Youthquake on The Broadway
The young stars of Broadway’s Kimberly Akimbo take center stage.
Text by Dio Anthony
You’d be hard-pressed to find a current Broadway show where its young cast members outnumber their adult-playing co-stars. That’s the case in David Lindsay-Abaire’s Kimberly Akimbo, playing at the famed Booth theater. Time magazine called it a “perfect night of theater.” American Studies takes it a step further and calls it a perfect bunch of players. The young cast, some just years out of high school have singlehandedly brought the element of youth back into the theater district with their moving and humorous show about a Jersey teen, played by Tony award winner Victoria Clark, and the friendships she makes and doesn’t make along the way. Meet the bright and quick-witted stars of Kimberly Akimbo.
From left: Fernell Hogan, Michael Iskander, Justin Cooley, Nina White, Olivia Hardy
DIO ANTHONY: I’m excited to talk to you guys today. The show is so fun and whenever I'm sitting in a theater and watching a play or musical, I can't help but think about— what's going on backstage? So, tell me, what’s really going on backstage?
OLIVIA HARDY: There are a lot of stairs backstage that lead into the dressing rooms, and we’re on the fourth floor. A lot of us have preset our costume changes to be downstairs and offstage, to avoid using the stairs as much as possible. But, mostly, you can find us either in our dressing rooms doing a change, if not backstage dancing or doing something silly. Or maybe even downstairs in the basement—there’s lots of snacks down there. Sometimes we’re just hanging off on the sidelines, watching the show with everyone else and having a good time.
JUSTIN COOLEY: I'd say a lot of fun, and a lot of mayhem is going on backstage a lot of the time. The other day we were recording a TikTok between scenes [laughs]. Once I was showing everyone the show choir dances—we tend to get pretty hype back there. I dance along with them when they're on stage, because I'm not in any of the dances. Sometimes they’ll spot me.
NINA WHITE: I really appreciate anytime that I see Justin dancing offstage.
JUSTIN COOLEY: I’m working hard to learn that choreo.
From left: Fernell Hogan, Michael Iskander, Justin Cooley, Nina White, Olivia Hardy
NINA WHITE: Sometimes I have to work hard not to laugh, because you're working hard offstage during The Inevitable Turn. It kind of depends on if we have a lot of changes that are really quick. Sometimes we’re offstage and then we come right back on. There are moments in the first act when we have a more significant chunk of time and we have to suppress a lot of laughter, I would say on the whole—no matter the locale, because you really can’t be loud. Sometimes we're better at that than other times, I guess.
Nina White, Olivia Hardy
DIO ANTHONY: Another thing I’ve always wondered is—what’s the vibe with costumes? Do you take 'em off and then someone is in charge of laundering them for the next day?
OLIVIA HARDY: The wardrobe crew has a laundry schedule. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but they have a laundry schedule. All of our underwear, socks and things like that get washed daily. But our bigger pieces, like our sweaters—-there’s a sweater day now apparently. All our bulkier things will get laundered once every two weeks or so. Especially if we don't wear them a lot.
FERNELL HOGAN: Every character has one. Two days a week, if you want to throw anything in. My days are Wednesdays and Sundays. If I’m like, oh this sweatshirt’s a little stinky, I can throw it on Wednesday or Sunday night. If it stinks on Thursday, I think I’m on my own.
DIO ANTHONY: You mentioned underwear and socks being a part of the official costume? That’s news to me!
FERNELL HOGAN: Yeah, underwear and socks are laundered everyday. Because if you do two shows in a day—those socks are going to stink after the first show. You want new socks and underwear, so they give you those and wash them for every show.
NINA WHITE: It also depends on who you are, because honestly, I have to say, for me, conceptually, going to the theater, putting on underwear to do a two and a half hour show, taking it off, putting it in the laundry, and putting on new underwear to go home, when I'm about to maybe change them again to go to bed? [Laughs] There’s just something about that…To me, there’s not enough incentive.
BOTTEGA VENETA Polo Shirt
FERNELL HOGAN: I know what you mean. With this show in particular, we’re not dancing our faces off.
NINA WHITE: No..
FERNELL HOGAN: But if we were doing Moulin Rouge, we’d be very, very sweaty and gross.
NINA WHITE: That’s true.
FERNELL HOGAN: I don't use the underwear they give me because I don't sweat enough to be wearing four pairs of underwear a day.
