Critics are rapturous about the UK premiere of Kimberly Akimbo at Hampstead Theatre, with Maria Friedman’s performance as a teenager ageing four times too fast hailed as career-best work.
Critics have been near-unanimous in their praise for the UK premiere of Kimberly Akimbo at Hampstead Theatre, with reviews ranging from a rapturous five stars down to a still-glowing four. Every review singles out Maria Friedman’s performance as the heart of the production, and the overwhelming consensus is that Michael Longhurst has delivered a genuine hit: a quirky, funny and quietly devastating musical that earns its reputation as one of Broadway’s most acclaimed recent imports.
David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori’s five-time Tony Award-winning musical, adapted from Lindsay-Abaire’s own 2001 play, follows Kimberly Levaco, a New Jersey teenager with a rare condition that ages her body four to five times faster than normal, as she navigates her chaotic family, a fledgling romance and the small matter of her own mortality. Sixty-six-year-old Friedman plays the 16-year-old Kimberly, in a performance critics have called nothing short of sensational.
The verdict: A joyfully funny, richly moving triumph, anchored by a career-best performance from Maria Friedman — critics agree Hampstead has a genuine hit on its hands.
Critics’ comparison
Reviewers repeatedly likened the show’s tone to Glee and the golden age of the outsider high-school movie, from The Breakfast Club to Napoleon Dynamite, while hearing echoes of Sondheim in its score.
| Publication | Rating | The Key Takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| Time Out | ★★★★★ | Sensational and existentially rich: easily the best musical of the year |
| The Times | ★★★★ | A quirky, whimsical delight with a career-best performance from Friedman |
| The Standard | ★★★★ | Witty and astringent, with a glittering star turn after a long drought for Hampstead |
| The Stage | ★★★★ | A joyfully funny and richly moving success with an earwormy score |
| The Independent | ★★★★ | A universal, well-staged triumph that transcends its strange premise |
| Radio Times | ★★★★ | Life-affirming, achieving a rare balance of laughter and tears |
The reviews: what they loved about Kimberly Akimbo
- Maria Friedman’s performance. The unanimous highlight. Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski called her “sensational,” while the Independent’s Louis Chilton praised how she “ably mimics the physicality of a teenage girl with a sincerity that evades caricature.” The Standard’s Nick Curtis called it a “glittering” turn.
- Jeanine Tesori’s score. The Stage’s Tom Wicker found it “utterly earwormy,” praising how it “effortlessly stirs poignancy, wit and hope into a melting pot of genres,” while The Times heard “a hint of Sondheim” in its quirky, self-aware songs.
- Soutra Gilmour’s set design. Widely admired for its ingenuity. The Independent called the rotating, three-storey design “robustly clever,” while Radio Times praised its “quirky era-appropriate Americana.”
- Alice Fearn as Aunt Debra. A consistent scene-stealer across every review. The Stage called her performance of the number Better “swaggeringly” delivered, while the Standard felt she’d be a “show-stealer” were Friedman and co-star Gilli Jones not equally strong.
- The show’s tonal balance. Critics repeatedly praised the way the musical handles its bleak premise with genuine lightness. Radio Times called it “life-affirming,” achieving “the rare tonal balance of laughter and tears,” while the Independent noted its “breezy morbidity.”
The reviews: what fell flat for Kimberly Akimbo
- An overstuffed plot. The Times felt the script “tries to squeeze in too many plot twists,” a view echoed by other reviews noting the check-fraud subplot occasionally overcomplicates matters.
- A slightly aged central performance. The Standard’s one reservation was that Friedman “never quite captures Kimberly’s youth,” even while praising the performance overall.
- Underexplained illness. The Times noted that “we don’t learn all that much about Kimberly’s ailment” over the course of the show.
- Some hammy ensemble choices. Radio Times felt some of the wider ensemble’s acting choices “cross over into hammy,” occasionally making the show choir read as younger than intended.
- A risk of cultural translation. The Independent raised the only real note of caution, questioning “whether they will be able to charm British audiences in the same way they did Americans,” given the show’s distinctly American, small-town New Jersey setting.
