Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire imagines some kids grow up seeing Broadway theater. Maybe they live in New York. Maybe their parents vacation there. That wasn’t Lindsay-Abaire’s life.

“I grew up in Southie, my dad sold fruit out of the back of a truck, my mother was a factory worker,” Lindsay-Abaire told the Boston Herald.

But when he was ten, a theater-loving uncle took him to see the musical “Annie” at the Colonial Theater — “It was life changing,” he said. Fast forward 45 years and Lindsay-Abaire’s Broadway smash “Kimberly Akimbo” will make a May 6 to May 18 run at the venue.

“To now have my own musical playing at the Colonial Theater, I don’t even have words for it,” he said. “It’s just a strange, magical thing.”

Lindsay-Abaire has been a major playwright for two decades — his 2006 play “Rabbit Hole” won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. But he took the long way around to get back to his elementary school love of musicals.

Being in the habit of not saying no to new artistic experiences, he said yes to an offer to write the lyrics and book to his first musical, 2008’s “Shrek.” It was a thrilling, frustrating, and odd experience. Already a blockbuster franchise, “Shrek” came with expectations — it needed to be like the movie but not too much like the movie and it needed to make a lot of money (it accomplished both goals).

What he liked best about the project was the collaboration with music composer Jeanine Tesori. So when Tesori suggested they work on another project, an adaptation of his 2000 play “Kimberly Akimbo,” he said yes again.

“There was a little resistance because I felt like I had finished with (the story) and at that point it was so old,” he said.

But the bones of the story were so solid and strange, that the pair felt they could do a lot with it.

“Kimberly Akimbo” revolves around a lonely teenage girl who has a disease that makes her age at a wild pace — she’s a high schooler who looks like an old woman. But she bonds with a fellow outsider in something akin to romance while trying to navigate life in a fractured and failing family. It’s not exactly “Annie” or “Shrek” or any other Broadway hit.

“You tell someone the plot of ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ and they say. ‘What is that? It sounds strange or sad,’” he said. “And it is a little strange. It’s a really sad musical and a really funny musical. Is there a movie star in it? Nope. Is it a title that people know? Probably not.

“We just wanted to write a show that we really loved and hoped that people would feel the same way,” he added. “And luckily that’s what happened.”

Broadway has been on a hot streak when it comes to selling unlikely stories to audiences — see “Hadestown,” “Six,” “A Strange Loop.” “Kimberly Akimbo” continued that streak winning five Tony Awards on eight nominations.

While the success of “Kimberly Akimbo” seems surprising, much of Lindsay-Abaire has been a surprise. From a kid from Southie falling in love with “Annie” to a Pulitzer, “Shrek the Musical” to a Tony, he’s said yes to ambitious art and expectations.

For tickets and details, visit boston.broadway.com