It might seem an odd place to begin a review, but the interview in the programme that accompanies Kimberly Akimbo offers some of the best advice on how to write a musical you are likely to find, and I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone interested. Playwright David Linday-Abaire and composer Jeanine Tesori go on to apply it masterfully in this charming and impeccable example of the genre. They take an improbable subject – a teen with an rapid-onset aging trying to negotiate a wholly dysfunctional family – and produce a wholly delightful evening of bitter-sweet charm where the tone is unerringly controlled, offering continual amusement with an undertow of sadness. It’s a high-wire act to bring off, but this is an example when all the moving parts of musical theatre cohere leading to a triumphantly successful conclusion.
As they say in their interview with Greg Ripley-Duggan, this is a story based more on character than plot, which moves forward as the songs reveal, just as the arias do in Baroque Opera, what makes the characters tick. The singing and acting are uniformly excellent, with everyone involved digging deep and with full confidence into layers of complex personality and backstory. The tunes are catchy, the lyrics both slick and sharp on the one hand and sappy and soothing on the other. Dialogue has pith, plausibility and pace. The dramaturgy is beautifully structured and paced, performing that alchemy all good musicals need where the transition between words and music seems inevitable rather than artificial. The songs bring to the surface the powerful yearnings and aspirations of the characters that can only be implied in the action: that point where the frisson of opera and musicals at their best meet and make common cause. Last, but not least, in this string of accolades, the set is a revolving wonder, created by Soutra Gilmour, out of which emerge a plethora of credible locations – an ice-skating rink and school rooms, a three-storey home, a garage fitted out with a car, and several other outside settings in New Jersey, all presided over by a massive single-faced clock, encapsulating the importance of the passage of time in the story.
Maria Friedman, in her 60s, plays Kimberly, aged 16, with a winning combination of plausible, gamine, eagerness for life, and world-weary fatalism in the face of mortality. Not just does she inhabit a wonderful part for an older woman, though the creators deserve credit for providing such a rare opportunity; she also offers an exceptional embodiment of understated ‘grace under pressure’. When she does let the emotions rip in the second act, it is a cathartic moment for everyone that reduced the house to silence. It is a performance, like several others here, that deserves to win awards.
The rest of the top-notch cast distinguish themselves in ensemble and solo spots with equal aplomb. Peter Hannah and Niamh Perry graduate from hopeless, feckless parents on the wrong side of the tracks, to much richer, layered characters, with Perry’s rendition of ‘Father Time’ a particular highlight. Alice Fearn brings an extra crackle of energy to Act Two with her portrayal of Aunt Debra, who sets the main mechanism of the plot in motion with a walk on the wilder sides of the law. Gilli Jones is a standout performer as Seth, whose goofy, anagram-addicted, tuba-playing alternative take on life matches up so charmingly with Kimberly’s experiences. Finally, there is a carefully calibrated quartet of fellow school kids who have some fine a capella moments and act as a commentating chorus on the events of the drama. It was a canny move on the part of Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire to avoid any hint of caricature – no bullies or cheerleaders – just four ordinary kids who poignantly represent a future that Kimberly won’t have.
There are so many delightful, thoughful details worth noting in the production that Michael Longhurst has directed so lovingly here; far more than can be covered in a short review. There are delectable solos from the six superb instrumentalists coordinated on either side of the set by Nigel Lilley, some more than efficient dance moves, not least for ice-skating, devised by Matt Cole, and all credit to dialect coach Aundrea Fudge for anchoring everyone so securely within the Garden State. But what resonates longest in the memory is the light and delicate touch whereby the darkest topics – criminality, alcoholism, terminal illness and the price of poverty – are all sketched in, before musical and verbal riffs snatch the emotional steering back into brio, cheerfulness and zany, feel-good comedy.
No one who loves musical theatre should miss this show.
Book & Lyrics: David Lindsay-Abaire
Music: Jeanine Tesori
Director: Michael Longhurst
Musical Director: Nigel Lilley
Cast: Alice Fearn, Maria Friedman, Sara Hajizaden, Peter Hannah, Ronav Jain, Gilli Jones, Niamh Perry, Robin Simoes da Silva, Aviva Tulley,
Until 7 November 2026
2 hrs 35 mins with interval
Photo Credit: Marc Brenner