Tony Award-winning Kimberly Akimbo heads to Baltimore's Hippodrome

Baltimore’s downtown dinner-and-show crowd gets a fresh draw when Kimberly Akimbo lands at the Hippodrome Theatre from April 28 through May 3, a short run that gives spring nights in the theater district a clear destination. The five-time Tony Award-winning musical is part of the Hippodrome Broadway Series and comes with the kind of name recognition that can fill seats and spill into nearby restaurants, bars, parking garages and hotels.

The Baltimore engagement includes eight scheduled performances, with shows at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28, Wednesday, April 29 and Thursday, April 30, then an 8 p.m. curtain on Friday, May 1. Saturday, May 2 has two performances, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday, May 3 includes shows at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. That weekend schedule gives the city multiple opportunities to pull theatergoers into downtown Baltimore for matinees and late dinners around the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center.

Kimberly Akimbo centers on Kimberly Levaco, a teenage girl in New Jersey whose condition rapidly accelerates the aging process. The show’s premise gives the production emotional weight, but its Broadway pedigree is what makes it a notable booking for Baltimore right now. Broadway in Baltimore and Visit Baltimore both describe it as the 2023 Tony-winner for Best Musical, a distinction that helps explain why it is likely to draw both regular theater fans and people who may only go out for a few big touring titles each season.

The North American tour opened on Broadway on November 10, 2022, after a world premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company in November 2021. That path from downtown Manhattan to the Hippodrome underscores how national Broadway productions still see Baltimore as an essential stop, not just a pass-through between New York and Washington.

The show also arrives with a human dimension that may resonate with audiences. Jim Hogan, who plays Buddy, said the touring company has only nine actors on stage. He described the production as funny, dramatic and heartbreaking, and said his fiancée, Emily Koch, is also in the cast. Hogan also said he is looking forward to visiting Baltimore and going to an Orioles game, a reminder that a Broadway stop here often becomes part of a bigger city weekend, from the theater district to Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

For downtown Baltimore, that matters. A limited-run title with Tony prestige gives the Hippodrome another reason to pull people into the city center at a moment when every full house can ripple outward into foot traffic, dinner reservations and a livelier spring night out.