NINA WHITE: I didn’t think that was a thing—until we did the production at The Atlantic and they were like, what kind of underwear do you want? Everyone was like I love show underwear. I was like, wait, what?
TANNER FLETCHER Boucle Top
“I like to say—I do my show in my Calvin’s.”
DIO ANTHONY: Wow, show underwear.
OLIVIA HARDY: Yeah, and you can keep them when you’re done with the shows.
FERNELL HOGAN: They’re kind of my go-to underwear. They bought me underwear for a show and I was like, I kinda like these in real life. And now I only wear it.
OLIVIA HARDY: I like to say—I do my show in my Calvin's. [Laughs]
NINA WHITE: I do have to say, the underwear they gave me at The Atlantic. I don't know if I ever wore it at The Atlantic, but I definitely took it at the end of the run, and I wear it now. [Laughs]
DIO ANTHONY: I am really living for this. The more you know. So, does everyone have their own dressing rooms? Or are you paired?
TANNER FLETCHER Floral Dress
OLIVIA HARDY: Justin has his own because he's the lead. Me and Nina share a dressing room and then Michael and Fernell share one.
DIO ANTHONY: Oh, kind of like a dorm situation in a way.
OLIVIA HARDY: Yeah! The girl’s dressing room is right beside Fernell and Michael’s. We’ll pop in and say hello—do Hot Wheels tutorials and things like that all the time.
DIO ANTHONY: Wait, what's a Hot Wheels tutorial?
MICHAEL ISKANDER: Oh, I'm a very big hot wheels fan. I love Hot Wheels and Nina indulges me in my Hot Wheels love and she takes videos of me and my Hot Wheels.
DIO ANTHONY: You mean like the tiny little cars, right? That’s such a 90s thing I feel..
MICHAEL ISKANDER: Yeah, It is!
CALVIN KLEIN Nylon Bomber Jacket, DOLCE & GABBANA sweater vest and shirt
DIO ANTHONY: I grew up in the 90s and I remember the phrase very well—“Hot wheels leading the way.” I remember that commercial tune. It was on all the time.
MICHAEL ISKANDER: I think it’s the best thing ever.
DIO ANTHONY: I’m just fascinated with the idea of Broadway stars doing their own makeup. Have you all just gotten it down to a technique by now?
JUSTIN COOLEY: The boys don’t do any makeup, we’re playing teenagers so they want to see the acne, the busted skin of it all. [Laughs]
OLIVIA HARDY: I wear the most makeup out I've everyone in the show, but that's just because that’s my everyday.
NINA WHITE: Liv, you do have your tattoo cover up as well.
OLIVIA HARDY: Oh yeah, my tattoos are covered up right now actually. Which I have gotten down to a technique and I cover them for the show. You can kind of see a little bit right now, because the cover-up came off in the shower.
Talent's own Jeans and shoes
NINA WHITE: I really don't wear makeup in real life. I am really bad at applying it and I feel overwhelmed by makeup conceptually. I'm really lazy so I don't really wear it. Anytime I have to do makeup for a show I always feel very stressed because, to be honest, I don't always nail it.. However, for Kimberly AKimbo, thank God that it didn't change between off-Broadway and now, which is amazing because I was so scared that if we went to Broadway, I was going to have to wear foundation. [laughs] Thankfully I don’t. I just have to wear blush and mascara and a bit of Burt’s Bees. It’s a stunning makeup plot and probably a makeup plot so simple that I won’t ever have one like it again. I’m sure. I’m grateful for it at the moment because Liv is incredible at makeup, and it makes me feel so anxious. I can even find a way to mess up my mascara. [Laughs]
DIO ANTHONY: I was looking through the Meet The Characters section on the show-page and there were these yearbook style quotes for each character that to me felt like they sort of matched you all in real life. Did you all have anything to do with that?
TANNER FLETCHER Wool Varsity Jacket, KENZO Sweater
OLIVIA HARDY: David Lindsay-Abaire wrote those which are accurate to our characters because he wrote and created them. However, a lot of our characters, I would say most of our characters are really good reflections of who we are in real life. They kind of started really molding— except for Michael’s. [Laughs]
In the rehearsal process we slowly watched our characters and our own personalities kind of mend together in a way that’s really insane. In the kind of same way that it matches our real actual lives and real actual friendships. Even though Fernell calls us his work friends—we’re all real friends. [Laughs]
DIO ANTHONY: That's really funny. Okay. Each one of you are playing high school students. How would you describe yourself in actual high school?
