“Kimberly Akimbo” ends its Broadway run in April

“Kimberly Akimbo,” a quirky show that combined pathos and comedy to win the Tony Award for Best Musical last year, will end its Broadway run in April, nearly 19 months after performances began.

The show’s final performance will be on April 28, by which time it is expected to have completed 32 previews and 612 regular performances on Broadway.

Small and goofy, “Kimberly Akimbo” was often overshadowed in a contemporary Broadway dominated by established titles, jukebox scores and celebrity performers. But it has outlasted most other productions from the 2022-2023 season.

Set in 1999 in suburban New Jersey, the musical centers on a high school student with a rare genetic disorder, a criminally dysfunctional family, and an anagram-loving boyfriend.

“Kimberly Akimbo,” an adaptation of a play of the same title, opened in fall 2022 and is directed by Jessica Stone. It won five Tony Awards, including Best Book, from David Lindsay-Abaire (who also wrote the play); for best score, with music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics by Lindsay-Abaire; for the lead role of Victoria Clark, a 64-year-old actress who plays the adolescent protagonist; and for a featured performance by Bonnie Milligan, who plays an amoral aunt.

The musical began life in 2021 with an Off Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater Company. The show only has nine characters, and unusually they are played by the same actors throughout their lives; all actors plan to stay until the close.

The show, with David Stone (“Wicked”) as lead producer, was capitalized for $7 million, a modest budget for a Broadway musical today; she has not yet recouped these costs.

The Broadway run will be followed by a national tour set to begin in September at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.