[music]

Alison Stewart: This is all of it on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We continue our recognition of Broadway Week initiative to make Broadway more accessible by offering for a limited time two tickets for the price of one with a show that started in a tiny off-Broadway theater. Almost exactly a year ago we had on this show the lead actor and director of a gem of an off-Broadway musical called Kimberly Akimbo. The show became an award winner with its unique plot heartfelt message, snappy songs, and winning performances.

A year later Kimberly Akimbo is now playing on Broadway to 800 people a show and is a critical hit. It's been described as "profoundly funny and heartbreaking" by the New York Times. Timeout gave it five stars and said it is clever and touching and just yesterday it was nominated for a GLADD award. Kimberly Akimbo is about a chipper, bright, slightly awkward New Jersey 16-year-old who may be in the last year of her life. This is because of a rare disease that ages her four and a half times the rate of an average person. While Kimberly's only been alive for a decade and a half, her body is that of a 60-something woman played with great tenderness by Tony winner Victoria Clark.

We meet Kimberly as she's facing both high school and mortality without a whole lot of support from her dysfunctional family but with a great friend at her side Seth, a tuba-playing and a gram loving nerd who is her lab partner played by newcomer Justin Cooley. Hears a little bit of their first time hanging out in the school library where he shows her his skills and as he puts it the pugilistic arts.

Justin Cooley: I'm going to start with the K first because that's one of the hardest letters. God. [unintelligible 00:01:40] I just found mackerel.

Kimberly: I like the way you see the world

I like your point of you

A little slide

a little strange

A little bit ask you

I like the way you look at life

And think outside.

Alison Stewart: Kimberly just wants a little fun, some peace, maybe some attention from her family who are more than a handful. Her mom is a hilarious narcissist and is about 11 months pregnant. Her mom's sister aunt Debra, is a chaos agent for whom laws or just suggestions. These sisters are played by my next guest Bonnie Milligan, in the role of Debra. Hi Bonnie. Also Alli Mauzey in the role of Pattie. Welcome, Ali.

Alli Mauzey: Hi.

Alison Stewart: You both have been on Broadway before. You've done a lot of theater. When you first read this book by David Lindsay-Abaire, Bonnie why did you want to be Aunt Debra?

Bonnie Milligan: She's the most fun ever. I love playing really complicated people, especially ones that maybe you're not supposed to root for but to have the challenge of making an audience fall in love with you in different ways even though they're like, "Oh, no but what you're doing is wrong." It's just a fun challenge. Getting the chance to work with both David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori was an absolute dream come true and especially this absolute incredible cast. That was an easy yes, I will audition.

Alison Stewart: Alli, how about for you? What drew you to the part of Pattie, Kimberly's mom?

Alli Mauzey: When I read David Lindsay-Abaire the play I just immediately connected with his sense of humor. I think I just innately maybe understood it. He's way smarter than me but I just feel like I understood the tone. I think in general that's what drew me to it and then this creative team in particular with Jessica Stone and Amy Medford and Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire, these were all people that I couldn't believe that I was going to get to work with. That was a huge draw.

Alison Stewart: Aunt Debra, Bonnie is the blackest sheep in a family of already black sheep, off black sheep we'll call them. We learn that the family has moved and they refuse to tell Debra where they've gone. We know right away that she's up to something a little bit shady. Where is aunt Debra when we meet her at this point in her life?

Bonnie Milligan: Rock bottom. She's in a rough spot. I don't want to give any spoiler alerts for somebody who hasn't seen the show yet but she's in desperation so she needs to make a move. She needs to have something to honestly get her securely out of town. Where we actually first meet her on the stage is in Kimberly's school library where she's been camping out for a little while. After the family left she was in the woods for a while. The thing about Deb, she's a survivor so that's what she's in survival mode when we meet her.

Alison Stewart: What's going on with Pattie when we meet Pattie?