MICHAEL ISKANDER: I think we should let Liv go first. This is the best answer.
TANNER FLETCHER Wool Varsity Jacket, KENZO Sweater
OLIVIA HARDY: I was popular in high school. [Laughs] I wasn't the IT girl, but I was popular. I got along with everybody. I went to a vocational high school, so we had trades and preset cliques. I was kind of the social butterfly in my high school. I hopped around a lot and I was friends with everybody. I had a fun time. I was a theater kid though, and still very much a theater kid.
JUSTIN COOLEY: I was in High school just two years ago. [Laughs] I think I was a weird kid, but a weird kid that I think everyone liked and thought was fun. Kind of like my character Seth. I think I had a bit more social grace than Seth, but definitely very open about my interests, and was friends with a lot of people. I was a part of the weird outcast clique, but we all helped each other, and that’s what counted.
NINA WHITE: In high school, I was really focused on school. I took a lot of crazy classes even though I knew that I wanted to go to school for theater, I was very academically focused. I was dancing at a studio for almost 30 hours a week after school. I was a bit of a know-it-all. Probably still am, because Fernell’s smiling. [Laughs] I always had a lot of friends that were involved in a lot of different things. I wasn’t involved in that much at school outside of class. I did love to hear about all of the drama from people who were involved in theater or choir or sports—but I wasn’t actually involved in any at school. I was just absorbing the gossip.
TANNER FLETCHER Silk Shirt & Denim Dress
MICHAEL ISKANDER: I was an athlete, I did track and field and joined choir by accident. The director was like, hey, we’ll give $10 to anyone who forces a dude to join, because they were short on guys. This girl was sitting next to me in history class and she’s like, hey will you audition? I’ll get $10. Then I did it!
DIO ANTHONY: Wow. You’re like a real life Troy Bolton. From an athlete to musical theater.
MICHAEL ISKANDER: [Laughs] I guess so, yeah. I wasn't a star athlete though, I was just a little mediocre athlete. I actually thought musicals were very annoying. Now I’m on Broadway.
DIO ANTHONY: And now you're on Broadway!
NINA: TANNER FLETCHER Wool Knit Cardigan & Cotton Skirt, MICHAEL: ANDREA POMPILIO Striped Polo Shirt, OLIVIA: PRADA Red Polo Shirt, FERNELL: MSGM Mesh Knit Sweater
FERNELL HOGAN: I was the kid that was doing everything. Always double booked for no reason. President of Business Professionals of America, but also vice president of Thespian Society. They coined the term the Fernell Walk because of the way I would walk around the school from thing to thing, like that New Yorker that always has somewhere to go. I was that guy. I went to performing arts high school, so I was still a little weird. But weird is cool when you’re a performer.
DIO ANTHONY: I feel like you guys are all so young and already so accomplished. What were you doing before that prepared you to be doing potentially eight shows a week?
FERNELL HOGAN: Going back to high school, I was the kid that would get to school at 6:30 and instead of taking a nap like I should have, I would get on YouTube and teach myself how to tap dance. I’ve carried that type of discipline in life for a very long time. I think that’s what got me here and what’ll get me through this now. I was doing ridiculous things. So having eight shows, and for them to not be at 6:30 am? I’m fine.
ANDREA POMPILIO Striped Polo Shirt
DIO ANTHONY: You arrived 20 minutes early to the shoot—so this totally tracks. That’s a good way to be.
OLIVIA HARDY: I was doing a bunch of musical theater programs every summer or some sort of training if I had nothing to do. Community theater auditions and stuff like that. I remember a stretch of about six or seven summers where I did this intensive at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. I wasn’t the best dancer, so every summer and throughout the school year I took nothing but dance classes, until I built a technique. Also, working in customer service, because I was a bartender for a little bit. That helped a lot with people skills and learning how to navigate through different work styles and work ethics, and all those things that you can find within the theater—like in any other industry.
NINA WHITE: I was one of those overachiever kids, even though I was a mess not doing things well. I think that prepared me because, when I was doing something that I actually liked, I was able to find the spirit and joy no matter what I was doing, and no matter how tired I was. That’s really helping with doing eight shows a week. To be able to tap into that and remember why you’re doing this, and to find beauty in it even when you are exhausted.
