The true-crime genre might be wildly popular, but you wouldn’t know it from watching theater in the United States. When it does pay attention, the stage prefers looking at true crime through the distancing lens of musicals, from “Chicago” to “Parade” and “The Scottsboro Boys.” The last two are about miscarriages of justice, which are not uncommon in plays, along with stories of redemption that leave a smidgen of hope that the system could — maybe, eventually — work, to an extent. One dramatized account of exoneration, “The Fear of 13,” is running on Broadway now, alongside “Dog Day Afternoon,” the ultimately touching tale of a real-life bank robber with a cause.
For something closer to one of the proliferating podcasts or documentaries about a horrifyingly brutal case, where catharsis is tainted by doubt, if there at all, you have to turn to Jack Holden and Ed Stambollouian’s “Kenrex.”
This British import, which opened on Sunday at the Lucille Lortel Theater, tells the true story of Ken Rex McElroy, a violent bully who terrorized the rural Missouri town of Skidmore, until the fateful day in July 1981 when he was shot and killed in plain view of many, many witnesses — all of whom said they hadn’t seen anything and couldn’t identify the culprit(s). “Kenrex” now joins the ranks of a McElroy cottage industry that also includes Harry N. MacLean’s best-selling book “In Broad Daylight” (1988), the six-part docuseries “No One Saw a Thing” (2019) and several podcast episodes.
It’s formally that the production distinguishes itself from that pack, a one-man show with a visual and sonic virtuosity that plunges theatergoers in a violent noir world. But the show lacks critical perspective on the events, besides an epilogue that feels hastily tacked on.
Wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie, Holden cuts a tidy, almost milquetoast figure that’s perfect for the role of David Baird, a young county prosecutor who recounts the events to a federal agent three years after they happened. This professional outfit also serves as a blank canvas for Holden’s portrayal of the show’s other 34 characters — all of them based on the real dramatis personae, except for the bartender Ida, a composite. (Kelly Burke and James Sobol Kelly provide prerecorded voices, which are used very sparingly.)
Holden (whose performance in London recently earned him the Olivier Award for best actor) hopscotches among characters in rapid succession without costume changes, simply adjusting his posture and modifying his pitch. The main props are various mics that add vocal filters so people can sound, for example, as if they were having a phone conversation; Giles Thomas’s richly detailed, occasionally immersive sound design is a huge asset to the production.
Holden portrays Ken himself with a slightly crooked posture, like a man carrying pure malice. He speaks like the human emanation of perfect barbecue cooking: low and slow. The other standout characterization is his wily lawyer, Richard McFadin. Over the course of his life as Skidmore’s living nightmare, McElroy had been charged many times for various felonies but avoided prison, thanks to his intimidating plaintiffs and witnesses, and McFadin’s maneuverings. Holden seems to have great fun portraying the deceivingly folksy attorney. Then again, his McFadin is not that different from his Ida or his Lois, who runs the grocery store, or even from Lois’s husband, Bo — Holden doesn’t differentiate all that well, leading to moments where I was confused about who was talking.
This doesn’t matter for a while because so much happens so fast that we are caught in a tornado of a show, especially in the first third — Stambollouian, who directed, kicks off the proceedings at a frantic pace whose main purpose seems to flaunt Holden’s enactments.
The production does not rest entirely on Holden, however. While “Kenrex” is a one-actor show, it is not a solo, as Holden shares the stage with the musician John Patrick Elliott, who performs his original country and rock score. Sometimes the music is a moody underscore and sometimes it occupies the foreground. Elliott’s presence both anchors and balances out Holden’s, and the two men — who had already teamed up on “Cruise” (2021), in which the actor also took on several different characters — have a symbiotic stage rapport that is indispensable to the production’s effectiveness.
But as much as “Kenrex” can feel like a punch, you have to wonder who or what the target is. The play raises moral and ethical issues only at the very end, in a slapdash manner, and it does not explore the various dysfunctions that kept McElroy unfettered for so long — and kept going after his death. A piece in The New York Times published nearly 30 years after the events pointed out that his death did not bring peace to Skidmore. “Perversely,” the article said, “the town’s share of tragedy has grown.”
Kenrex Through June 27 at the Lucille Lortel Theater, Manhattan; kenrextheplay.com. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes.
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