BOOMER to Make Debut at United Solo Festival at Theatre Row
Ken Straus explores generational idealism and compromise through vivid characters in a 70-minute solo performance.
United Solo Festival will present BOOMER, a baby boomer's raw, comedic cultural odyssey through a mad world of his own creation, written and performed by Ken Straus. One performance will be staged on Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street in NYC.
One man. Decades of noise. BOOMER is a raw, comedic, and deeply personal play exploring a lifetime of rapid cultural transformation from one man's Detroit auto-plant roots through the psychedelic '60s; into the sun-drenched, dream-chasing streets of Los Angeles; the high-octane greed of Wall Street; and the ash of 9/11. Equal parts stand-up, social critique, and eulogy, the show puts a generation's idealism through a woodchipper of grievance and irony.
Through a rapid-fire gallery of vivid characters, BOOMER holds a mirror up to the generation that set out to save the world and ended up owning it. Strap in for a full-throttle reckoning with the world inherited, the world built, and the digital wilderness ahead. BOOMER challenges audiences of every generation to confront their own choices, compromises, and the fragile fiction of modern civilization, asking the uncomfortable questions: When the incentives change, do you abandon your beliefs? Was solidarity just a song on the radio, or did we trade the freedom of Venice Beach for title insurance and three espresso machines?
'They used to say don't trust anyone over thirty; yet here we are, fiercely debating thermostat settings and marveling at the miracle of a good night's sleep,” shares Straus. “BOOMER is my high-wire riff on the generation that invented rock 'n' roll and then collectively forgot where we parked the car. Taking the audience on a joyride back through the decades, we relive the experiences that defined us and reflect on the lessons learned from a lifetime on the road. It's a funny, fierce solo show about the comedy of errors we're all starring in.'
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