Kimberly Akimbo

Not your typical musical, Kimberley Akimbo is at once an exhilarating, heartbreaking and life-affirming piece with a fast-aging teenager at its heart. Adapted from the 2000 play by David Lindsay-Abaire, this is a musical about growing up, growing old and grabbing life by the proverbial!

Starring stage icons Marina Prior, Casey Donovan, Christie Whelan Browne and Nathan O’Keefe along with local newcomers, this new musical transcends generations with laughter, love and a poignant reminder of life’s fleeting moments.

Take a trip back to New Jersey, 1999 where our musical heroine like no other, Kimberley Levaco (Marina Prior), bursts onto stage and into a sea of teen angst, unrequited crushes and popularity contests. Equal parts teen comedy, heist caper and unlikely love story, her rollercoaster journey shows that the tempo of your song is yours to set.

Born with a genetic rarity that means she ages at four times the rate of everyone else, Kimberly is a teen in mid-life form and living on borrowed time. She can cope with her dropkick dad (Nathan O’Keefe) and narcissistic mum (Christie Whelan Browne) – you can’t spell ‘dysfunction’ without ‘fun’, right? But when her criminal aunt Debra (Casey Donovan) shows up with a get-rich-quick scheme too good to be legal, Kimberly decides you’re only young once.

Packed with great songs, anagrams, heart, and maybe a couple of felonies along the way, Kimberly Akimbo is a theatre experience unlike any other! The show’s Broadway run received five Tony Award wins, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, with Variety stating “Lindsay-Abaire […] is a nimble cartographer of the ties that bind families together and the devastating distances that keep them apart.”

Australian soprano and leading lady of musical theatre Marina Prior becomes Kimberley with aplomb for the debut season here in Adelaide!

“I have performed in Adelaide many times during my career, and am thrilled to return to make my State Theatre Company of South Australia debut in Kimberley Akimbo,” she said.

It is a beautiful show that balances hilarity, pathos, and brilliant music beautifully.

Playing Kimberley’s zany and somewhat above-the-law aunt Debra is stage superstar and much-loved performer Casey Donovan.

“I’m so looking forward to playing the role of Debra in the Tony Award winning production of Kimberley Akimbo with the Adelaide Theatre Company, alongside Marina & Christie plus the rest of the cast. The script and music are brilliant and Debra is a unruly, funny, but loving character to play,” she said.

Kimberley Akimbo is supported by State Theatre Company South Australia Major Production Fund, made up of a syndicate of visionary supporters who support the staging of productions of significant scale by State Theatre Company South Australia.

The support of the Major Production Circle enables State Theatre Company South Australia’s creatives to dream of and release bold and ambitious creative visions that wow audiences, use large ensemble casts and stretch the limits of the Company’s renowned set and costume artisans.

And if there is an ambitious story to be told, it is definitely Kimberley Akimbo as she navigates life’s trickier moments while being the one person in four million who becomes old before her time, yet remains young at heart – like we all do.

Don’t miss the show described as “a delight” (Broadway World) and “clever, touching and idiosyncratic” (Time Out).