Alli Mauzey: Pattie is very close to giving birth with her second child when we meet Pattie. She's also got two casts on her arms from a carpal tunnel operation that she's had. As you watch the play you could wonder if she still needs those cast on or not. She's a bit of hypochondriac. He obviously has some use of her arms but she's still milking that for what it's worth. She's just getting ready to give birth in a couple of weeks. She's married to Buddy Kim's dad and then Debra comes in and it's funny to hear Bonnie talk about her character because I feel like when aunt Debra comes back in. You talk about being at your rock bottom. I was like I've seen this before aunt Debra. Every time's a rock bottom. She's my sister.

Bonnie Milligan: She's dramatic.

Alli Mauzey: She's my sister. I don't argue too much about her staying with us. I'm just like what do you expect me to kick out my own sister? Of course, she's going to stay here.

Alison Stewart: The show is set in 1999 and this is for both of you. Why does that help tell this story? How is it useful that this story is set in 1999? What do you think, Bonnie?

Bonnie Milligan: I think early on David Lindsay-Abaire said absolutely before cell phones were a thing for teenagers to have, not social media, not life public, that it was a slightly more innocent time. Frankly, the play was 20 years ago. When Jeanine Tesori first came to him to say they knew they wanted to work on another project together beyond Shrek. She said I think we could musicalize one of your plays. He was like, "What? I don't know." She pulled off the shelf, Kimberly Akimbo and she said this is a musical. He was like, "It couldn't work now." Part of all of that negotiation was just going ahead and setting it in 1999 before any of those other factors you would have to rewrite into the show that he was like I just don't think it could work.

Alison Stewart: My guesser, Bonnie Milligan, and Alli Mauzey, we're talking about Kimberly Akimbo which is currently on Broadway. You both have essential numbers in the structure of a musical. Pattie, you have-- Pattie. Ali, you have the first solo. Hello darling. How does this song help? We're going to listen to a little bit of it in a minute. We got a little bit of an advance on the cast album. How does this set up this show?

Alli Mauzey: We meet Pattie with this song. I haven't even said a line yet basically and it slowly unfolds in this song. First of all the tone of it and where Jeanine goes with the music definitely describes who Pattie is as soon as she's all over the place. You learn why she's got cast on her arms. You learn who she's talking to, the baby in her stomach. You learn about why she has carpal tunnel and you learn very quickly that she might think she might be dying soon. We're not sure if we're supposed to take that seriously or not.

Alison Stewart: This is Hello Darling from Kimberly Akimbo.

Kimberly Akimbo: Hello darling

It's me your mother

You are in my belly right now

And sometimes you kick me

Isn't that precious

Isn't that precious

Hey, guess what

I have no hands

Just kidding

I have hands

But I just can't use them

Not yet at least

But just as soon as a stitches heel

I had carpal tunnel

Both hands

All those years in load I took their toll

16 years I worked in the Sunshine Cupcake factory

Pumping cream enter those ding knockoffs

16 years of squeezing

squeezing

squeezing

I got damn squeeze gun

I should sue

I should sue.

Alison Stewart: It's so funny. Ali, what's the secret to a spoken word song?

Alli Mauzey: It lends itself to be able to be conversational. I also think you don't have to oversee it. Jeanine was always reminding me articulate, articulate, chew your words. She's right because this is the first time we meet Pattie, and we're also getting a specific tone of the show in this number two. I feel like that with a lot of Jeanine and David, they write things so great for actors. I just have to show up and say my words so people can understand them. They make it very easy for their actors and singers.

Alison Stewart: Speaking of singing, you have this thing where sometimes you sing in the subway, Alli.

Alli Mauzey: [unintelligible 00:10:29]

Alison Stewart: On your Twitter feed, you look around and there are these clips of you singing to empty subway cars. Here's one from September.

Alli Mauzey: Oh.

[music]

Alison Stewart: When did the subway car warm-up start? What do you like about singing in an empty subway car?

Alli Mauzey: Look, I do feel like it's a singer's or an actor's dream. If you're going to an audition, if you got to go to a show, I used to live in Los Angeles. I could do this in my car where nobody can hear me, but it's a little hard to get your voice warm on your way to work. To have an empty subway car feels like a free rehearsal space. Truth be told, one of those videos, there were actually two people on the train, but in New York City, that's not crazy. They looked at me and I was like, "Don't mind me."

