Victoria Clark of ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ wins Tony for best leading actress in a musical

The Tony Awards honored Victoria Clark on Sunday with the prestigious best leading actress in a musical award for her sensitive performance in “Kimberly Akimbo.”

Clark’s role in the touching new musical would seem a steep challenge: convincingly playing a wide-eyed 16-year-old trapped in a 70-something woman’s body.

“Kimberly Akimbo,” a critics’ favorite, tells the story of Kimberly Levaco, a northern New Jersey teen with a condition that causes her to age almost five times as fast as her peers.

Clark, a Broadway veteran, has made the role look natural. And she said the show — in which her character is by turns despondent and optimistic — has been a transformative experience for her.

“I was so sure I knew who I was and who I wasn’t,” Clark declared in her acceptance speech. But the musical, she said, “proved me completely wrong.”

It is the second Tony for Clark, a sweet-singing 63-year-old soprano who also won best leading actress in a musical in 2005 for “The Light in the Piazza.”