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<\/p>\nThere\u2019s a scene at the end of Act One of Kimberly Akimbo, the Tony-winning Broadway musical onstage next week at Tampa\u2019s Straz Center for the Performing Arts, that finds some of the characters ice skating (and singing) at a local rink called Skater Planet.<\/p>\n
Actress Ann Morrison has the title role \u2013 a 15-year-old New Jersey girl who, because of a rare genetic disorder, has the body of a much older woman.<\/p>\n
Morrison joined the Kimberly Akimbo tour in August. \u201cThe first week of rehearsal for me was in the city of New York, and I had two hours on real ice,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m 70, and I haven\u2019t been on ice skates since I was 15. That was a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
It won\u2019t be actual ice on the set at the Straz Center \u2013 it\u2019s PolyGlide, a rubbery, synthetic ice. The blades on the actors\u2019 skates are well-lubricated with glycerin before the scene starts.<\/p>\n
Still.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cool thing is that I don\u2019t have to be a great skater,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cKim is not a great skater. So I basically just glide across the floor, slapping everybody\u2019s hand, do a little turn and come to the middle of the stage where everybody skates around me. It\u2019s pretty easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m 70, with osteoporosis, so I don\u2019t want to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tour will travel the country through next May \u2013 so why take on the job at all? \u201cI love adventures,\u201d said the veteran performer. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve never done my career like a lot of people do \u2013 I just go wherever doors open. Life\u2019s more fun for me that way. And this door opened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morrison made a memorable Broadway debut as the original Mary Flynn in Merrily We Roll Along, the 1981 Stephen Sondheim musical comedy, for which she won the Theatre World Award. She also appears on the bestselling original cast album.<\/p>\n
Her career arc includes numerous Off Broadway, West End and regional productions, and she\u2019s part of a distinguished club of solo performers known and revered for their cabaret performances (Morrison appears regularly at New York\u2019s prestigious 54 Below). And she\u2019s a playwright and a director.<\/p>\n
Since 2008, she\u2019s also been a resident of Sarasota. She is the co-founder and owner of SaraSolo, a theatrical organization that helps people create and develop solo stage performances.<\/p>\n
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Ann Morrison<\/p>\n
Morrison is currently on hiatus from teaching, and cabaret working, because she\u2019s otherwise occupied.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk me in May how I feel about it!\u201d she laughed. \u201cRight now, I\u2019m not bored, that\u2019s for sure. And I am the oldest cast member, so I do rest a lot. I don\u2019t like to do a lot of the adventures that they like to go out \u2013 because they\u2019ve been doing it for a while, and they\u2019re all bored.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy to be mediating. I\u2019m writing another play. I\u2019ll go out and do little walks, but I don\u2019t exert myself much.\u201d She declined to join the young cast members on a snorkeling excursion when the Kimberly Akimbo tour stopped in West Palm Beach this week.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s tuned in to her character. \u201cKim\u2019s very optimistic. She\u2019s got a very dysfunctional family, hilariously funny but they\u2019re very dysfunctional. She has an aunt that might get her caught up in a felony charge. She\u2019s in a new high school where she looks like the lunch lady. She\u2019s trying to negotiate and make friends, and not be the weirdo in the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd she does make a friend, a delightful friend, and because of that she gets to meet other nerdy teenagers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in the audience expect that they\u2019re going to be weepy, weepy, weepy in a sad way, but they\u2019re actually weeping because it\u2019s such an uplifting show. The message is, life is short. So just enjoy the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morrison\u2019s distinctive, pixie-esque voice \u2013 so memorable from the Merrily recording, and her cabaret videos on YouTube \u2013 gives her portrayal of Kim a shot of poignancy. She really does sound like a young person trapped in the body of a \u2026 well, a not-so-young person.<\/p>\n
That voice, she knows, is her calling card. \u201cI have short red hair, and I wear a wig in the show,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cSo when I leave the theater, nobody knows who I am, until I open my mouth. If I happen to say something, then people will go \u2018That\u2019s Kim!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n