A small-town serial killer is catnip for our true-crime obsessed era. 

While both Manhunt and London Road fit this bill, the primary difference between the two speaks to what contemporary art values in true crime. 

Manhunt feels like a product of our current age, because Robert Icke’s new play focuses predominantly on the serial killer — what may have led him to go astray, why and how he slaughtered, etc. While London Road — now at London’s National Theatre — also details the murders and subsequent investigation, this 2011 musical is more concerned with the daily lives of the everyday townsfolk upended by their proximity to the carnage, perhaps the reason we neither see nor hear the criminal at any point. 

Frankly, the community’s story is a lot more relatable, and scary. Murderers are the exception, even if we can find personal connections to them. But the characters of London Road are closer to us. Few of us expect to become the star of Manhunt 2, yet we’re likelier to end up the subjects of London Road 2, befitting the decision by Rufus Norris’ production to cast actors who don’t read as typical musical thespians.

Rather, they seem plucked from the audience, emphasizing the notion that any of us could be thrust into London Road 2.