Review: KIMBERLY AKIMBO Kicks Off the New Year at Broadway Sacramento

Broadway Sacramento is kicking off the new year with a bang with the much-anticipated, multi-Tony Award-winning phenomenon, Kimberly Akimbo. David Lindsay-Abaire’s book and lyrics, based on his 2001 play, are accompanied by Jeanine Tesori’s beautiful score in this hilariously dazzling take on love and loss.

While Kimberly Akimbo is very much a story about growing up…and growing old…it is, at its core, spectacularly comedic. Thank goodness, otherwise the content could get heavy. As it is, the seriousness of Kim’s illness is perfectly balanced with wit and limitless charm. Kim (Carolee Carmello) has a disease that causes her to age four times faster than anyone else. At almost sixteen, she can pass for an elderly grandmother. She and her parents have just moved to a new town, trying to outrun a criminal past and a con-artist aunt, Debra (Emily Koch). Kim’s narcissistic mother, Pattie (Dana Steingold) and alcoholic father, Buddy (Jim Hogan), are ill-equipped to handle adulthood, much less a disease of any magnitude. With another baby on the way, Kim’s parents push her aside and she’s left to navigate her new relationships and looming mortality on her own. In a secondary plot, her friends, who are involved in a complicated love quadrilateral, are trying to come up with cash for new costumes for their choir competition, while her love interest, Seth (Miguel Gil), is figuring out his own place in the world. Meanwhile, in her limited exposure, Kim’s sixteen-year-old mind considers a treehouse and a trip to a theme park the epitome of a bucket list. All they need to do to make it all happen is follow Aunt Debra’s check-washing scheme…after all, what do a dying girl and her friends have to lose?  

Central to the show’s success is the incredible range of Carmello. It hinges on her ability to be a believable teenager which, somehow, she excels at. Her performance of “Make a Wish” makes one think. If you knew you had limited time left, what would you wish for? Two hours of Carmello is never a bad choice. When she and Gil share a perfectly awkward moment, I can’t imagine anyone else playing Seth. Gil’s expressions, movements, and passion in examining his motivations in “Good Kid” are everything I expect in a nerdy teen whose obsession is anagrams. Despite a rough home environment, he is a good kid who’s a little disillusioned and questions where being good has gotten him. He gets the excitement he craves in helping to fulfill Kim’s bucket list. My favorite character, Debra, is brought to life by Broadway at Music Circus alum Emily Koch. Brash, bold, and shameless, Koch brings it all to the stage with powerhouse vocals and a laissez-faire attitude that just can’t be replicated. Director Jessica Stone successfully brings this talented team together to serve up a winning combination of humor and sensitivity.

Kimberly Akimbo plays at Broadway Sacramento through January 5th. Tickets may be purchased online at BroadwaySacramento.com, by phone at (916) 557-1999, or at the Box Office at 1419 H Street in Sacramento.

Photo credit: Joan Marcus

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