Kimberly Akimbo - How a Sweet, Quirky Play Became a Tony Award-winning musical

The five-time Tony Award-winning musical “Kimberly Akimbo” is playing Knight Theater NOW through April 27. But when the work first premiered in 2001, it wasn’t full of song and dance numbers.

 

The show began as a critically acclaimed play with a quirky story, about a teenage girl dreaming of big adventures. She’s got a wildly dysfunctional family and wants to live life to the fullest, despite having a rare genetic disease that makes her look like she’s in her 70s when she’s only turning 16.

 

All sorts of stories can inspire new musicals — books, movies, pop icons, fairy tales, and even square-pantsed cartoon heroes. But they often come from cultural touchstones that already have a built-in fan base: think of “Les Miserables” and “The Color Purple” or "Mamma Mia!" and “Back to the Future: The Musical.”

 

These musicalized versions are often about “finding a new way to tell an iconic story, a beloved story,” while respecting the original, says Tom Gabbard, Blumenthal Arts’ president and CEO, who has co-produced dozens of Broadway shows and national tours, including “Tootsie,” “9 to 5” and “Legally Blonde.”

 

So how did “Kimberly Akimbo,” a play that ran off-Broadway for a few months, get a second life as a musical?

 

“That’s where Kimberly Akimbo is quite unique,” Gabbard says. “ … Not that many people knew the play and so there’s an opportunity for people to discover that.”

 

A Story that Rejuvenates

 

Some shows are full of spectacle, Gabbard says, but “Kimberly Akimbo” is a show that focuses on the humanity of its characters in sweet, funny and surprising ways.

 

“[Audience] expectations may be modest because they don’t know much about it and they leave feeling like ‘this is one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time,’” Gabbard says. “That was certainly the case on Broadway where a lot of people came in not really knowing much about it and just being rejuvenated because of the sweetness, because of the humanness of it. And I believe that that’s going to be the case here because people are not familiar with the title. Just because a show wins Best Musical doesn’t mean it becomes well known immediately.”

 

Good Collaborators

 

Gabbard says an important part of a show’s success is in the partnership of the creators and how well they work together. 

 

“It’s all rooted in a desire to work with somebody that they respect. And I know that was definitely the case here,” he adds.

 

Pulitzer prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (“Rabbit Hole,” “Fuddy Meers”) and composer Jeanine Tesori (“Fun House,” “Violet”)  had worked together on “Shrek: The Musical” and they wanted to work together again.

 

They just had to find the right piece for their collaboration.

 

That’s a crucial decision, Gabbard says, but who you’re working with is just as key. “When these creatives make a commitment to it, it is a huge commitment and they want to make sure they’re going to be working with somebody that they’re going to enjoy being with. It’s as simple as that.”

 

Choosing the Right Work

 

In the Study Guide for the National Tour of “Kimberly Akimbo,” Lindsay-Abaire and Tesori shared insights into their process of choosing and transforming this work.

 

It was Tesori’s idea to use one of Lindsay-Abaire’s plays.

 

“At first, I resisted, thinking, ‘My plays are my plays,’” Lindsay-Abaire says. “But she pulled ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ off the shelf and believed it would make a good musical.”

 

Tesori was intrigued by the characters in the show. She noted how different the internal lives were from their outside identities.

 

“There’s a significant difference between who these characters are and how the world perceives them,” Tesori says. “This gap often gives rise to the need to sing. In ‘Kimberly Akimbo,’ everyone is misunderstood and ill-equipped to deal with their circumstances.”

 

Figuring Out Where Songs Could Go

 

The next part of the journey for the creative team was figuring out where songs could go. That’s a process known as “song spotting.” In musical theater, songs often tell a story within themselves. A character begins in one place emotionally and ends in another.

 

One fascinating component of their collaboration is that the duo didn’t work chronologically.

 

Lindsay-Abaire says the first song they wrote was “Anagram,” a number that happens about half-way through Act 1. In that song, Kimberly starts to realize she has a crush on Seth, a boy from school. The next song they worked on was “Father Time.”

 

That piece was an opportunity to add more nuance to the character of Kimberly’s self-absorbed mom, Pattie, and make her seem more sympathetic.

 

“I wanted a moment in the musical that wasn’t in the play,” Lindsay-Abaire says, “showing the audience that Pattie’s bad behavior stems from a fear of losing her daughter… We wanted to see Pattie when no one was around, singing to her baby at night, revealing her fears.”

 

Tesori points to another song, “Make a Wish,” that really sets the tone for the whole show. It’s bittersweet, with an upbeat melody, as Kim starts enumerating her big dreams in a letter to the Make-a-Wish foundation.

 

She contemplates things like being a model for a day, having a pet monkey or bungee jumping in Sweden — and by the end of the song winds up with a different kind of self-awareness.

 

“It’s an interior monologue where Kim sings about what she wants—to travel the world and experience everything—but what she truly needs is to feel safe and loved within a family,” Tesori says. “This realization propels the story forward. From that moment, Kim knows she has to leave to find what she needs because she can’t find it where she is. The plot is set in motion when Debra (Kim’s eccentric and perpetually law breaking aunt) arrives and introduces the mechanics of the story.”

 

Making Changes

 

Lindsay-Abaire says in the musical he and Tesori were able to revisit some parts of the play he was unhappy with and improve them. They added new characters and developed a new part of the story that included Kim’s life at school. Rather than go down a route in which it pitted popular kids against nerdy kids, Lindsay-Abaire says they decided to make all of Kim’s friends outsiders of one kind or another “but on a slightly higher rung on the social ladder.

 

“They represent who Kim could be and who she’ll never be, adding depth to the story.”

 

When he originally wrote the play, Lindsay-Abaire says he was doing it based on his memories of being a teenager. Coming back to it later, along with Tesori, they brought in a new perspective — as parents of teens.

 

Those new lived experiences gave both the playwright and composer more empathy for the grown ups in the story, in spite of their flaws.

 

Lindsay-Abaire says a musical also allows for a different kind of character exploration than a play.

 

“It allows you to access audiences and characters’ emotions more directly,” he says. “There’s something magical about a song that opens you up emotionally, making it easier to connect with the characters in a way that's harder to achieve in a play.”

 

Learning and Thriving Through Teamwork

 

Both Lindsay-Abaire and Tesori say it’s important to always be learning and asking questions. Those are some of the qualities that make them such successful collaborators.

 

“David is incredibly fun to talk to, which makes a huge difference,” Tesori says.

 

“I’ve collaborated with many people, and sometimes, even if you don’t get along, you can still work together. But with David, it’s more like a marriage — a relationship. We enjoy spending time together, and in those moments, ideas emerge. He’s taught me a lot about dramatic writing, and in turn, I’ve taught him about the relationship between music and storytelling.”

 

In “Kimberly Akimbo,” you can see the beautiful results of that collaboration, which went on to win 5 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical.

 

The show runs NOW through April 27 at Knight Theater. Click here for more info and to purchase tickets.