For David Lindsay-Abaire, the best part of writing the book and lyrics to the musical stage version of the animated film Shrek was collaborating with composer Jeanine Tesori. So much so that he wanted to work on another project with Tesori but away from the pressures that came with a hot property and the accompanying expectations and opinions of Hollywood producers.
She suggested adapting his play Kimberly Akimbo, about a 16-year-girl with a genetic disease that prematurely ages her into the equivalent of a woman in her 60s. She has a dysfunctional family, a potential love interest and hopes for the future despite her condition. Tesori thought the inner lives of the characters lent themselves to a musical.
“We tiptoed toward the idea, wrote a couple songs,” Lindsay-Abaire recalls in a phone interview as the show makes its way to Dallas on tour following a successful Broadway run. “Sure enough, we thought, there’s something here. The first draft went much faster because we didn’t have people giving us notes.”
Still, it took years to get it from the page to the stage. That was not a problem for the playwright best known for Rabbit Hole, which premiered on Broadway in 2006 and was made into a film starring Nicole Kidman. He was accustomed to working alone, away from the spotlight, for as long as it took to get it right.
We talked to Lindsay-Abaire about what originally inspired Kimberly Akimbo when he wrote the play 25 years ago, and why critics and audiences have embraced the musical.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Kimberly Akimbo ran on Broadway for 18 months, won five Tonys and has been on tour in North America since last year. Why do you think it struck such a chord?
It's not your typical Broadway musical. There aren’t 40 people tap dancing in a line. It’s small and strange and has my very specific sense of humor. The characters are outrageous but also grounded in emotion. That’s all of my plays, and it's a tone and a worldview that Jeanine Tesori shares. For the people that like it, I think it’s because it can't be pinned down. Is it a comedy? Yeah, I hope it's really, really funny. Is it serious? Yeah, it's about a 16-year-old girl dealing with her mortality but also first love, dysfunctional parents and a wayward aunt. So it’s a bunch of things in one. I think people like the stew of it.
It started as a play that premiered way back in 2001. Where did the idea come from?
The very earliest seed came when I asked a friend how his new niece was doing. He said, “Oh, she’s amazing. She's this wise old woman trapped in a baby’s body.” I thought, being the very literal minded person I am, “What a strange thing to say.” Then I thought, there's something inherently theatrical about that idea. Obviously you can’t have a baby on stage in that way. But what if that baby was a teenager. The real engine was that I knew the perfect actress for the part, Marylouise Burke, who has been in nearly all of my plays. It was a delicious opportunity. She’s an older person but has such a young spirit, I wanted to see her play a 16-year-old girl.
Eventually I started to dig into stuff from my own childhood, with my own parents. I also wanted to write a play where everything was upside down, where the teenage girl looks like an old woman and the grown-ups behave like children. It's April, but it's snowing. Everything about it was upside down.
That’s a fun, creative idea.
It's the joy of writing. But also the challenge, finding the idea that makes it worthy. I teach playwriting now, and I'll often ask my students, “Is it a head play or a heart play?” I want to write a part for my older actress friend — that’s a head idea. Then the heart of it is, why should the audience care? I had to dig in enough to figure out this girl is dealing with mortality, but it's not a play about a girl who's dying. It's about a girl who's trying to live every moment of the time that she has left, and that makes it hopeful and positive and also gives her motivation that an audience will care about.
It’s a puzzle. And as you can probably tell from the play, I’m someone who loves puzzles; word puzzles, logic puzzles. That kid Seth in the musical — he’s Jeff in the play — is a puzzle master.
One of the signature songs is “Anagram,” during which Seth, the classmate she has a crush on, rearranges the letters of her name, Kimberly Levaco, into “Cleverly Akimbo” while she sings about their budding relationship.
One of the main metaphors is that you can look at something from a completely different angle and change the way that it's seen. It's also tied to Kim's genetic mutation. If she just had one more B instead of the A that's missing. … It felt all of a piece to me.
Kimberly’s aunt gets her involved in a check washing scheme and yet it has a good outcome.
When I was writing the play, check washing was sort of everywhere. That was more than 20 years ago. Since the musical has come out, it’s back. I can't tell you how many people have forwarded me articles about it, saying, “Is this the power of musical theater?” I don't think Kimberly Akimbo is to blame. But I like shows where people sometimes do bad things. The show has taken a couple of knocks from people saying what these kids are doing is immoral. I thought, “Did you know Sweeney Todd was running at the same time across the street? That guy's chopping up people and baking them into pies.”
Another issue is that Kimberly’s father drinks too much. Where do such characters come from?
The characters come from the story. So if I'm writing a story about a girl who’s maybe near death but wants to live, then what can I put in her way? For most teenagers, the obstacles are often their family members. OK, why are they in her way? Maybe they're in denial about her mortality. Maybe they don't want to face it. How would that manifest? Well, when people don't want to face things, they tend to put on armor. What is their armor? Well, it's often drugs or alcohol or denial.
Buddy is an alcoholic because he doesn't want to face his daughter's mortality. Her mother is a narcissist because if she makes everything about herself, then she doesn't have to deal with her daughter's mortality. Also, this is not the life this family wanted. So the mother and father are having a new kid. What extremes could they go to make sure that the kid is not like Kim, which is an ugly thing to say? It’s just sorting out how best to tell Kim's story. It sounds a little technical, but it’s really about the craft of writing.”
Details
Jan. 6-18 at Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora St. $50-$180. broadwaydallas.org.
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