It is not often that a musical comes to Hampstead Theatre, and it is not likely that the theatre will make a habit of it, an admission that comes straight from the theatre’s producer, Greg Ripley-Duggan, in this production’s programme. Yet, if the slick display of Kimberly Akimbo, the delightfully sweet and quirky Broadway hit which makes its European premiere here, is anything to go by, then maybe it should.
Starring musical theatre icon Maria Friedman in the titular role, the musical explores the life of Kimberly Levaco, who, despite being aged 16, appears much older as a result of a degenerative illness which sees her body age far more rapidly, about four or five times more than her peers. This does not seem to hold Kimberly back, however, from typical American teenage activities such as skating, while also balancing finding her feet in a new high school, a burgeoning romance with nerdy anagram lover Seth (Gilli Jones), who coins ‘Akimbo’, and holding together her chaotic family consisting of alcoholic dad Buddy (Peter Hannah), hypochondriac and expectant mother Pattie (Niamh Perry) and an archarchic aunt Debra (a glorious and underused Alice Fearn).
In many ways it is your typical American musical, and in many other ways it is not. David Lindsay-Abaire’s book does, largely, what you would expect, setting us in a quiet American town, with a protagonist with big hopes and dreams while chaos and disaster run rampant around her, yet what is so poignantly moving here is that Kimberly’s eventual conclusion appears inevitable. Individuals with her condition, she says, are not expected to live past 16, and with her 16th birthday integrated into the show, the signs feel ominous in a piece that heralds bravery, friendship and hope even if the odds are stacked against you.
As Kimberly, Friedman, directed superbly by Michael Longhurst, excels at juggling the complexities of Kimberly’s teenage angst with her medical ones. Friedman here does a terrific job in demonstrating the nervousness that comes with the teenage experience, demonstrated with vocal quivers, slight twitches and a distancing that never feels overdone or caricatured. Friedman’s onstage relationship with Jones’s delightful Seth is kept sweet and on the side of teenage innocence, and this nicely comes together in the play’s conclusion in a delightfully sweet and powerful finale which encapsulates the piece’s central philosophy.
Moreover, Kimberly’s parents, Buddy (Hannah) and Pattie (Perry), are simultaneously doting and useless. Inherently flawed and both emotionally held back by navigating complex parenthood at a young age, the presentation of the pair here is deliberately complicated, frustrating in their problems but also unrelenting in their aspirations to support Kimberly. A subplot about why the pair, with Kimberly, have moved to this new town feels slightly superfluous and an unnecessary added weight to their relationship, but this does help to introduce the brilliant Debra (Fearn), an ex-con desperate to make a quick dollar, who draws Kimberly and her hapless peers into a postal scheme that provides a neat bit of comedy during the second half. Fearn is on fine form here as the conniving aunt, but is also slightly underused, stealing each scene she appears in, in a portrayal that leaves you wanting more, given the character’s high energy and Fearn’s superb delivery.
The piece’s superb cast is also supported by its terrific creative and stylistic choices, which largely land too. Matt Cole’s choreography is vivid and engaging, with the skating closure to Act One a genuinely impressive finale and a testament to the performer’s skating abilities, especially on a hard stage floor. Moreover, Soutra Gilmour’s giant three-storey set gently rotates to maximise the onstage space and give us a peek into all areas of the Levaco home, though on occasion the viewing angle is a little too steep to see the very top’s action fully.
While perhaps the piece does slightly overdo its number of plot avenues, from glee clubs to crime capers, love interests to paranoid parents, Kimberly Akimbo reaches a brilliant conclusion that, amid all the noise elsewhere, enables Kimberly and her big hopes and dreams to finally soar. It is an odd choice for a musical, but the result is something richly human and life-affirming, which shines as bright as Kimberly’s spirit.
