After losing their entire theater complex during the Pacific Palisades firestorm, Theatre Palisades has become a nomadic company sharing their productions in sites around the Westside of Los Angeles. The group is currently presenting a limited engagement of Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay-Abaire from August 14 through August 30, hosted at the Odyssey Theatre, located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025. The production is directed by Cate Caplin, and produced by Martha Hunter, Sherman Wayne, and Phil Bartolf of Theatre Palisades.
“I am absolutely thrilled to bring this extraordinary story to life with such an incredible cast and creative team,” says Director Cate Caplin. “At its heart, Kimberly Akimbo is a masterful balance of dark comedy and profound human truth. It’s about family, grief and celebrating friendship. It challenges us to look at life’s fragility and uncertainty and to find joy, love, and connection in the most unexpected places.”
Featured in the cast are Dey Young as Kimberly, Abigail Stewart as Pattie, Bradley Holzer as Buddy, Sallie Eskins as Debra, and Zakary Risinger as Jeff.
Before it became a five-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical sensation, Kimberly Akimbo began as a celebrated and deeply moving play. It tells the story of Kimberly, a teenage girl navigating a rare aging condition while dealing with her quirky, dysfunctional family, a potential boyfriend, and longing to live a life of happiness and joy before it all ends too soon. Set against a backdrop of secrets, scams, and teenage rebellion, the play serves as a powerful and beautiful reminder to live in the moment and make the most of the time we have.
Reflecting on the role, the lead actress, Dey Young, playing Kimberly, shares a powerful perspective on embodying this resilient spirit: “Being Kimberly means stepping into the shoes of someone who doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for ‘someday.’ Because of her condition, her clock ticks a little faster, but instead of letting that break her, it fuels her. She looks at a chaotic world, a deeply complicated family, and a body that’s aging too fast, and she chooses to say, ‘I’m here right now, so let’s make it count!’ Kimberly takes life exactly as it comes – the messy and the heartbreaking – and meets it with a fierce, beautiful optimism. It’s a reminder that our time here is limited, so we might as well live it with our eyes wide and our hearts fully open.”
Martha Hunter, one of the producers of the show, notes that this play resonates with a universal theme. “Kimberly’s fierce optimism is not just a character trait, but a profound ‘blueprint’ for anyone navigating their own everyday challenges in our complicated world.”
Perhaps that is the appeal of David Lindsay-Abaire’s play since there is no real story being told other than offering a day-to-day snapshot of how difficult Kimberly’s life is for a 16-year-old stuck in a body over the age of seventy and getting older by the minute. It’s a challenging role for any actor given how emotionally immature and inexperienced Kimberly really is, caught in a family where her overwhelming medical issue seems to be the least of their worries.
Her parents Pattie and Buddy (played to the hilt by Abigail Stewart and Bradley Holzer) have their own problems distracting them from being concerned about anyone other than themselves. Pattie is a hypochondriac and very pregnant with her second daughter. Forced to deal with both her hands and wrists bound up in casts after carpal tunnel surgery, Pattie insists she is suffering from (undiagnosed) cancer and diabetes in her attempt to be completely taken care of for even the simplest of tasks. Making matters even worse, her husband Buddy, who never wanted to be a father, drowns his unhappiness with booze, leaving poor Kimberly to fend for herself, and her mother, most of the time.
Adding to the trouble around the house, her formerly incarcerated and now homeless Aunt Debra (Sallie Eskins who recently played the same role at Long Beach Playhouse) shows up looking for a place to live while she works out her latest scheme to make money. But when she shows up with questionable possessions and begs Kimberly and her anagram-loving friend Jeff (Zakary Risinger who, due to her illness, looks more like Kimberly’s grandson than boyfriend) to assist in carrying out her latest get-rich quick scheme, things don’t turn out exactly the way Debra expects – with Kimberly and Jeff figuring out a way for her to finally celebrate life the way she wants to without having to deal with her totally dysfunctional family.
While the actors do fine work bringing these characters to life, the play falls flat in that we never get to see or understand how Kimberly’s medical condition is affecting her mentally nor do we understand why her parents always forget about her, even on her birthday. How can she not be deemed worthy of her parents’ love and attention given how little time she has left? It’s a missed opportunity to make us care more about how Kimberly really feels about being caught between a rock and a hard place. But that’s the fault of the author, not the production team, actors or director, all of whom are to be commended for their dedication to the production.
Kimberly Akimbo runs through August 30 on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles 90025. Free onsite parking. Tickets are $25 adults, $22 students, available online at www.theatrepalisades.org and www.odysseytheatre.com. For group discounts (10+ people) inquire directly at info@theatrepalisades.com or call the Box Office at 310-454-1970.
