'Kimberly Akimbo's' Bonnie Milligan has advice for other Tony nominees: Buckle up

When Bonnie Milligan was nominated for a Tony Award, she asked her good friend Matt Doyle (a winner last year for “Company”) what she should expect.

“You’re going to be more tired than you’ve ever been in your life,” he told her. “It’s going to be overwhelming. And no one can really prepare you for it until you’ve done it.”

“And he was 100% correct,” Milligan says.

In addition to doing eight performances a week of her show, “Kimberly Akimbo,” Milligan has dozens of events to attend as a nominee. That means different outfits, a “glam” squad and so many photographs she could fill an album with the run-up to Tony week.

Each night after her show, musical theater hopefuls greet her at the Booth Theater stage door, eager to learn how she did it. “What’s your advice?” they ask. “And I say, ‘Every path looks different. There’s no correct way to do this.'”

In “Kimberly Akimbo,” alone, there are three different routes to that Tony nomination. Star Victoria Clark already won a Tony for “Light in the Piazza.” Co-star Justin Cooley just graduated high school and is a nominee for his first show. And, then, there’s Bonnie – “belting Bonnie,” as she’s known on social media.

“It took until I was in my 30s to get on Broadway and it wasn’t for lack of trying,” the Ohio State University grad says. “You have to have a lot of grit and a lot of determination. You have to show up in rooms for readings and concerts and build a network. What I tell those people is ‘learn to love yourself.’ There are so many things beyond our control. You can’t put your entire self-worth in the hands of others. You have to surround yourself with people who know you and who love you for more than what you can do on stage. Then, buckle up, because it’s a crazy journey.”

While Milligan wowed audiences in “Head Over Heels” and had a standout turn in the national tour of “Kinky Boots,” she says life wasn’t always filled with applause. “At one point, I kind of lost myself for a little bit and went through some depression. I got into therapy and had to learn how to love myself again.”

In 2020, composer Jeanine Tesori and playwright David Lindsay-Abaire turned a play he had written into a musical. Called “Kimberly Akimbo,” it focused on a teenage girl who suffers from a disease that causes her to age rapidly, giving her the look of an elderly woman. Key to the story: an aunt named Debra who shows her the love she isn’t getting from her parents.

“My agents sent out an email, just to see if I’d be interested in auditioning for it. I immediately said yes. What I love about it is it can be so outrageous and it also beautifully encapsulates so much of the human experience. It was everything I could sink my teeth into.”

Debra – a woman who isn’t afraid to speak her mind or dabble in illegal behavior – had so much to offer. “In the play, she was much more of a bulldozer – loud and brash and brassy,” Milligan says. “My take was she was a little bit more of a pickpocket…a weaver of spells.”

Milligan talked with Tesori about the character and the two decided to play with Debra’s songs. One – called “Better” – changed after Tesori heard Milligan’s interpretation. The second act opener, “How to Wash a Check,” “was a very different song…and Jeanine said, ‘Can I write on you?’ It was my dream come true. It became a very collaborative experience with songs.”

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Now, Milligan not only has a key role in the hit show, she also has the comfort knowing she helped influence it in a big way.

Debra, she says, is a lifeline for Kimberly (who’s played by Clark). “We need those kinds of lifelines, no matter how bad they might be,” Milligan says. “She’s there for somebody else.”

Milligan has a list of those who have been her lifelines and, more than likely, they’ll find their names on a list that she can refer to if she wins the Tony.

Already, one of her biggest – her mother – has a seat next to her at the awards show. “She has been my biggest supporter since I was a little kid. I was in junior high and she would find auditions in the paper for little things and she would drive me to them. At that point, my parents were divorced and she still made sure I got all these different opportunities to keep that creative side of me alive and well.”

During those formative years, Milligan’s mom told her, “When you get to the Tonys, I want to be your Tony date.”

“What I remember most is she said, ‘when,’ not if. So she’s absolutely earned her spot to be there.”

The 76th Annual Tony Awards airs June 11 on CBS and Paramount+.

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