Orlando’s performing arts community has said goodbye to too many important members over the last few years, and although today’s eulogy isn’t as final or funereal as some, it still isn’t much fun. Fellow musical theater fans, it saddens me to report that Tod Kimbro has moved on to a better place: Seattle.
A fixture of Central Florida’s theater scene for nearly a quarter-century, Kimbro has composed scores of original scores, scripting and starring in several of my all-time favorite locally grown productions. But now he’s taken his final bow in Orlando (at least for now) and is bound for the Emerald City. Kimbro chatted with me last Friday while he was driving through Georgia to his final Florida performances in the tricked-out RV he and husband Jason Bowles call home, to reflect on a journey that began when his family moved here in 1991.
“I finished my last two years of high school at Dr. Phillips [and] I was cast in a production of West Side Story. I was like, third Jet on the left,” recalls Kimbro. “We used to do warm-ups before dance practice, and we would always warm up to Seattle artists. It was ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana and ‘Baby Got Back’ by Sir Mix-a-Lot,” which he now views as an omen of his eventual move to Washington.
Kimbro emerged from the UCF undergraduate theater program in the late ’90s and quickly earned admirers by presenting a string of edgy, original shows — with titles like Electra at the Wiener Stand and Zombie Doorman — through the Fringe Festival and Impacte Productions, his short-lived storefront theater.
“I feel like we really did our best to bring locally grown alternative theater to Orlando,” Kimbro says of those early years. “I think that we were doing some really interesting work. We weren’t afraid to be really provocative and challenge people, and ask some questions that maybe people didn’t want to answer.”
When asked to single out one of his productions, Kimbro points to cult-hit musical LOUD at the 2000 Fringe Festival as “probably my favorite. I was very proud to have gotten to write a full-blown musical at such a young age, and really explore the human condition and talk about sexuality and mental health.”
Of his more recent efforts, Kimbro cites Josephine (starring Tymisha Harris) as the project that he’s most proud of. “It’s just an honor to help bring the story of this incredible woman to life and collaborate with my contribution,” he says. “Many people do not know her story, and she is probably the most fascinating figure, I think, of the entire 20th century.”
With such prolific output, they can’t have all been winners, but Kimbro claims there’s only one show he’s written — which was canceled after exactly one performance, “mainly because my lead actor didn’t memorize his lines” — that he’d want stricken from the record. Otherwise, he says, “I stand by everything. … There are things inside the projects that I would like to change, but the projects themselves I still like. They don’t make me cringe too much.”
In many ways, Kimbro’s exit is merely the natural evolution of the nomadic lifestyle he and his husband have been enjoying for several years, as documented on their currently dormant “Glamping Guys” YouTube channel.
“We wanted to explore as much as possible, and now we have the opportunity to really get out there,” he explains. “It’s very exciting [when] you don’t know where your home is going to be necessarily in six months, and that’s part of the adventure.
“Taking [the RV] all the way across the country is an absolute dream; we can’t wait to explore the West.”
As for their ultimate destination, Kimbro and Bowles were wed in Seattle 10 years ago. And although he’s diplomatic on the record about the impetus for their departure, Kimbro does say, “We always wanted to live there, [and] now we have this wonderful opportunity to move to a place that aligns with our political and personal views.” Once there, Kimbro will perform freelance at public shows and private events, and is looking for opportunities in the theater community.
Hours after our phone call, I got to see Kimbro perform in person one last time as he played his final set at Pat O’Brien’s, where he’s played the dueling piano for two decades. “That room is very special, and I’m very, very lucky to be in such a wonderful room that’s made of such wonderful people,” Kimbro says of the Universal CityWalk venue, where I coaxed him into breaking the rules on his last night by playing ‘Pushover,’ my favorite song from his original musical Wasteland. “Our staff and the players, they are just the best, so it’s tough to leave.”
“There are a lot of things about Florida that I will miss, and primarily it’s people,” Kimbro concludes, hinting that he hopes to return here for events a couple of times each year. “The Central Florida arts community has been a home for me for so long, and it’s tough to leave.”
Kimbro’s parting advice for the folks who are staying behind is to stay strong, keep rising up, and keep being true to yourself. He added:
“Use your voice, and lift up others. And I love y’all.”
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2023.