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music by Jeanine Tesori, book & lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Robert McQueen

David and Hannah Mirvish & the Segal Centre, CAA Theatre, 615 Yonge Street West, Toronto

January 18-February 8, 2026

Debra: “Nobody gets want they want”

The musical Kimberly Akimbo is a good example of how untrustworthy annual awards are as an indication of quality. Kimberly from 2021 has a score by Jeanine Tesori with a book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire also wrote Shrek the Musical in 2008. Both musicals were nominated for Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score. Kimberly won in all these categories, but the far superior Shrek won in none. Shrek is pure fun while Kimberly has a subplot that sabotages any good will the main plot engenders.

Lindsay-Abaire based the book for the musical on his own play of the same name from 2001. The action is set in Bergen County, New Jersey, in 1999. The central character is Kimberly Levaco, a teenaged girl who suffers from the rare genetic condition of progeria that causes her to age four times as rapidly as an ordinary person. As a result of the rapid ageing, Kimberly already looks like an older woman. She is nearing the age of 16 which is the average expected lifespan of people with her condition.

Despite this, Kimberly is the one who keeps the Levaco household running. Her father Buddy is an alcoholic who frequently passes out on the floor, and her heavily pregnant mother Pattie has had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands making is impossible for her to cook or feed herself. (If anyone wonders, to operate on both hands of a patient, thus incapacitating them, is not standard practice.) A negative aspect of Pattie’s pregnancy is that it seems to have been planned to make up for the “mistake” of having Kimberly, a nasty undercurrent that has caused Buddy and Pattie to deny Kimberly their full affection.

One bright light in Kimberley’s life is the growing affection of the nerdy Seth for her. A social outcast himself, he is the only one she knows who is able to see past Kimberly’s disease and appreciate the lovely person she is. Seth’s love of anagrams makes him find the appellation “Cleverly Akimbo” in Kimberly’s name.

To the musical Lindsay-Abaire adds four characters not found in his play. These are four classmates of Kimberly and Seth who belong to a school show choir readying themselves for a big competition. It’s an inward-looking group in which Martin pines for Aaron, Aaron for Delia, Delia for Teresa and Teresa for Martin. Placing Kimberly in contact with this group of friends and relations ought to be enough to explore in a sensitive story about a girl coping with her disease, with the alienated affection of her parents, with her outsider status at school and with the attentions of a nice boy who is falling in love with her.

Unfortunately, Lindsay-Abaire is not interested in making the musical a sensitive story. He feels compelled to include the subplot from his play involving Pattie’s ex-con sister Debra. Despite being on parole, Debra continues to formulate various illegal schemes for making money. When she learns that Kimberly would like to go on a big trip in the possibly short time she has left and that the show choir wants new outfits to wear to the competition, Debra involves them all in her latest cheque washing scheme. Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire even include a would-be comic song called “How To Wash A Check” with the cute refrain, “If you guys cock this up / Nobody gets what they want”.

One might think that a show that already features a character with an extraordinarily rare medical condition would have no need of a subplot hatched by an ex-con for teens to carry out. One might assume that such a scheme would only be included so that it would fail and Kimberly would realize that love is more important than money and the choir would see they can win without new outfits. But no, the moral of the show is that crime does pay. The choir happily show off their new duds and Kimberly and Seth go on a “Great Adventure” as the final song puts it because “No one gets a second time around”. Lindsay-Abaire obviously wants an ending laden with irony, but it also completely undermines any sympathy we may have felt for Kimberly, Seth or the show choir. Lindsay-Abaire even gives Seth the song “Good Kid” where he wonders “What has it gotten me, being good?”

Thus, Lindsay-Abaire’s portrait of Kimberly’s unhappy world comes to a bitterly disappointing conclusion, that is unless you think defrauding people is the right way to pay for an fulfilling life. The only way a show like this can make us forget its morally queasy nature is through spectacular performances. In particular, the show seems set up to provide a showcase for a veteran female star. In the play script Lindsay-Abaire specifies that the role of Kimberly should be played by “a woman in her 60s or 70s”.

Louise Pitre, beloved star of musicals such as Les Misérables, Mamma Mia! and Piaf/Dietrich, would seem to be the ideal choice. Yet, on the evidence of opening night, Pitre’s voice seemed under strain and her vocal lines were short-breathed and unsteady as if she were unwell. Since Pitre sounded just fine not so long ago in The Great Comet, we have to think Pitre decided to go on rather than give her voice the rest it so clearly needs. Pitre’s acting, however, was unimpeded and she successfully played a 1990s 16-year-old with all the typical postures and vocal inflections.

Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire give the most flamboyant songs to Debra in order to make us like her roguish nature although to me the character came off more as an obnoxious unregenerate. Still, with her big, powerful voice and the controlled melismas of a fine soul singer, Kristen Peace brings down the house with such songs as her upbeat entry song “Better”.

Tess Benger and Cyrus Lane appropriately play Pattie and Buddy as an unhappy, rather dim-witted couple. Benger makes Pattie’s videos to her as-yet-unborn child quite funny in their ditziness. Benger only really has a chance to show off her voice in “Father Time” which is perhaps the finest song in the show in both music and lyrics. Unaccountably, the creators don’t give Buddy anything much to sing, a pity since Lane has such fine, velvety baritone. Buddy is given to blurting out hurtful statements. Lane well conveys both Buddy’s embarrassment at saying such things and his guilt at thinking them.

Seth rapidly becomes the most likeable character of the show, free as he is of Kimberly’s resentment. Thomas Winiker makes us root for Seth throughout the show, or at least until he decides that being good isn’t worth it. Not only does Winiker sing with a bright, open tone but he fully captures all the loveable quirkiness of an awkward word-loving nerd who thinks speaking Elvish is neat.

One of the most attractive aspects of Tesori’s score are the songs and backup vocals she gibes the show choir. Jake Cohen as Aaron, Kyle Jonathon as Martin, Taylor Lovelace as Teresa and Luca McPhee as Delia sing in gorgeous four-part harmony and consistently enliven Tesori’s somewhat aimless melodies. The four are also excellent at signalling the frustrated passions of the teens through simply looks and gestures.

Gillian Gallow has placed all the action under three sets of truss rafter we first see holding up the roof of the ice rink where all the teens gather. Push-on set elements easily convert this space to Levaco’s grungy kitchen and basement and the high school locker-room and library – this last the only attractive location in the show. Andrea Lundy’s lighting tends towards the gloomy, suitable for a show with such a morally murky message.

Kimberly Akimbo is a curious musical – torn between wanting to be tender and wanting to be wacky without ever making up its mind. Without a strong vocal presence at its centre, the shows flaws are harder to ignore. Those who have been following Tesori’s career from Caroline, or Change (2004) to Shrek the Musical (2008) and Fun Home (2011) will quickly notice that Kimberly does not match those earlier works. In its present state Kimberly is neither as “hilarious” or “heart-breaking” as the advertising claims it is. Shifting a show’s focus from a sensitive, highly unusual young woman to a tale about two good kids gone wrong hardly makes for a fully satisfying evening.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Louise Pitre as Kimberly; Jake Cohen as Aaron, Thomas Winiker as Seth, Louise Pitre as Kimberly, Taylor Lovelace as Teresa, Kyle Jonathon as Martin and Luca McPhee as Delia; Kristen Peace as Debra; Louise Pitre as Kimberly, Thomas Winiker as Seth, Jake Cohen as Aaron, Luca McPhee as Delia, Kyle Jonathon as Martin and Taylor Lovelace as Teresa. © Emelia Hellman 2026.

For tickets visit: www.mirvish.com.