He was wanted by the law, killed by a posse... and then his career really took off! Based on the “that can’t actually be true” story of bumbling bandit Elmer McCurdy and winner of three Best Musical awards (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, NY Drama Critics’ Circle), this “rollicking, darkly hilarious, and thoroughly original musical will knock you dead!” (Time Out). Step right up and get tickets to the show Entertainment Weekly calls “a truly one-of-a-kind production, complete with a whole lot of laughs and a surprising amount of heart. It needs to be seen to be believed!”
The new musical is the darkly hilarious and wildly inventive musical about the bizarre true story of outlaw-turned-corpse-turned-celebrity Elmer McCurdy. As Elmer’s body finds even more outlandish adventures in death than it could have ever hoped for in life, the show explores fame, failure, and the meaning – or, utter meaninglessness – of legacy.
In the staggering “Dead Outlaw,” death is both commodified and desensitized; a cruel fact of life that we are pummeled with repeatedly throughout the musical. (“Your friends are dead / your dog is dead / and so are you,” Brown growls in the cheeky, name-dropping finale.) But in facing our bleak mortal coil with a laugh and a song, McCurdy’s hair-raising, pulse-racing resuscitation helps us all feel a little more alive.
And in part it’s the respect the authors show the audience by leaving us to assemble the jokes for ourselves, using the components they provide: contrast, surprise, pattern and disruption. Though that is already surpassingly rare on Broadway, even rarer is the way the show forces us, through pure entertainment and with no pathos, to think about things our intelligence busily helps us avoid. Why are we alive? As long as we are, what should we do about it? And do we have our papers in order? “Dead Outlaw” does. It should have a hell of an afterlife.
| 2024 | Off-Broadway |
Audible Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
| 2025 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Drama League Awards | DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE | Andrew Durand |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Book of a Musical | Itamar Moses |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | David Cromer |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | BEST ORIGINAL SCORE (Music and/or Lyrics) | David Yazbek |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | BEST ORIGINAL SCORE (Music and/or Lyrics) | Erik Della Penna |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical | Jeb Brown |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical | Andrew Durand |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical | Julia Knitel |
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