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Kenrex Opens Off-Broadway With Raves and Questions Over Its One-Man Approach

Reviews spotlight Jack Holden’s 35-role feat alongside concerns about centering a communal tragedy on one performer.

Overview

  • The one-man true-crime play has begun its New York run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre after acclaimed UK engagements and two Olivier Awards for Best Actor and sound design.
  • Jack Holden portrays roughly 35 characters, with onstage composer John Patrick Elliott performing live music that drives the action.
  • Critics describe concert-like staging marked by electric guitar breaks, fog, flashing lights, rolling set pieces, and immersive 360-degree audio.
  • Several reviews question whether a solo format shifts focus away from the town of Skidmore, which the story presents as a community facing a failure of law and order.
  • The production revisits the still-unsolved 1981 shooting of Ken Rex McElroy in Missouri, a case widely chronicled in books, documentaries, and a TV movie.