Kimberly Akimbo

By David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori

2023 Tony Award winner for Best Musical!

NEW JERSEY, 1999. Kimberly is about to turn sixteen and has recently moved with her family to a new town in suburban New Jersey. Suffering from a disease that causes her to age four and a half times faster than her high school peers, surrounded by a dysfunctional family (and possible felony charges), Kimberly is also navigating her first teenage crush. Ever the optimist, Kimberly is determined to find happiness against all odds and embark on a great adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Release date: Jun 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781636701790

Book preview

Cover: Kimberly Akimbo, A New Musical by David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori

PRAISE FOR KIMBERLY AKIMBO

A howlingly funny heartbreaker of a show, hopscotching among emotions with virtuosic fluidity.

—ELISABETH VINCENTELLI, NEW YORKER

A perfect night of theater.

—EBEN SHAPIRO, TIME

"You’ll leave Kimberly Akimbo on Broadway asking yourself, ‘How’d they do it? How’d they break my heart, make me laugh, fill me up with indescribable joy, and ice skate onstage?’ The breathtaking musical is focused on Kimberly Levaco, a teenage girl with a disease that causes her to age four and a half times faster than normal, and her journey toward happiness. It’s an intriguing premise, complete with a beautiful score by Jeanine Tesori and impactful book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire."

—CLAIRE STERN, ELLE

Clever, touching, and idiosyncratic … In the hands of these gifted writers, material that might have been rendered as merely zany has human and forgiving dimensions, and the score finds sneaky ways to break your heart even as it maintains a general air of cheer.

—ADAM FELDMAN, TIME OUT NEW YORK

A triumphant new musical … Funny, clever, quirky, very off-center, and emotionally engaging.

—ROBERT HOFLER, THE WRAP

"Kimberly Akimbo leaves you floating high on good vibes and ready to make the most of life."

—CHRISTIAN HOLUB, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

It feels like a miracle. I loved it from the first note to the last.

—PETER MARKS, WASHINGTON POST

"Kimberly Akimbo displays a poignancy and tenderness that will seep into your heart."

—FRANK SCHECK, NEW YORK STAGE REVIEW

Beautiful. A fascinating new musical with a gorgeous score. It’s likely to bring tears to your eyes.

—CHRIS JONES, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

A breath of fresh air, an intimate show about teenage misfits and the unreliable adults in their world that balances hilarious comedy with aching poignancy and quirks unfailingly grounded in emotional truth … Meet your new favorite musical … It’s heaven.

—DAVID ROONEY, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

A gorgeous new musical—startlingly and piercingly fresh.

—ADAM GREEN, VOGUE

"Effective and affecting … Kimberly Akimbo is a feel-good show that acknowledges feelings of heartbreak and discord."

—MATT WINDMAN, AM NEW YORK

The standout new musical on Broadway right now … Extremely funny … A delight.

—TIM TEEMAN, DAILY BEAST

"Kimberly Akimbo is a triumph … A stunner, a sly, quirky, eccentric work of stage art transformed into a crowd pleaser by playwright David Lindsay-Abaire’s captivating book and lyrics, Jeanine Tesori’s delightful music that, like Kimberly Akimbo itself, works its way into your heart with a jauntiness that both hides and ultimately amplifies its serious ambitions … One of the unlikeliest, most exhilarating and unfailingly moving musicals to hit New York in years."

—GREG EVANS, DEADLINE

KIMBERLY AKIMBO

A NEW MUSICAL

Based on the play by David Lindsay-Abaire

BOOK AND LYRICS BY David Lindsay-Abaire

MUSIC BY Jeanine Tesori

THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUPNEW YORK2023

Kimberly Akimbo (the musical) is copyright © 2023

Book and lyrics are copyright © 2023 by David Lindsay-Abaire

Music is copyright © 2023 by Jeanine Tesori

A Great Adventure is copyright © 2023 by Victoria Clark

Kimberly Akimbo is published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 520 Eighth Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10018-4156

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this material, being fully protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America and all other countries of the Berne and Universal Copyright Conventions, is subject to a royalty. All rights, including but not limited to, professional, amateur, recording, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are expressly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of readings and all uses of this book by educational institutions, permission for which must be secured from the authors’ representative: John Buzzetti, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, 11 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010, [phone].

The publication of Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori, through TCG Books, is made possible with support by Mellon Foundation.

Special thanks to Betsy Pitts for her generous support of this publication.

TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution.

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2023006437 (print) / 2023006438 (ebook)

ISBN 978-1-63670-178-3 (paperback) / ISBN 978-1-63670-179-0 (ebook)

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Book design and composition by Lisa Govan

Front cover design by Serino Coyne

First Edition, May 2023

CONTENTS

A GREAT ADVENTURE

Foreword by Victoria Clark

Acknowledgments

KIMBERLY AKIMBO

A GREAT ADVENTURE

Accidental deaths, long-time grudges, bucket lists, escapes from smothering circumstances, promises made and tossed aside, thwarted family road trips—CAUTION: You have now entered the uncanny world of David Lindsay-Abaire where characters avenge broken dreams and relentlessly pursue joy and meaning. In this world, humanity and absurdity live side by side, hilarity and sorrow, sweet and sour, destiny and untimely demise. Where better to explore the irony and crises of life than onstage in fictional settings? In Lindsay-Abaire’s work, however, fiction is only a heartbeat away from truth.

Many of his plays end with questions, such as Becca’s, the grieving mother in his Pulitzer-winning Rabbit Hole, who seeks comfort from her husband:

BECCA: And then what?

HOWIE: I don’t know. Something though. We’ll figure it out.

BECCA: Will we?

HOWIE: I think so. I think we will.

Or they end with epiphanies, as experienced by Cass and Lois, in Wonder of the World, floating in a barrel caught on the precipice overhanging Niagara Falls, on the verge of plunging into the unknown, taking in, for the first time, the majesty of the panorama before them:

CASS: What are those gardens?

LOIS: That’s Canada.

CASS: Oh. It really is prettier on that side.

LOIS: Yes it is. Maybe we can have breakfast over there.

CASS: I’d like that. It’s a nice view.

LOIS: That’s true.

Or, in the case of Kimberly Akimbo the musical, ingeniously adapted from the play by Lindsay-Abaire and composer Jeanine Tesori, it ends with both questions and epiphanies. This is the world I have been privileged to live in for the past three years, as I prepared to explore the mind and soul of a very special person at the center of the work. Kimberly Levaco is a sixteen-year-old girl trapped in a body that has been aging out of control at four and a half times faster than it should. She has a (fictional) disease and a life expectancy of sixteen. As her parents struggle to cope with this reality, they try and repeatedly fail to appreciate Kim in the here and now.

The here and now is a fundamental theme of both the play Kimberly Akimbo and the musical. The result of