Australian and American media mogul and business magnate Rupert Murdoch (b. March 11, 1931) is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international outlets around the world through his company News Corp, including such major holdings in the US as The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, HarperCollins publishing, and the TV channel Fox News. With a net worth of $23.1 billion as of 2025, and untold influence over media and politics, the controversial oligarch has been the subject of accusations of phone hacking, bribery and corruption, right-wing bias, and misleading coverage to support his business interests and political allies, making him an appropriate subject for theatrical drama.
Now playing a limited Off-Broadway engagement at Theater555, the world premiere of MURDOCH: The Final Interview – presented by Masterworks Theater Company and Eric Krebs Theatrical Management, and, according to Krebs (owner and operator of the Theater555), written and submitted to him in a plain manila envelope by an unnamed source (recalling the “Deep Throat” incident during the Nixon administration) – takes a deep dive into the life and legacy of the eponymous figure in a demanding solo performance by Jamie Jackson, who plays both Murdoch and Chodrum Trepur, the probing interviewer who holds a mirror up to him (read the name backwards), along with nearly 30 of the people he references while facing the queries, the TV camera, the live audience, and himself.
Under the increasingly intense and heated direction of Christopher Scott, the fictionalized last interview probes into Murdoch’s memories, beliefs, and conscience, through formative childhood episodes with his extremely wealthy and stern parents, wheeling and dealing with American presidents (both Democrats and Republicans), confrontations with newspaper editors and Fox News founder Roger Ailes, and wrestling with his own inner monster, in a surreal end-of-life reflection that shatters the guiding philosophy taught to him by his mother, “Always Tell the Truth,” which he often failed to follow and other times did to viciously invasive and inflammatory excess (“giving the people what they want”).
The Australian-born, NYU-educated, NYC-based star of the stage and screen turns in a tour-de-force performance, clearly distinguishing Murdoch from Chodrum, affecting their spot-on Australian vs. American accents, physical demeanors, and facial expressions, as he delivers their conversations with each other, swivels left and right in the interview chair to assume their opposite placements and individual identities, actively moves from seated to standing and around and off the stage, and shifts from their initially friendly and civil mood, citing and reading from actual letters, documents, quotes, and published articles, to an angry and accusatory tone and a growing absurdist sensibility in the 94-year-old Murdoch’s mind, without ever missing a beat.
And so it is with the many other figures he portrays, from Murdoch’s stuttering father to Nobel Prize-winning Austrian economist and lecturer Frederick (Friedrich von) Hayek (who notes, “It is, as it were, the lowest common denominator which unites the largest number of people”), each given a distinctive voice, personality, and physical bearing, as he fluidly transitions from conversations to re-enactments to directly addressing the audience. Jackson is also heard and seen as a variety of characters in voiceovers and video projections (by Andy Evan Cohen), embodying everyone from JFK in the Oval Office to Secret Service agents on a flight (video hair and make-up by Dotty Petersen), and displaying his perfect timing as the live actor converses, reads letters, and responds to his pre-recorded self with total mastery.
Supporting Jackson’s indefatigable performance is Assistant Stage Manager Sam Vartholomeos, who enters the stage throughout the show to bring in the props (including a metaphorical bucket of shit) and to help employ them on the minimalist set, consisting of a small central platform with a swivel chair and side table, proscenium light scaffolding (which Jackson climbs as the young Rupert), and a full-scale projection screen on the back wall (scenic design and props by Peter R. Feuchwanger). The moods of the show are enhanced with sound (by Josh Weidenbaum), original music (by SoHee Youn), and lighting (by Joan Racho-Jansen) that shines a spotlight on Murdoch and switches to red for the more hellish scenes.
Though I found that some of the segments were a bit repetitive and could benefit from tightening, Jamie Jackson’s stellar performance and the show’s message about the abuse of money, power, and control, the end to unbiased reporting, The Fairness Doctrine, and anti-monopoly laws in the US to be especially timely in our current socio-political climate and presidency, which MURDOCH: The Final Interview unabashedly mentions.
Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes, without intermission.
MURDOCH: The Final Interview plays through Sunday, December 28, 2025, at Theater555, 555 W 42nd Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $49-79, plus fees), go online, or find discount tickets at TodayTix.
