Tie the fishline.

Open the mailbox.

Drop the glue trap.

And maybe you’ll pull back— a pair of tickets to see Kimberly Kimbo, currently touring the nation, and making a pit-stop in Baltimore later this month! In the meantime, we’re having a good-old-fashioned phone-interview (feels appropriate for a show set in the 1990’s, right?) with Emily Koch, playing Debra, and she’s got lots to say about just how excited she is to see you at the show!

Well hi there, Emily, this is Mandy Gunther calling from TheatreBloom, and I believe we’re supposed to have an interview right about now!

Emily Koch: I believe we are! I looked at my phone just now, saw you calling, and said, ‘yep, I bet that’s the interview!’

Excellent! I’m thrilled to get to speak with you and thank you so much for your time!

Emily: And thank you! This is really exciting!

For me too! So you’re Emily Koch, and you’re playing Debra?

Emily: I am playing Aunt Debra, yes!

How did you fall into the Kimberly Akimbo universe. Were you familiar with it, maybe seen the play before, what is your tie to this show?

Emily: So I had read the play back in college. Honestly, we had to read so many plays back then, I can remember that I read it but I don’t remember details about it. But then it came off-Broadway as a musical, and strangely enough, through my agent, I got an appointment to be seen for the understudy for Aunt Debra and Patty, who is the mom. But I was doing a Broadway show at the time. The timing of it…I would have had to have put my two weeks’ notice in before even fully knowing if I’d gotten Kimberly. And I knew I couldn’t give up employment for a potential job, even though Kimberly was a dream project. So I said to my agent, “I can’t do it right now, I can’t risk not getting in, and then not having a job. But if this goes to Broadway, and they don’t like the understudy they end up using, I would love to be considered.”

I went to go see it because I was curious, and immediately I was like “Oh, man, this is the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. I need to be a part of this show.” Then, luckily, the understudy that they had got another job. I ended up making a tape for when it went to Broadway and then I become the understudy!

That is so amazing! And now you are the full-time performer in the role of Aunt Debra now that the tour is making its way around the country! And where is the tour right now*?

Emily: We are in Fort Myers, Florida!

Hopefully it’s at least warm there right now?

Emily: It is very warm, which is a welcome change. We had a pretty intense winter in the Midwest. This is our first week of warmth in a long time!

Well I am so glad that you have warmth and sunshine. And I’ll keep my fingers crossed that when you get up to Baltimore in a few weeks’ time that the weather stays nice, our weather is unpredictable at best, four seasons in a day. Now, tell me a little bit about Aunt Debra and how you and she are similar, how you’re different, what is she bringing to you, what are you brining to her, what’s it like getting to be this character?

Emily: Oh I love it! Aunt Debra is your kind of archetypal crazy aunt. I mean I feel like we all have one, or we all know one, or we all are one. She’s funny, she’s bombastic, she’s a no-holds-barred person. She says what she means, she does what she says. Even if that includes some criminal activity. And you’ll have to come see the show to see what that’s all about! But she has been great fun to be. Bottom line, she loves Kim more than anything and she’s kind of the inciting incident for Kim really going after what she wants in life.

We are so similar in so many ways I feel like, but let me clarify, I am not up to any criminal activities! Or maybe I should say yet. I’m not up to any criminal activities, yet. Haha! But Debra has made more direct and more fun. She’s just been such a joy to play. But I do feel like we the same sharp sense of humor, which is really fun.

I love hearing that and I love a humorous character.

Emily: Oh she is humorous! Get ready!

I cannot wait. Is there a moment in the show that just tickles your fancy every night whether you’re on-stage and a part of it or maybe doing a little sneak peek from the wings? What is that moment that just gives you the giggles or the uplift or is really speaking to you?

Emily: Oh man, there are just so many! I really, first and foremost, am just such a fan of the show as a whole, truly. My favorite number that I do is called “How to Wash a Check” and that might have something to do with the criminal activity I just mentioned. But that is just such a fun number to do! I’m also technically in this one, but it’s more of a full-cast group number. At the end of Act I, we actually ice-skate on stage. Which is something I never thought I would do in a show, or really in life, if I’m honest. But it is so joyful and so much fun and I’ve really fallen in love with ice skating because of it.

Oh my gosh! Ice skating on stage— that’s mind-blowing and sounds kind of unhinged. I love it!

Emily: It is very unhinged and so much fun!

It sounds like maybe you did not come in with any prior experience, probably not on the Olympic ice-skating team before you got on this tour…

Emily: No definitely not! I had skated at the occasional birthday party but that was really the extent of it.

