{"id":10555,"date":"2025-10-21T22:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T22:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/10555\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T22:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T22:04:13","slug":"life-and-trouble-comes-fast-in-broadway-hit-kimberly-akimbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/10555\/","title":{"rendered":"Life \u2014 and trouble \u2014 comes fast in Broadway hit ‘Kimberly Akimbo’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the time you get to Act Two in the Broadway hit musical \u201cKimberly Akimbo,\u201d<\/a> you\u2019ll probably be too caught up in the plot to notice it. But if you can, watch for the interplay between actors Jim Hogan and Emily Koch.<\/p>\n

He plays Buddy, the father of Kimberly, a teenager who is aging at 4\u00bd\u00a0times her normal rate, suffering from a disease similar to progeria. Koch plays Buddy\u2019s sister-in-law, Debra. Buddy and Debra despise each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cAct Two is one of the climaxes of the show where everything comes to a head and everything starts to go wrong. We\u2019re sitting at a table, yelling at each other,\u201d Hogan said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be a screaming match on stage at the Academy of Music<\/a> and the job for both actors involves loathing to the max.<\/p>\n

Except, in real life, they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re boyfriend and girlfriend, together for more than seven years since a first kiss at a cast party in Appleton, Wisconsin, when both were understudies on the Broadway tour of \u201cWaitress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Emily Koch (center) with cast members of \u201cKimberly Akimbo.\u201d (Photo by Joan Marcus)<\/p>\n

What they do on stage \u2013 and maybe it\u2019s not the most professional \u2013 is to try to make each other laugh while loathing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pranksters, onstage and backstage,\u201d said Hogan, who grew up in the Roslyn section of Abington Township in Montgomery County. \u201cWe\u2019re maybe crossing our eyes at each other\u201d or he might imitate her wild gestures.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hope is to have some fun with each other and go as far as we can to push that envelope,\u201d he said. The other actors know what\u2019s up, and they too need to avoid getting caught up in the laughter. But sometimes, Hogan said, someone forgets a line, or there\u2019s a momentary silence until the actors collect themselves. Not that the audience notices.<\/p>\n

Hogan denies ever yelling at Koch in real life and says that while there may be some cathartic moments in the onstage screaming, he can\u2019t remember them.<\/p>\n

He and Koch were a couple when she and her parents first saw the musical adaptation of \u201cKimberly Akimbo\u201d in an off-Broadway production in New York in 2021. She came back raving about the show, and bought more tickets, insisting that Hogan see it with her, telling him it was the best theater she had seen in a decade. He agreed instantly, he said, and started working to be involved.<\/p>\n

When the Tony Award-winning musical opened on Broadway in 2022, Hogan and Koch landed roles as understudies. The show was nominated for eight Tony Awards and won five, including best musical, book, and score. When they auditioned, Hogan said, the directors didn\u2019t know they were a couple.<\/p>\n

Both got cast in main roles for the touring version and are now subletting their Manhattan apartment in Washington Heights.<\/p>\n

Hogan said his first experience with theater came when he was about 10 and his parents took him to see his sister perform in Bishop McDevitt\u2019s High School\u2019s production of \u201cSouth Pacific.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was the coolest, weirdest thing,\u201d Hogan said. He was immediately hooked, taking classes and working with Summer Stages in Upper Darby \u2013 the same theater program that nurtured actor Tina Fey. He eventually studied musical theater at Penn State University\u2019s main campus.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jim Hogan is from Abington, Pa. He calls Philly \u201cmy happy place.\u201d (Photo by Joan Marcus)<\/p>\n

Besides acting, Hogan sings with T.3<\/a>, an a cappella trio famous on social media for its covers of Broadway<\/a>, Disney and pop hits. They got to the quarterfinals in season 16 of America\u2019s Got Talent. On a two-week break from the show, Hogan will return to Philly with the trio and pop singer Jon McLaughlin to perform<\/a> on Dec. 17 at World Caf\u00e9 Live.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cKimberly Akimbo\u201d opens with Kimberly waiting for her father, Buddy, to pick her up. He\u2019s 2\u00bd hours late, because he\u2019s been at a bar. There are mishaps all over the place involving both Buddy and Kimberly\u2019s mother, Pattie, a nutty hypochondriac. Debra, Pattie\u2019s sister, is the family felon, getting Kimberly involved in a fraudulent credit card scheme.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kimberly has a complicated relationship with a teenaged boy who, not surprisingly, doesn\u2019t always adjust well to the way age changes her. Typically, Kimberly\u2019s role is played by an actor in her 60s or 70s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a story about living your life to the fullest,\u201d Hogan said.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a lot of love in the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon seeing Buddy\u2019s activity, it\u2019s not difficult to see he\u2019s been making some poor decisions,\u201d Hogan said. \u201cHe\u2019s definitely in love with his daughter, but he has strange ways of coming up short. He makes efforts and grand gestures and they fall apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hogan, speaking from Atlanta last week, said he\u2019s looking forward to being back in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

His family will come to see him in the show. He plans a pilgrimage to John\u2019s Roast Pork,<\/a> where he\u2019ll order a cheesesteak, not the roast pork. He plans to check out reports on the latest cheesesteak craze \u2013 a sandwich from Angelo\u2019s<\/a> in South Philadelphia \u2013 and see how they compare. He likes the Japanese fusion food at the Double Knot<\/a> sushi bar in Center City.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about Philly that makes me the happiest,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s my happy place.\u201d<\/p>\n

FYI<\/p>\n

\u201cKimberly Akimbo,\u201d<\/a> Oct. 21-Nov. 2, Ensemble Arts Philly<\/a> and The Shubert Organization,<\/a> at the Academy of Music<\/a>, 240 S. Broad St., Phila. 215-893-1999.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time you get to Act Two in the Broadway hit musical \u201cKimberly Akimbo,\u201d you\u2019ll probably be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8486,4877,564,69,71,70,1483],"class_list":["post-10555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-academy-of-music","tag-arts","tag-featured","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}