a real treat.
The sets by David Zinn work very well, and manage to transition rapidly among three different locales without relying on projection, which is very refreshing for a touring production. This show was originally written as a play, and the playwright wrote the lyrics to the songs. While none of the songs were stuck in my head the next day, they do serve the production very well and give the audience a sense of the characters’ interior lives and thoughts. Given that this is a show where a lot of the characters act less-than-admirably, these musical soliloquies really deepen our understanding of their actions, and take this show from being a series of zany incidents to something really heartfelt.
Kimberly Akimbo is unlike anything this reviewer has ever seen. The audience was alternating between laughing out loud and welling up with tears, but never in a way that felt manipulative. It’s a refreshing and unique experience.
Kimberly Akimbo runs May 5-10 at Providence Performing Arts Center. Tickets at ppacri.org.
Photo: Ann Martin as Kimberly Levaco. Photo by Joan Marcus
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