MICHAEL ISKANDER: Yeah. I would say I'm quite the opposite of Fernell. I was always 15 minutes late to class in high school. I had about 37 detentions. I'm not even kidding— It was actually 37. [Laughs] I worked in a clinical research company for two years and that helped me get back on track , with all different types of patients and meetings I was exposed to. I was going to be a doctor before all this.
DIO ANTHONY: You still can be…
MICHAEL ISKANDER: I Can! You’re right.
NINA WHITE: Liv and I, we went to college for musical theater, and those programs prepare you to do a job like this on a practical level. I was preparing in that way, but I think more to Justin’s point earlier. I think another side of sustaining a job like the one we’re doing is to be as in touch as possible with why you are doing the job. Or why you wanted it in the first place. Speaking for myself and the general vibe of our company and our theater—it’s very positive. It's really not hard to feel uplifted and energized by the people around you when you are having a low day. I have found throughout the run, the more I can connect with the other people who I'm working with or watching from offstage, I find it so much easier to find the energy to follow through with each show. We're also working with just the most crazy talented folks and so I find the more that I watch them, the more I’m like okay—we can make it through the end of the night without being too sleepy.
DIO ANTHONY: That makes perfect sense. What’s the vibe like at the theater pre-show? Who's showing up right before they need to be there? Who's hanging out hours before at the theater?
NINA WHITE: Nell is early.
OLIVIA HARDY: Usually, me and Nell are there at the same time. There are times when I get there and my name’s on the call board before his.
FERNELL HOGAN: There are times, yes. But usually the normal order is: I’m there probably 20 minutes before “skate call.”
OLIVIA HARDY: I’m also there about 20 minutes before, too!
FERNELL HOGAN: It’s usually me, and then Liv. Then maybe Nina and Michael will show up next.[Laugh]
OLIVIA HARDY: I have to come from pretty far I think out of everyone here. I’ll leave an hour early, and unless I’m getting food or whatnot, I’m usually at the theater like 30 or 20 minutes before him.
FERNELL HOGAN: I leave an hour before too and I live closer.
NINA WHITE: I'm the kind of person who, despite all my greatest efforts to be early, I will be just barely on time. But that is a great improvement because I am also a chronically late person by nature. In high school I was always late. In college, I was basically always late. So I'm fighting for my life because I don't want to be late. That's terrible. It feels awful to be late. So I'm running.
DIO ANTHONY: You’re fighting against the reputation.
NINA WHITE: Yes! And I'm not late. I’m never late.
OLIVIA HARDY: She’s never late.
FERNELL HOGAN: She’s always right on time.
NINA WHITE: If we have to be there at 1pm, I’m there at like 12:58 or 57 or 56 or 59.
DIO ANTHONY: How about the rest of you?
JUSTIN COOLEY: Yeah, so my call's later than theirs, which is great. I've gotten better. I'm very much like if the call is at 1PM, I am there at 1PM. I am not there before, not later..usually. I've only just gotten better with that. I'm usually there like 15 minutes before my call, but I'm also somehow still a mess? We do this thing where we meet before the show and do a little circle and I'm always tripping down with one shoe on, my shirt’s not pulled down and I'm like, hey, y'all ready to start the show?
MICHAEL ISKANDER: I live like a five minute walk away from the theater. If the call is at 2pm, I leave the house at like 1:57. I’m usually running late. So I get a citi bike, and citi bike it down in a minute. I park the bike, walk across the avenue and I’m at the theater by 2pm and 30 seconds. I don’t even go upstairs to put my backpack down. I put my skates on and boom.
DIO ANTHONY: You need to do a ‘Get Ready With Michael’ kind of thing, because that’s a whole mission.
MICHAEL ISKANDER: They said be there at two. They didn't say two and zero seconds. You know what I mean? They didn't specify. [Laughs]
DIO ANTHONY: Do you ever feel like you’re missing out on things having such a rigorous show schedule?
OLIVIA HARDY: I feel like now, at least for me, most of the things that I want to attend are at night. Sometimes, I’m out of the theater and I’m jazzed cuz I just did a show and will have energy to go out sometimes. There are times when I do feel like I’m missing out on things, but some of us have a lot of the same friends who are in the theater business and they are also on similar schedules. Our holiday schedule is very generous, so I’m glad that we are not missing out on holiday things.
