At first this Broadway musical about a teenage girl with a fatal ageing disorder – yes, you read that right – threatens to be the height of mawkishness. But there’s a darkly witty, astringent core to David Lindsay-Abaire’s book and lyrics and a subversive zest to Jeanine Tesori’s music. Michael Longhurst’s wry, nimble production also hands 66-year-old musical theatre star Maria Friedman a glittering singing role and an acting challenge she mostly navigates with aplomb. It’s great fun.
At heart, Kimberly Akimbo is an acerbic take on the tropes of US high school drama. We’re in Bergen County, New Jersey, where sundry nerdy and sexually confused kids on the brink of adulthood congregate at the local ice rink, the only local entertainment. Each is locked in a private hot shame of adolescence but Kimberly Levaco’s (Friedman) is different.
