By Eva Trieger
SAN DIEGO — When I first read about David Lindsay-Abaire’s play, Kimberly Akimbo, I was baffled as to how it could have been made into a musical.
After seeing the play, I suppose I can see where songs might have helped audiences gain greater insight into each character, but it still does seem a bit incongruous. The story depicts a 16-year-old girl with a disease that causes premature aging. While that, in and of itself, seems like a lot to handle, it almost pales in comparison to the dysfunctional family of which she is a part.
Kimberly (Debra Wanger), in most every way, is a typical sardonic teen, an only child who tries to stay under the radar of her alcoholic father and her self-absorbed uncouth, very-pregnant mother. We learn about her mostly through her friendship with Jeff (Reden Magtira), a fellow student, as well as another social pariah. The two friends provide each other with support and connection in their otherwise lonely worlds.
Buddy Levaco (Jason Guffey) and his wife, Pattie (Ruth Russell) have recently moved to Bogota, New Jersey, leaving behind their home in Pennsylvania. The motivation for their move is provided in hints and vague clues, with more details being filled in with the arrival of Aunt Debra (Katee Drysdale.) Each of the adults seems to have a mercurial conscience which lends to their air of recklessness and a lack of compassion. It was difficult to feel any abiding empathy for any of them.
I had the opportunity to speak with director, Ted Leib, by phone. He shared that he greatly admires the playwright Lindsay-Abaire for his ability to write multi-layered characters and place them in “seemingly mundane situations.” While I saw more of this in the second act, I was not experiencing the complexity of the characters in the first. I think the issue, for me, was not in the acting. All of the people on stage were doing a great job inhabiting the characters. However, the script felt formulaic, even the dialogue was almost predictable in its stereotypic conventions.
Leib stated that one of the greatest challenges in casting this play was finding an older actress to convincingly play a teenaged girl. In this, he was truly successful. Her repartee with her parents, aunt and friend was natural and credible. Despite the heaviness of the family struggles and tensions, there are comic moments and though the New York Times billed the show as a comedy, I would agree with Leib that it is a comedic drama.
A few perfect touches to this production include the soundtrack between scenes which cleverly portrayed the time period. The brilliant set design is credited to Dixon Fish and John Owen. The movement of walls on sliders and wheels, projections and folding tables made excellent use of the limited space and effectively put the characters in unique and discrete spaces.
Eager to know what Leib wanted audiences to take away from the show, I was told primarily, that he wants them to return to the theatre for entertainment, greater empathy and perhaps newfound knowledge. The director told me that audiences have not rebounded to pre-Covid size and theatre can provide all of us with so much needed faith and new perspectives. While Kimberly Akimbo explores themes of death, strained relationships and human frailty, it also possesses hope and the power of taking bold actions to change one’s life.
Kimberly Akimbo runs through October 19 at Scripps Ranch Theatre and tickets may be purchased online at scrippsranchtheatre.org or by phone at 858.395.0573
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Eva Trieger is a freelancer specializing in the coverage of the arts.