The uplifting, award-winning show about a girl aging four times too fast electrified New York. As it hits the UK, co-creator Jeanine Tesori talks about being inspired by the Aids crisis and all her friends who died young<\/p>\n
Jeanine Tesori is thinking about her mother back home in the US. \u201cShe\u2019s 95,\u201d says the composer, \u201cand she\u2019s not been well. But she would look in the mirror and be like, \u2018I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m old.\u2019 It\u2019s always a surprise, always. There\u2019s an interiority about ageing, especially as women. You stay playful and you stay curious, but the world has other ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ageing \u2013 and growing up, which is not necessarily the same thing \u2013 are a central consideration in the musical that Tesori has been rehearsing. Kimberly Akimbo, which the composer developed with David Lindsay-Abaire from his play, follows a teenage girl with a rare genetic condition that causes her to age at four times the normal rate. Its London debut stars the 66-year-old Maria Friedman as Kimberly. \u201cAnd she has such a bright young energy,\u201d says Tesori as we chat in a rough-and-ready rehearsal room in London, \u201cthat she doesn\u2019t have to do anything to play 16.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/0cd7f466a19ef5d0ab7a32df0a336465484b9615\/408_0_4082_3265\/master\/4082.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=0f52099d65445838953ae1cb52c1ffa3\" "\\"\u2018We")
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