Kimberly Akimbo has the sort of outlandish premise that makes you wonder if it’s going to be another entry in the annals of ‘mad things that only Americans are interested in’. But any musical that wins five Tony awards and tempts the legendary Maria Friedman out of unofficial retirement is probably going to be alright, isn’t it?
Well yes.
In David Lindsay-Abaire’s adaptation of his own, more obscure 2001 play, Friedman stars as Kimberly LeVaco, a 15-year-old New Jersey schoolgirl who suffers from an unnamed condition which makes her age at four times the usual speed. This is obviously not a real thing that could really happen (or not in such a neat way). But this inverted suburban Benjamin Button allows itself the one wild metaphysical flourish and plays it with a beautifully straight bat.
And of course, it’s a metaphor. Kimberly laconically notes early on that not many kids with the condition live beyond the age of 16. It could have been a musical about a teen with cancer or other more tangible terminal condition. But making it weird stops it feeling like a mawkish weepie about a dying girl and opens it up – Kimberly’s condition feels as much a metaphor for the transience of childhood and the fleetingness of life in general than a story to view literally.
It’s also a rare gift of a role to a sixtysomething actor and – like Victoria Clark, who won a Tony for the Broadway production - Friedman absolutely seizes it in Michael Longhurst’s UK premiere. She is sensational as Kimberly, who we first meet hovering around her town’s ice rink, a shy, lonely teenager who operates on the social fringes of her school’s four biggest nerds (Sara Hajizadeh, Ronav Jain, Robin Simōes da Silva, Aviva Tulley). Dressed for the most part in a grungey outfit topped off by a vintage Labyrinth t-shirt (the story is set in 1999), Friedman channels the frustrations, insecurities and gaucheness of being a teenage girl without ever seeming like she’s miking the idea for laughs. In this she is considerably aided by Lindsay-Abaire’s text, which avoids the temptation to have Kimberly spout reams of teenage girl slang. Moreover, Kimberly is, with pointed irony, an old soul, a classic teenager forced to grow up early thanks to her out of control family: irresponsible alcoholic dad Buddy (Peter Hannah), livewire, pregnant mum Pattie (Niamh Perry), and her borderline lunatic aunt Debra (Alice Fearn), a chaos agent of formidable standing.
Maria Friedman is sensational as Kimberly
It’s the feral Debra’s arrival that drives the plot of the musical, which doesn’t wallow in misery at Kimberly’s condition but rather revels in a goofy small town caper storyline. The golden era of the outsider high school movie - from The Breakfast Club to Napoleon Dynamite, with a lil’ Buffy chucked in for good measure - is recalled as Debra sells the gang on an allegedly low-stakes, high-winnings con job.
But the beauty of Kimberly Akimbo is what a rich texture it is: existential questions rubbing up against quirky John Hughes-isms, borderline magical realism, and poignant, earnest stuff on the difficulty of family. Plus romance! There is a very sweet, slow-burning relationship between Kimberly and her classmate Seth (Gilli Jones), who plays the tuba, speaks elvish, and is obsessed with anagrams. It’s sweet and low key and handled sensitively - Kimberly has bigger fish to fry than getting laid, but first and foremost she goes from being an outsider to having a best friend.
And there are songs! Indie musical queen Jeanine Tesori delivers a wondrous small orchestra score that’s surging and melodic and powered by ravishing Beatles-y harmonies that are accomplished via having the four sexually confused nerds that Kimberly and Seth kind of hang around with operate as a vocal quartet. Longhurst’s production sounds terrific, and while Lindsay-Abaire’s lyrics are more narrative than pop song, there are some tremendous earworms nonetheless: ‘Our Disease’ starts off cute and funny and ends in sublime misery; ‘The Inevitable Turn’ is a gloriously bittersweet climax - with a killer chorus - that ruthlessly dissects the family’s hard-won semblance of happiness.
There’s also a very neat set from Soutra Gilmour, a quirky three-story affair that combines the ice rink with the school library with Kimberly’s house: it has a cartoon unrealness that chimes well with a story that often has a sort of graphic novelish, not-quite-real quality.
Director Longhurst has made a name for himself lately as the patron saint of quirky American musical smashes looking for their UK debut, notably Next to Normal and The Band’s Visit. I’d say those shows were both lightly lost in translation: not flops, but never the hits here that they were back home. Maybe that will be the same for Kimberly Akimbo but I hope it transfers beyond Hampstead and that Friedman is game to stay on – it’s easily my favourite musical of the year, and deserves a long life.
