by At the turn of the century it is New Jersey and Kimberly Levaco approaches their 16th birthday and tries to make their way in a new school in a new city. She navigates through the Choir children of the outcast show (will you be your friends?), The sweet boy who loves anagrams (will he be a little more?) And her parents, who had when they were in the high school and still don’t have them together.
Kimberly tries to find out. Who she is, what she wants from her life – and how to deal with the fact that she has a genetic illness that she old faster than her colleagues.
Kimberly Akimbo by Jeanine Tesori (Musik) and David Lindsay-Abaire (book) is a jewel of a show on youth and aging. How can you be a teenager if you are in the body of a woman in the 1960s? How can you endure hope that things will get better when you leave the high school when this day never comes for you?
Kimberly Akimbo is both introspective and an absurd comedy that is built on a loving mosaic of musical influences. It is dark and sad in some places – Kimberly (Marina Prior) is disappointed by every adult in their lives who have thoughtlessly and damaged. She is disappointed by her body when she comes across her life expectancy. But it is also a funny musical full of joy and heart, stupid capers and unrequited love. If occasionally the balance between pathos and Vaudeville does not quite apply – a complicated check washing scheme sometimes feels how it comes from a different story – there are enough brain in the game you are ready to go along for the trip.
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The new Australian production of Mitchell Butel takes the contrasting ideas with which the authors play and runs with them, and joyfully meets to meet different ideas and elements. Jonathon Oxlades Set is all dreamy pastels, illuminated by Matt Scotts Neon lighting design. Their abstract design elements play realistic costumes against Ailsa Paterson’s – which, as the 90s, is full of non -unanimous colors and discramating patterns.
Butel gives space to really breathe and sit in the realism of his characters – but then of course it is a musical, and the increased world of the song is only absurd by Amy Campbell’s intelligent choreography, especially that of the Geek choir of the show (des Choir).
This is Kimberly’s show. It is a beautiful part for an actor – the Gawkiness, Ernst and the first loved ones of the teenage, which is disguised in a role for an actor in the 1960s. Earlier rags around Kimberly’s house melted into the bean bags in the school library and chews on a candy chain. Her voice is rich and pure and safe, your characterization intelligent. Prior’s performance is never condescending or cynical with regard to teenagers. Everything is heart and she folds down properly into the bright young ensemble. Kimberly is optimistic and strong in will; And someone who hurts, underneath.
Perhaps the most difficult line is that the show walks how much Kimberly is disappointed by adults in their lives. Pattie (Christie Whhelan Browne) and Buddy (Nathan O’keefe) are not good parents for Kimberly; Her aunt Debra (Casey Donovan), who implies Kimberly and her friends in a rabbit frain program, is not a good aunt.
It would be simple that these characters are either built as completely unsolvable or exceed their defects as mere weaknesses. But Butel and its line -up find the loving, human balance – the actors each turn their star over (especially Whhelan Browne, who gives an enchanting and increased performance that only roasts the border of the farce), but never to lose a look at their treatment of Kimberly, and how it gets better in every respect – and is prepared to assume and to do it.
How do you live when you know it will end? This is a question that will come for all of us. Kimberly decides for her part that she will live life as a great adventure. For the rest of us, this treasure of a musical can be part of our own.
