As expected, Paddington – The Musical won big at the Oliviers, scooping seven awards and giving the 50th anniversary ceremony its own mascot. The impressive tally equals previous records – including Matilda, Cabaret and Hamilton. Given the grisly state of the world, few could begrudge it its lucrative victory.
The biggest story, however, was the surprise win for the little-known Jack Holden who triumphed in the Best Actor category for his solo tour de force in Kenrex, a crime thriller he wrote with director Ed Stambollouian.
Holden, 36, was up against mighty names – Tom Hiddleston in Much Ado, Bryan Cranston in All My Sons. And yet his bravura performance was David to their Goliaths. Rachel Zegler’s triumph in Evita, bolstered by her stunning mid-show balcony appearance, won her new fans after the debacle of Disney’s Snow White, and her Best Actress in a Musical win is much merited. But Holden went one better, making waves without prior fame or any Instagrammable coup de theatre.
The Oliviers often reward the big names in the Best Actor and Actress categories. This year, Rosamund Pike won for Inter Alia, and recent years have seen victories for Lesley Manville, Jodie Comer, Paul Mescal and John Lithgow. “It was definitely me, was it?” Holden said in disbelief, as he took to the Royal Albert Hall stage, in the first Olivier ceremony televised by the BBC since 1981. “Most people watching this at home won’t know who I am, which is quite funny,” he told the star-studded audience. “Being in that esteemed company of nominees is crazy – [and] to have this [award] is even crazier.” He duly paid gracious tribute to the thousands of unknowns working in the sector.
Holden’s win gladdens my heart the most about the future of British theatre. It’s a classic underdog tale. Having landed his first role as the lead Albert in War Horse in the West End fresh out of drama school, Holden – who hails from Tonbridge, in Kent – could have become another jobbing actor. But the pandemic forced him to think outside the box and turn writer too; the result was his first spellbinding solo, Cruise, which remarkably conjured the world of Aids-era Soho, the decade before he was even born. That was Olivier-nominated, and paved the way for Kenrex – which is over in New York for a few months, but now needs a proper run in the West End.
Kenrex was first seen in Sheffield in 2024, where we gave it five stars. It rewinds in time to relay the unsolved case of Ken McElroy, a ne’er-do-well shot dead in his truck in 1981 in the Missouri town of Skidmore. Having suffered from his bullying ways and unchecked criminality for years, the community closed ranks in the face of investigation.
What could be the subject of an engrossing true crime podcast (and indeed was made into a TV movie in 1991), becomes a testament to the power of theatre itself, as Holden shape-shifts between more than a dozen characters, barely breaking into a sweat over two hours. We hailed it as Under Milk Wood meets For a Few Dollars More.
That point of comparison aside, too often these days theatre culture gives us a fancy twist on the familiar (Paddington, original musical though it is, fits that bill). But we can’t rely on the comfort blankets of existing IP (intellectual property), however innovatively handled. A serious-minded entertainment, probing human nature in its virtuosic way, Kenrex harks back to theatre as an essential, unadorned art form, gladiatorial in the challenges posed to an actor. Holden met those challenges with fearlessness and a huge degree of talent. It’s brilliant that the judges noticed.