Alison Stewart: My guests are Alli Mauzey and Bonnie Milligan from Kimberly Akimbo now on Broadway. After the break, we'll hear a little bit from Bonnie and why her Instagram description says, "A beltress who loves to make people laugh." We'll hear why after the break.

[music]

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. My guests are Bonnie Milligan and Alli Mauzey, both appearing in Kimberly Akimbo as sisters. Bonnie, you are known for this big booming voice that you can really belt. You can also sing quite beautifully, not belting, but as I said, on your Instagram, it says, "Beltress who loves to make people laugh." When did you discover that you could sing in this way that blows curtains back?

Bonnie Milligan: [laughs] Well, I sang my whole life. I started singing in church as a very little girl, but I honestly did not belt until college. I always used that pretty little mixy soprano. Now, sometimes when I would sing along to, my favorite artists were Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Reba McEntire, I would belt along with them, but if you gave me a sheet of music, I wouldn't straight go to that voice.

I was taking a voice class in college for acting, not necessarily singing, and we were learning about our resonators and I went, "Huh, that sounds like singing." Then I just did it enough where I found this big singing belting voice. That's when I started developing that side of my voice. Then I did a lot of concerts around New York before I got my break acting here. I got known for that sound and I worked with a lot of young composers. They had me sing these big numbers and started dubbing me Belting Bonnie. That's how that came around.

Alison Stewart: In your first number, the classic act one barn burner, it starts off very lowkey, and then it builds. Could you take us into that conversation with the director and with-- Go ahead.

Bonnie Milligan: The brilliance of Jeanine Tesori, like Alli, said, she hones in on what the character is. I was in a conversation with both her and David Lindsay-Abaire, and they had said before, the character during different play versions had been just a steamroller and that something that I had played with was being more of a pickpocket, more of an unassuming, you didn't know, you just got conned kind of a person. She put in both that number in my big number in act two. They cover a lot of range because you're not going to jump in and belt a giant number at someone. You need to slowly get them on your side and seductively bring them into a con.

That's where it came from was fully character-driven. Jeanine is so brilliantly smart and our music director Dr. Chris Fenwick he was very much a part of that too, playing with where I pop up and we can make that moment bigger and they work so beautifully together. That's how we found that dynamic.

Alison Stewart: Well, it was a challenge to find some of your songs to play on public radio.

Bonnie Milligan: Yes, for sure.

Alison Stewart: We found a section.

Bonnie Milligan: Okay, great.

Alison Stewart: It does have a lot of weeding at the end because we did want to play a nice chunk of it. This is better about right in the middle of this song for our audience when is this song come in? Who are you singing to? What are you trying to tell these kids?

Bonnie Milligan: This is after we first meet Debra who I said has been camping out in the library for a little while just waiting for Kimberly. She knows she likes to read, she knows she's probably in this school. She was told a town by her aunt. She didn't know exactly where they live. She knows that her biggest ally from this family is going to be Kimberly. In her mind, they've always been buddies. She could easily get her to get me in the house, et cetera.

I then tell her I've got a big plan that I just need to do one more scam, one, and I can get out of town. Like I said before, desperate. I got to get out of town. This is me trying to convince her of that. While I'm doing that, the nearby show choir. What's great about Deb that I find is she's got this pied piper esqueness to her. Again, she's a con woman. She knows how to bring people in and she's the Herald Hill of Kimberly Akimbo. The kids have thought, "Oh, this sounds fun." They start singing along and making up little dances along as I'm trying to sing this pitch to Kimmy about how sometimes you have to do the wrong thing to look out for yourself.

Alison Stewart: This is a Better and Bonnie Milligan.

Bonnie Milligan: This is your advice to take advantage of sick old ladies. No. Not just them.

[music]

When life gives you lemons

When life gives lemons

When life gives you ooh, lemons

You got to go out.

You got to go

You got to go out.

You got to go out.

Go out.

You got to go out and steal some apples

'cause who the [censored] wants to love her

[unintelligible 00:17:44]

Alison Stewart: [unintelligible 00:18:23]

Bonnie Milligan: That's amazing.

Alison Stewart: You're both skilled singers and have been on Broadway before, as I mentioned, and you get to sing this Jeanine Tesori score. She's really extraordinary. Alli, what's unique about Jeanine Tesori's score?

