From Jupiter to Broadway and Back
November 11–16, 2025
Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
kravis.org
By Savannah Whaley
When 24-year-old Skye Alyssa Friedman performs as Teresa in the first National Tour of Kimberly Akimbo at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in Palm Beach this November it won’t be her South Florida stage debut. That was when she starred as Mary Poppins in her preschool in Jupiter.
“This is it,” she recalled of her first taste of the footlights. “This is all I’m going to do for the rest of my life. My parents obviously were very excited and supportive, but they were also, ‘Okay, let’s try a bunch of other things, put everything on the table and we’ll see what she gravitates towards.’ Truly, the only thing I was ever interested in was being an actor.”
Friedman was on Broadway in Annie at age 11 and in 2021 she was cast in the world premiere of Kimberly Akimbo at Manhattan’s Atlantic Theater Company. She transferred with the musical to Broadway a year later and she’s still enjoying the gig she initially thought would only last three months.
What The New Yorker called a “howlingly funny heartbreaker of a show,” and the New York Times dubbed “the season’s most moving new musical,” has no flying monkeys or rapping founding fathers. But it does have the Best Musical trophies from the Tony Awards®, New York Drama Critics Circle, The Drama Desk Awards, The Lucille Lortel Awards and The Outer Critics Circle Awards.
Relocating to a new home in New Jersey and being the new kid at high school isn’t the only challenge the show’s heroine faces as Kimberly is about to turn sweet 16 in a body that thinks it’s 72 due to a rare genetic condition. If that wasn’t enough, she’s dealing with her dysfunctional family, facing the butterflies of her first crush, and deciding if she should help her aunt commit a crime.
“It’s really exciting for audiences to see this kind of musical,” Friedman said. “I think it’s absolutely hilarious, but also very touching and heartwarming. It’s such a life-affirming musical showing us how precious life is and that we should cherish it. We have to love the people we love while we can, do the things that we’ve always wanted to do, be with our friends, celebrate, and just enjoy our lives.”
Friedman plays one of Kimberly’s new classmates and one of the nerds who hang out at the local skating rink because they aren’t invited to be anywhere else on a Friday night.
“She’s 16, she’s a sophomore in high school and she has a big crush on Martin,” she said. “She’s a little anxious, a little unhinged and chaotic, especially when she’s around Martin. I love playing her. She’s really just spunky and fun. You see all these super unique characters on stage just kind of trying to figure out who they are.”
Kimberly Akimbo also took home four other Tony Awards with Jeanine Tesori being the first female composer to win two Tony Awards for Best Score following her win for Fun Home. Friedman was at the Tony watch party that was held for the cast.
“God, that was the most magical night,” Friedman remembered. “The energy in the room was something like I’ve never felt. There was just so much love and hard work in that room. It’s definitely one of my favorite nights of my life. I didn’t go to bed until 7 AM because we were all so happy and revved up.”
While Friedman now lives in New York, her parents are still in Jupiter looking after her dog Downton, named after her one-time TV obsession. While growing up, she took classes and attended shows at the Kravis Center. She also took classes and performed at Maltz Jupiter Theatre where she caught the eye of a theatrical agent who called her parents and asked to represent her.
“She said take a month, think it over and get back to me,” Friedman said. “It was a big commitment and my parents were saying we’d have to go to New York for auditions and it was going to be a big lifestyle change. In that month, I managed to convince my parents to let me sign with her and I started flying up to New York for auditions.”
Friedman is currently getting rave reviews for her role in the coming-of-age film Lemonade Blessing that premiered in the Tribeca Film Festival this past June and was named one of the festival’s “5 Standouts” by Vogue Magazine.
“I’m very proud of that film and I’m very proud of the reception that it’s getting,” Friedman said. “I went to college in New York City and I remember in my freshman year I attended Tribeca Film Festival thinking it would be so cool if I could ever be here. Now, this year, I got to be there as a lead in a feature.”
That’s a lot of accomplishments for someone so young and Friedman takes a moment when reminded she’s in an industry where overnight success usually comes after decades of paying your dues.
“I need to take this moment and feel that gratitude and excitement,” Friedman said. “I’ve gotten very lucky in life. I started young, I had luck, I put in the time and effort into it. I’m very glad to be where I am now and I’m excited for the future. Kimberly is amazing to me. It’s been this wild ride that I never even imagined.”
