Celebrating her sixteenth birthday in high school, Kimberly Levaco has the co-morbidities of a nonagenarian.

MUSICALS WITH a juvenile central character – Oliver, Annie, Billy Elliot – are a pain to stage. They require a child actor able to carry a show and, in practice, several of them, as employment law restricts child appearances. The heroine of Kimberly Akimbo, a 2022 Broadway musical that won five Tony Awards, is a teenager; but issues around experience and workload are removed by the casting of Maria Friedman, 66. This ageing-up of the role is possible because the protagonist has progeria, a genetic disorder in which each birthday has the effect on the body of four or five in an unaffected person.

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