The back story
Kimberly Akimbo is based on David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2001 play of the same name, reworked into a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori after the pair wished to collaborate on something more intimate following their work together on Shrek the Musical. Set in late-1990s New Jersey, it follows teenager Kimberly Levaco, who has a rare genetic condition that ages her body four to five times faster than normal, and is unlikely to live far beyond her imminent 16th birthday.
Amid her chaotic family: an alcoholic father, a hypochondriac, heavily pregnant mother, and a chancy, sociopathic aunt with a check-fraud scheme in the works, Kimberly navigates a tentative romance with her anagram-obsessed classmate Seth, and a friendship with a quartet of fellow misfits from the school choir. The show won several off-Broadway awards before sweeping five Tony Awards on its Broadway transfer, and this Hampstead Theatre run marks its UK premiere.
Where to see Kimberly Akimbo
- Venue: Hampstead Theatre, London, until 7 November 2026
- Age: 14+ (strong language)
- Runtime: 2 hours 35 minutes, including interval
What are the critics saying about Kimberly Akimbo?
"The beauty of Kimberly Akimbo is what a rich texture it is: existential questions rubbing up against quirky John Hughes-isms, borderline magical realism, and poignant, earnest stuff on the difficulty of family"
"making it weird stops it feeling like a mawkish weepie about a dying girl and opens it up"
"Friedman absolutely seizes it in Michael Longhurst’s UK premiere. She is sensational as Kimberly"
"Indie musical queen Jeanine Tesori delivers a wondrous small orchestra score that’s surging and melodic and powered by ravishing Beatles-y harmonies"
"it’s easily my favourite musical of the year, and deserves a long life."
"Lindsay-Abaire and Tesori — the duo behind Shrek the Musical — blend themes of illness and mortality with an unabashed air of whimsy. They smuggle a hint of Sondheim into their quirky, self-aware songs, delivered with utter conviction by a cast led by Maria Friedman"
"Somehow the evening sparkles. It’s not often you encounter a song like Our Disease, delivered as part of a school biology project, which finds amusing things to say about scurvy."
"We’re more used to seeing Friedman as a director nowadays — think of the stage and screen success of Merrily We Roll Along with Daniel Radcliffe — yet here she slips effortlessly into the central role."
"Gilli Jones shines as admirer Seth, a nerd who drags a tuba around Soutra Gilmour’s outsize, revolving set."
" Michael Longhurst’s wry, nimble production also hands 66-year-old musical theatre star Maria Friedman a glittering singing role and an acting challenge she mostly navigates with aplomb."
" It’s great fun."
"There’s a darkly witty, astringent core to David Lindsay-Abaire’s book and lyrics and a subversive zest to Jeanine Tesori’s music."
"Gilli Jones brings a pure, sunny-faced innocence to Seth, as well as a strong, clear voice to his rueful ballad Good Kid."
" This is a cheery musical about inevitable death."
"After a long drought, Hampstead has a hit. "
"Hampstead Theatre has a winner here"
"David Lindsay-Abaire’s Tony award-winning 2021 adaptation of his own 2001 play, with a gorgeous and utterly earwormy score by Jeanine Tesori, is a quirky, heartfelt delight"
"Longhurst imbues everything with the high-energy clarity of a graphic novel, sharpened by Jack Knowles and Paul Groothuis’ lighting and sound designs, and video projections by Luke Halls of character close-ups and a clock ticking away the time."
"Gilmour’s extraordinary, split-level set revolves into an ice rink, Kimberly’s school and her dysfunctional family thrust together at home."
"The songs are a joy, with composer Tesori (whose other award-winning musical scores include Fun Home) effortlessly stirring poignancy, wit and hope into a melting pot of genres."
"[Friedman] mixes vulnerability with infectious, childlike delight by the end – leaving us gleefully uplifted, and aware of time’s preciousness."
"The cast are strong without exception "
"From the very first scene, Kimberly is a sort of doomed figure, a woman coming to the end of her life at the point when it’s meant to be starting."
"If there’s such a thing as breezy morbidity, this show has it."
"It’s Friedman, though, who’s most impressive, ably mimicking the physicality of a teenage girl with a sincerity that evades caricature; it’s the sort of role that is almost never available for older actors, and she makes it look natural"
"Shows like this often live and die by the music, and there is much to enjoy about Tesori’s score, and Lindsay-Abaire’s lyrics"
"A clear success."
Hampstead Theatre, London
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