2023: Best Musical

A theme in "Kimberly Akimbo" is: seeing. In the first number, the title character describes her peers:

Sure, tonight, I'm getting looks...

But, tomorrow, they might see me...

(They never really see me....)

Because of her disease, Kimberly is labeled odd, and she is dismissed. To an extent, this happens even with her own parents (and we observe the result in the explosive climactic number of the show):

There's always you, and always me,

And there's the ghost of a girl I'll never be....

Before I go....let go of the ghost.

Just let her disappear.

And then, maybe, you'll *see* me--

While I'm still here.

The reason "Anagram" is so special is that Kimberly has just met a person who actually sees her. This is really the only "seer" in her life (with the occasional exception of her grifter aunt):

I wonder how you see the things you see.

With a change of perspective....

Nothing's defective....

I wonder what you see....when you *see* me....

Seth and Kimberly help each other. Seth gets Kimberly out of her own head ("Today, I brought card games, and books filled with puzzles....and bags full of unhealthy snacks...") And Kimberly frees Seth; Seth is able to abandon his own routine, and begin a "great adventure."

"Anagram" starts with a vowel--"Oh...Oh...Oh..."--and it ends with another vowel: "I like...I like....you....you....." O to U--in the space of three minutes. From surprise to besottedness.

A one-act play in two verses (plus a bridge).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj2XAKRIG74

P.S. There is a metaphor for getting out of one's head: It's changing a name via anagram. Kimberly Levaco becomes Cleverly Akimbo. A new name, a new reality.

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