State Theatre Company South Australia and Melbourne Theatre Company bring the Tony Award-winning musical to Her Majesty’s Theatre with stars Marina Prior, Casey Donovan, Nathan O’Keefe and Christie Whelan Browne.
The new girl in town is making heads spin. You’ve got to move fast when you’re 16 going on 70. Kimberly Akimbo is the musical that took Broadway by storm. It won countless hearts and raked in five Tony awards including Best Musical, with music by Jeanine Tesori (Shrek, Fun Home) and book by David Lindsay-Abaire (Ripcord). Directed by four-time Helpmann Award-winner and the Company’s former Artistic Director, Mitchell Butel, the Australian premiere from State Theatre Company South Australia and Melbourne Theatre Company in association with Wagnan Productions Sarah Rohrsheim assembles a powerhouse cast including Casey Donovan, Nathan O’Keefe, Christie Whelan Browne and Marina Prior as Kimberly. Elder Conservatorium Music Theatre graduate Darcy Wain plays opposite Marina as the lovable Seth Weetis. Fellow Elder colleagues Alana Iannace and Allycia Angeles along with Marty Alix (Hamilton) and Jacob Rozario (Dear Evan Hansen), will comprise the “Teen Quartet”, with a live eight-piece band led by musical director Kym Purling (Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill).
Brimming with infectious energy and tunes that soar, this funny and tender new musical transcends generations with laughter, love and a poignant reminder of life’s fleeting moments.
Director Mitchell Butel says: “I think Jeanine Tesori is the greatest musical writer living today, and David Lindsay-Abaire is one of the world’s most hilarious and affecting playwrights. This gem of a show broke and restored my heart on Broadway and I’m beyond thrilled to return to helm a new Australian production with the most perfect and talented cast imaginable. It’s a show about time – finding it, making it and enjoying it as much as we can before we lose it. I can’t wait for audiences to be feel this show’s great wit and joy.”
New Jersey, 1999: from a sea of teen angst, unrequited crushes and popularity contests bursts Kimberly, a musical heroine like no other. Equal parts teen comedy, heist caper and unlikely love story, her rollercoaster journey shows that the tempo of your own 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 and narcissistic mum – can’t spell ‘dysfunction’ without ‘fun’, right? But when her criminal aunt Debra shows up with a get-rich-quick scheme too good to be legal, Kimberly decides you’re only young once.
Licensed exclusively by Music Theatre International (Australasia)
8 Jul – 19 Jul 2025 Her Majesty’s Theatre
Kimberly Akimbo – State Theatre Company
