The Awkward Age
Vogue US|December 2022
With its offbeat premise, stirring score, and superlative cast, Kimberly Akimbo is planting a flag for the wonderfully weird on Broadway.
By Adam Green
The Awkward Age

If you were spitballing ideas for a show that would make you the toast of Broadway, the story of a fat, Black, queer musical theater writer struggling to write a musical about a fat, Black, queer musical theater writer struggling to, etc., might not be at the top of your list. But when Michael R. Jackson's dazzling A Strange Loop won best musical at the Tony Awards last June, it confirmed that there is a place-an appetite, even for offbeat, challenging work on Broadway. Now, in the footsteps of A Strange Loop and such other less-than-obvious Tony winners as Fun Home and The Band's Visit, comes a new contender, fresh from a soldout off-Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater: Kimberly Akimbo. David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori's gorgeous, tragicomic chamber musical stars Victoria Clark as a suburban teen with a medical condition similar to progeria that drastically accelerates her aging process and shortens her life. Clark classifies the show, which opened at the Booth Theatre on November 10, as "weird art." "It's not trying to be anything other than what it wants to be," she says. "That is exactly how Kimberly ends up living her life and it's kind of a lesson for all of us, to get to the core of who we are and display those colors proudly." As the idiosyncratic playwright of Fuddy Meers and the Pulitzer Prizewinning Rabbit Hole, Lindsay-Abaire has made a career exploring the intersection of laughter and heartbreak, anchoring surreal flights of fancy in emotional truth and a keen awareness of mortality. "Funny is a place to start, but it's got to be grounded in something or it's going to float away onstage," he tells me. "More often than not, what I ground it in is a place of pain, and I should probably talk to my therapist about that."

Esta historia es de la edición December 2022 de Vogue US.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición December 2022 de Vogue US.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE VOGUE USVer todo
FINAL CUT
Vogue US

FINAL CUT

\"WE WANT YOU TO GO FOR IT!\" ANNA TOLD ME

time-read
2 minutos  |
December 2024
SCREEN TIME
Vogue US

SCREEN TIME

Three films we can't wait to see.

time-read
1 min  |
December 2024
Impossible Beauty
Vogue US

Impossible Beauty

Sometimes, more is more: Surreal lashes and extreme nails put the fierce back in play

time-read
2 minutos  |
December 2024
Blossoms Dearie
Vogue US

Blossoms Dearie

Dynamic, whimsical florals and the humble backdrops of upstate New York make for a charming study in contrasts.

time-read
1 min  |
December 2024
HOME
Vogue US

HOME

Six years ago, Marc Jacobs got a call about a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Making it his own, he writes, would be about love, commitment, anxiety, patience, struggle, and, finally, a kind of hard-fought, hard-won peace.

time-read
7 minutos  |
December 2024
GIRL, INTERRUPTED
Vogue US

GIRL, INTERRUPTED

Anna Weyant found extraordinary fame as an artist before she had reached her mid-20s. Then came another kind of attention. Dodie Kazanjian meets the painter at the start of a fresh chapter

time-read
10+ minutos  |
December 2024
ROLE PLAY
Vogue US

ROLE PLAY

Kaia Gerber is someone who likes to listen, learn, read books, go to the theater, ask questions, have difficult conversations, act, perform, transform, and stretch herself in everything she does. That she's an object of beauty is almost beside the point.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
December 2024
CALLAS SHEET
Vogue US

CALLAS SHEET

Maria Callas's singular voice made her a legend on the stage. In a new film starring Angelina Jolieand on the runwaysthe romance continues.

time-read
3 minutos  |
December 2024
BOOK IT
Vogue US

BOOK IT

A preview of the best fiction coming

time-read
2 minutos  |
December 2024
GLOBAL VISTAS
Vogue US

GLOBAL VISTAS

Three new exhibitions offer an expansive view.

time-read
4 minutos  |
December 2024