FERNELL HOGAN: My family’s in Texas. Not so much a train ride away. So the holidays are a harder time when you're in a show. If we have a show on Christmas Eve, get Christmas Day off and have a show the day after—I’m probably not going to take the chance to fly to Texas for the holidays—that is something I feel like I’m missing out on. When it comes to living the young life, I’m scared of going out and partying and then getting covid and having to miss work for 10 days. That’s something new.
DIO ANTHONY: A new scare..
FERNELL HOGAN: Yes, a new scare. So those are the options I find myself weighing now. What a problem to have. [Laughs]
DIO ANTHONY: There’s this new thing where I feel like a lot of the younger generation is discovering old shows that were around when I was a bit younger than you all are now. Have you guys made any recent discoveries to shows or films of the past?
NINA WHITE: I just started watching The West Wing. It’s an iconic show. It’s from the nineties, right? I was an infant in the nineties. But I just started watching it. It's really good. There's some parts of it that are very dated.
OLIVIA HARDY: I saw My Cousin Vinny for the first time. It was hilarious, I loved it.
MICHAEL ISKANDER: Is Breaking Bad from the nineties?
DIO ANTHONY: No, it's like from maybe seven, five years ago, but it feels like a whole other time anyway. So it counts.
OLIVIA HARDY: The Sopranos, was another good one.
JUSTIN COOLEY: Comfort-wise, I like old cartoons on Boomerang. I don't know if they're from like the nineties or from the 2000s, but the original Power Puff Girls. I love that show
OLIVIA HARDY: Me and Nina will watch Hannah Montana when getting ready for the show.
DIO ANTHONY: Recently you’ve had some big names in the audience like Billie Eilish. Do you guys ever know who's in the audience ahead of time or is it something that you learn after the fact that?
JUSTIN COOLEY: If you try hard enough, you can find out and ask people, but as a general rule, they try not to tell us. I remember I was just walking by and saw a producer and they told me when Lin Manuel Miranda was there and I was like, oh no, I gotta go warm up babe.
OLIVIA HARDY: Gaten Matarazzo from Stranger Things was in the audience once, and I was told by a girl who lives in my building. I just ran into her on our front step and she told me that she saw the show and that he was sitting right behind her. Nobody even told us that he was there. [Laughs] We’ve had a few celebrities come through but we’ve really only known once I believe. They’ve told us after.
FERNELL HOGAN: People in the cast actually don't want to know because then they get nervous and then you're thinking—oh my God, I'm performing for Meryl Streep right now…which is stressful. [Laughs]
OLIVIA HARDY: I also kind of want to know. If I'm feeling sleepy, that would be the adrenaline kick that I need to kick into high gear!
JUSTIN COOLEY: For me, it’s like, how much are we giving? You know, if Meryl's here, I'm gonna give on this matinee. Regardless I'm going to blow it out. [Laughs]
OLIVIA HARDY: Exactly. I want to know.
NINA WHITE: But I feel like that's the lesson. Every time I find out after the fact that someone famous or important or whatever was there, it's just another reminder that you should always be hitting it. Always.
OLIVIA HARDY: Listen, if Beyonce came and saw the show. Believe I would be giving something otherworldly, I would give a performance that I could only give one time in my life. That’s Beyonce!
DIO ANTHONY: [Laughs] That’s true. But Nina has a good point. You have to give the civilians your all too.
OLIVIA HARDY: But they didn’t make Drunk in Love. I’m just sayin’. [Laughs]
NINA WHITE: I think it's interesting because we all did it off-Broadway so the show feels so in our bones in a way that's really, really wonderful. But also I think it's hard, especially because we've already done a prior production of it and that was so recent and it was also in New York. So many people saw it off-Broadway and now they're coming again. But there's even more people who haven't seen it before. I think that it can be very easy to kind of be lulled into the sense that people, because the show was around in New York, already know what it's about or they've seen it before or whatever. The vast majority of our audiences are hearing us tell the story for the first time. So we need to hit it, you know? [Laughs] I like to think about when I heard that Lin-Manuel Miranda was there, I was like—damn B. He could've been here every night, any night. I need to warm up.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Photography by Lawrence De Leon, Styling by Charlie Ward, Written by Dio Anthony