This sounds so wild. What has been the most challenging part of getting to be a part of Kimberly Akimbo on tour?

Emily: This is a big sing. This is a big singing role. Those always come with their own challenges and I have done parts like that before, but it’s always fun to dig back into the logistics of that. How much water do I need in the day, how much sleep, finding those rhythms. But the hardest part of any tour is the touring itself. You’re going from Rochester, New York— which is where we just were and it was like ten-degrees— to Fort Myers, where it’s 89. Stuff like that, and travel delays, and the hotel not being ready. All that rigamarole. But honestly? Knock on wood? This has been an incredibly smooth tour.

Always happy to hear that it’s a smooth tour. Always happy to hear that no one is stranded in any one city or that travel plans have been delayed, or cancelled, etc. What would you say that being on this particular tour at this point in your life has taught you about yourself?

Emily: Such a great question! I’ve toured before, I’ve actually toured quite a lot. My first job was a tour, 11 years ago— nope 13 years ago, what am I saying?

Isn’t it crazy how time moves without us even realizing?

Emily: No joke, I feel like I graduated yesterday. Truly. It feels like no time has passed, but it really has been 13 years, which is crazy. This is my third tour in my professional career. I think this tour is finding the balance. I think on my first tour I didn’t really allow myself to have any fun. And I think my second tour I had only fun. And now I feel like I have such a great balance of fun and work, it’s a great study in moderation. Work is fun too. That’s the thing about this show, it’s such a fun show that it’s really great to go to work every day, genuinely.

If you could write your ticket for this show, regardless of age, gender, singing or dancing capability, other than Aunt Debra, what character would you play?

Emily: Ooh! Such a great question. I’m lucky that I got to play the Mom, Patty, on Broadway. That was such a cool coverage situation because I loved both of those parts. I probably would have said that, but technically I’ve done that, which is cool. There is a teen quartet in this show and one of them is this kind-of 90’s straight-guy kid. And he reminds me of kids I grew up with, his name is Aaron. I grew up in California and he has this surfer-guy vibe. I would love to play him!

I am so glad you brought up the 90s, that’s a perfect segue here! It sounds like you do have some 90s familiarity outside of the show itself. Did you have a favorite either cartoon show or TV show of the 90s that was just your absolute go-to show for 90s TV?

Emily: Absolutely. Recess.

YAAAAS! I also loved Recess.

Emily: That was my favorite show! Truly Spinelli was my favorite. I feel like my style is based on her.

And I’ll give you another throw-back. Is there a 90s candy or snack that was the go-to snack?

Emily: Yes. I was a big Gushers fan. LOVED Gushers. But there were these Tollhouse cookie bars. I cannot find them anywhere. And very few people are aware of these. I think they were a salmonella nightmare, though. They were basically raw cookie dough in a candy bar. They were covered in chocolate and they existed for like two seconds but I hit those so hard.

This is why they don’t exist anymore— raw cookie dough.

Emily: Exactly.

Now obviously the Kimberly character has a unique, fantasy-medical condition, and she is rapidly progressing in age, which makes her contemplate life a little differently. Do you have a thing or maybe two things on your ‘absolute bucket list.’ Like it’s been announced that the world is going to end, just as soon as the tour concludes here in Baltimore, and you have to do this one thing. What’s the thing?

Emily: That is such a good question! I’m dying to go to the Scottish Highlands. That is my new obsession to go there. Another bucket list item? This sounds so corny, but I feel like I’ve done so much, I think I’d just go hang with my parents.

That’s lovely and not corny at all! I would do the same, and put mine in a hot air balloon, my mother love hot air balloons.

Emily: Exactly. I’ll bring them to the Scottish Highlands and we’ll all just chill there.

Perfect. Is there anything in particular in the Scottish Highlands or are you just hanging out with Jamie Fraser from Outlander?

Emily: That. Exactly that. And I want to see the cows. I want to go in the castles and be in the bogs. All of that.

Amazing. I know you said “How To Wash a Check” is your favorite song. Is there another song in the show that maybe you don’t sing that you absolutely love and want to hear it every night?

Emily: I genuinely love all of them but that is such a good question. I love “Make a Wish” which is Kimberly’s ‘I want’ song at the beginning of the show. It’s so beautiful. I love “Hello, Baby” which is the song that the Dad sings in Act II. It’s just a recitative of an actual monologue from the play that’s been musicalized. It’s so, so beautiful. I feel like it’s the heart of the show.

