Carolee Carmello

·37 min·3 clips

A three-time Tony nominee plays a teenage girl with a rare aging disorder in a musical that won Best Musical in 2023.

Jason Fraley comes in with receipts. He introduces Carolee Carmello as a three-time Tony nominee and Kimberly Akimbo cast member, with the show headed to the National Theater from May 20 through June 1. Carmello has already seen the show twice. She caught it off-Broadway before Broadway, went back because she loved it, and now sounds genuinely happy to be part of it. The conversation starts with teenage outsider energy. Fraley and Carmello talk about high school as a dramatic stretch, full of firsts, when every feeling can arrive at full volume. That gives Fraley a clean way into her career. He connects the show's 1970s high school world to Carmello's Albany childhood and asks how Broadway found her. The answer is not the tidy theater kid story. Carmello says she did not do shows as a child, did not perform in high school musicals, and never really clicked with her school's unusual plays. Albany High was big. She remembers a graduating class of 700 and something kids, but not a theater program that grabbed her. One audition did not flip a switch. She tried out for a play, did not get it, and still was not especially interested until college. Business came first. At the State University in Albany, she studied business administration and pictured corporate America. Fraley keeps things bright and chatty. He wants the career highlights, the personal favorites, and the road back to this musical. The ending is pure Broadway comfort food. Carmello calls the show joyful, funny, touching, and able to make people feel better about life. Fraley agrees. With the country feeling uncertain, Kimberly Akimbo sounds like a place to laugh, cry, and sing along to something its own.

As heard by us

Carolee Carmello traces an unexpected route from Albany and corporate plans to Kimberly Akimbo.

Carolee Carmello's path to Kimberly Akimbo starts well outside the usual childhood-theater-dream frame. In Albany, New York, a large high school had theater options, but they did not draw her in, and college seemed aimed more toward corporate America.

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Why you'd press play

You get Carolee Carmello's Albany beginning, a college-years theater pivot, and a warm reason to root for Kimberly Akimbo.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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