Alli Mauzey: I think this has been said about Jeanine before, but she can write in a lot of different styles, but it truly is for an actor her style, I just feel like it just only enhances the character. I don't think anything is frivolous with Jeanine. She's very specific and it's only to uplift the story, uplift the characters, and I've learned this about Jeanine. When Jeanine speaks in the rehearsal room, she is correct. She's listened to Jeanine. She knows what she's doing. She's one of the smartest person you're going to find in the room. My performance is only better because of the way Jeanine Tesori writes truly.

Alison Stewart: Bonnie, is anything specific about Jeanine Tesori's score that you've discovered or found?

Bonnie Milligan: Like Alli said, she's a chameleon. You look at the body of her work and it's not like, "Oh, one thing sounds like the other." You go from violet in Fun Home to Shrek to Thoroughly Modern Millie, to Kimberly Akimbo. It's incredible. At the base of who she is, she is a storyteller. One of the coolest parts of the rehersal process I remember, we were rehearsing for Off-Broadway last year and we did a rehearsal where we just went through the transitions between every scene. We did the last few lines of a scene into the next few lines of the next scene. She could hear it so she could decide what the underscoring would be, and she said, "I need to think of which character we're staying through." It's just musically for you to hear.

Some characters have more heavy instruments than others. I think of Buddy, I think a banjo, I've got a lot of bass in mine and it's like what are we hearing and there's a lightness, there's a hopefulness with Kim. The teenagers they're a little brighter, they're young, but then there's this longing in Kimmy. I remember early on, she was telling the kids, I know you're hearing a longing in this music, but that's not your subtexts, that's hers. I need you to sing it that.

It's incredible how completely complex her thought process is and I think she's one of the greatest, not only female composers we have just composers we have. Just incredible and inspiring.

Alison Stewart: Alli, do you understand why this- I mean, it's a quirky story, why it's resonating with people at this moment?

Alli Mauzey: I mean, I can speak to why it resonated with me when I first got attached, and I laughed so deeply. I laughed so deeply, and I equally mourn or cry so deeply. I feel so deeply when I read this piece and experienced this piece for the first time. I also just think the message of what do we want to do with our time here? How do I want to spend my time in this one chance to get in this lifetime is the message. I also think coming out of the pandemic and still coming out of it, many of us being stripped of certain things of our lives, experience loss in grief. I think this is a hopeful feeling of you know what, what do we want to do with our lives now? We get this opportunity now that maybe I didn't see before some hardship.

Alison Stewart: By the story that your buddy Matt Doyle, who most recently won a Tony for her company, told you after seeing the show immediately Off-Broadway, this is going to Broadway. One is that true and two, did you believe him?

Bonnie Milligan: It's absolutely true and it was the first thing we did, I did at least post-pandemic. We were just coming out of it, and I was like, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

[laughter]

He said this to me, I think it was after it was our second or third show. He came the first weekend of previews and he said it right away and I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow the brakes, man. [laughs] We just got into this." He's like, "No, it's going. It's absolutely going." He was like, "This is one of the best things I've seen in years," and he was affected, he couldn't even talk much more after that. He was just blown away by every single person in the cast.

Especially newcomer Justin Cooley, who was like, "Who was that kid? What is happening? Oh, my God between him and then you have Victoria Clark and Steven Boyer and Alli Mauzey. This is incredible." He couldn't get over it. I don't know that I didn't believe him, I just was like, "Well, that sounds nice but let's just put the brakes on. We'll see what happens."

Alison Stewart: First of all-

Bonnie Milligan: When I called him tell him, we just got the word we were told on a Zoom, and I FaceTimed him and he burst into tears. [chuckles] He was like, "I knew it. I knew it."

[laughed]

Alison Stewart: Do you want to shout out Justin Cooley coming right out of high school into this part? He's really great. Justin, he's incredible. Kimberly Akimbo is playing at The Booth theater. I've been speaking with two of its stars. It's great ensemble piece, Bonnie Milligan and Alli Mauzey. Thanks for being with us.

Bonnie Milligan: Thank you for having us.

Alli Mauzey: Thanks so much.

[music]

 

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