I cannot wait to hear it. Now we know that Kimberly is navigating high school and while Aunt Debra is not in high school, at some point, I assume that you, Emily, were in high school, I hope?

Emily: I absolutely was, yes!

Do you have a memory that stands out of ‘OMG this is why high school was awesome’ or perhaps the reverse, ‘OMG this is why I hated high school’? Any of those moments standing out for you?

Emily: Oh boy! High school, luckily, was awesome for me. I went to two years of regular high school and two years of Arts Boarding School, which kinda felt like going to Hogwarts. It was so extraordinary and I got a scholarship to go there, the whole thing was just magic. Pre boarding school, high school was the typical jocks, nerds, arty-people kind of vibe. The most awesome part of high school was going to Arts Boarding School and realizing “wait! We’re all the same! This is so extraordinary!” It was epic, I would die to go back, truly!

My favorite part of high school was being in the musicals. Now speaking of musicals, or music, rather, is there a CD from the 90s that was just the CD of your time?

Emily: Yes! I was a theatre person through and through so it was a lot of that, but do you know who I did love that was a pop band? B*Witched! That Irish girl-pop band. I was obsessed with them! Other than that, I was wearing out Into the Woods and A Little Night Music because I was a theatre person through and through.

It sounds like you’re a Sondheim girlie.

Emily: Oh definitely.

And your favorite Sondheim?

Emily: A Little Night Music, no question.

And if they said— “Kimberly Akimbo has been banished from the planet and we suddenly have to convert to A Little Night Music”, who would you play in that?

Emily: I feel like I’ve said this before, in the context of dream roles, my dream is to go from Petra to Madam Armfeldt. I want to go through all the women as I age in real time and play every single female role in that show.

What is it that you are hoping people are going to take away from the Kimberly Akimbo experience?

Emily: I hope people have a renewed sense of things not being that serious. But also that there isn’t a lot of time. Kimberly does that so well. She’s working with limited time. And she decides to go on a road trip. That is what she genuinely wants. So you don’t have to go do something super crazy to make your life amazing, you just have to go do what you want with your time. And I think it says that so beautifully in the show.

That sounds extraordinary. Now, if you were road-tripping somewhere here in the states (since the Scottish Highlands are the ‘bucket list’ destination) who is in your road trip vehicle with you and where are you road-tripping to?

Emily: My fiancé (Jim Hogan) is with me, and he plays the Dad in this show, I am so lucky to be on the road with him! We have been road-tripping together for the last 20 months! We always talk about how we want to return back to these cities that we love— Baltimore is truly one of my favorite cities and I would not have known that had I not toured through it before. I cannot wait to get some crabs. I gotta go to Omaha, Nebraska, which is randomly an incredible place. We want to go back to these cities where we only really got the chance to work, and we want to go back and live and get the feel for them. We’ve actually talked about doing that after the tour, doing a little tour of our favs!

How brilliant! Anything else you want to say before I give you your final two questions?

Emily: Oh my gosh, no! Those were such great questions, you’ve covered so much!

Thank you! I really appreciate that. Why is it that you want people to come out and see Kimberly Akimbo when it pops through Baltimore in a few weeks time?

Emily: I think the why is that there are so many amazing musicals about extraordinary topics or fantastical topics and that’s great. But Kimberly is a musical about real people. These are people you know, these are people you are. But it’s done in such an amazing, delicate, beautiful, funny, heartbreaking way that I think it’s really interesting and amazing to be able to see yourself genuinely in a show. Or see that about people you know. We’ve had a lot of people say “This was my Dad and this helped me understand him more.” It’s really healing. I think that is something people really need right now.

Do you see yourself in any one specific character in the show?

Emily: You know, I do see myself in Debra and occasionally I’m asking myself, “Is that a good thing? I don’t know.”

I’m going with, so long as you don’t get arrested for criminal activity, it’s probably a good thing.

Emily: Fair point!

Final question. If you had to sum up your experience of being on this iteration of the national tour of Kimberly Akimbo using just one word, which word do you use?

Emily: Oh wow! Um…that is such a great question. And hard! I think it’s been magical. I really do think it’s been magical. So magical! Let’s go with magical!

Kimberly Akimbo plays April 28^th through May 3^rd 2026 The Hippodrome inside The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center— 12 N. Eutaw Street in Baltimore’s Bromo Arts District. Tickets are available by calling the box office at 410-837-7400 or purchasing them in advance online.

*at the time of the interview Kimberly Akimbo was playing the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers, Florida.