From the moment Carolee Carmello (portraying protagonist Kimberly Levaco) skates onto the ice as a 15‑year‑old, the audience sees an ordinary Bergen County, New Jersey teen trapped in an extraordinary circumstance. Her body is aging four and a half times faster than normal. She’s a high school student who presents with the body of a 60-year-old.
Kimberly Akimbo has been winning audiences over with its mix of humor and piercing honesty. Not to mention the five Tony awards that it won in 2023, including Best Musical! The story leans heavily on Kimberly’s classmate and best friend, the earnest Seth Weetis (Miguel Gil), who’d rather hang out at the ice rink than finish his “Skater Planet” video project.
Class‑clown cousins Delia McDaniels (Grace Capeless) and Martin Doaty (Darron Hayes), Teresa Benton (Skye Alyssa Friedman), and Aaron Puckett (Pierce Wheeler) are constantly getting into adolescent mischief, while it’s the adults who complicate matters.
Buddy Levaco (Jim Hogan) is an unreliable alcoholic dreamer whose affection comes on his own schedule. Kimberly’s mom, Patti Levaco (Laura Woyasz) weaponizes hypochondria to avoid responsibility.
Rounding out the cast is Debra (Emily Koch). {Check out CleveRock’s INTERVIEW WITH EMILY), who plays Kimberly’s aunt and petty‑crime savant with a grin as wide as her rap sheet. It’s Debra who comes up with the plan that leads to the main conflict of the whole story.
(Fun fact: Koch and Hogan are a real‑life couple who first met here in Cleveland when both were on the national tour of Waitress, and their on‑stage chemistry is hilarious.)
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Playwright‑lyricist David Lindsay‑Abaire first introduced the show in his 2001 non-musical version of the same name. It wasn’t until almost two decades later that he teamed with composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home, Shrek the Musical) to expand the story into a full musical. Developed at the 2017 Sundance Theatre Lab and premiered off‑Broadway by Atlantic Theater Company in 2021, the show leapt to Broadway in 2022. (Remember those five Tony Awards?!) Under Jessica Stone’s direction, Lindsay‑Abaire’s wit meets Tesori’s exciting score, giving the Connor Palace crowd a tale that’s as emotional as it is laugh‑out‑loud funny.
Tesori’s music slips easily from jittery pop‑punk to folk balladry. The opening number “Skater Planet” drops us into Kimberly’s world with whirling guitars and locker‑room gossip. “Make a Wish” is where we first get to see Carolee solo, and the amazing voice that she has really takes Kimberly beyond her prognosis, leaving the house holding its breath. The song “Better,” in which Patti, Buddy, and Kimberly each promise they’ll change, really shows Tesori’s ability to have musical emotion with Lindsay-Abaire’s lyrics. Lest we not forget the ‘scheme‑song,’ “How to Wash a Check.” (The name alone should be the unspoken tagline for the musical. Part School of Rock and part Catch Me if You Can!
What makes Kimberly Akimbo special is the way it ties in knock‑knock jokes with existential crisis. One minute, theater goers are laughing at Debra and her dragging in a USPS mailbox, and next, Kimberly is quietly writing her own obituary. Carmello never lets you forget that Kimberly’s clock is ticking, and the challenges of using her time her own way. Her parents are a real roller coaster. Hogan’s Buddy blames the bottle, Woyasz’s Patti blames fate, but both are too wrapped up in their own failings to see the teenager slipping away in front of them. The result is comedy with compassion and a reminder that human is the best way to cope and face mortality.
Scenic designer David Zinn turns the vast theater stage into a Swiss Army set. The evening begins on a full‑scale ice rink. Its glossy surface is actually a sheet of high‑density plastic that allows the cast to skate with real blades.
With some backgrounds on wheels, the rink morphs into a high‑school science lab, then transforms into a depressing living room littered with half‑finished craft projects and medical bills. Jeanette Oi‑Suk Yew’s lighting resets each change in venue with a whole new reality. Going from depressing fluorescent colors at the school, to much warmer tones when having touching moments with Kimberly and those who really love her.
Playhouse Square has hosted a wonderful season of shows, and Kimberly Akimbo will give the audience all the feels. An unlikely story with a fake condition really draws the audience to relate to someone so fragile in this fictional state. While everyone has to deal with their own mortality, most people have the blessing of time to face it. Kimberly dares to ask big, scary questions about life and legacy while doing so as a comedy that is enjoyable and fun. A wonderful and talented cast will take everyone along with them. The show teaches everyone the importance of time!
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