Theater News

Off-Broadway Hit Dead Outlaw Coming to Broadway This Spring

The musical is the story of a world-infamous corpse.

David Gordon

David Gordon

| Broadway |

December 19, 2024

Trent Saunders, Andrew Durand, and Eddie Cooper Dead Outlaw Matthew Murphy
Trent Saunders, Andrew Durand, and Eddie Cooper in Dead Outlaw
(© Matthew Murphy)

The hit off-Broadway musical Dead Outlaw is coming to Broadway this spring, set to play the Longacre Theatre beginning April 12. Opening night is April 27.

Dead Outlaw has a book by Itamar Moses and score by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, with direction by David Cromer. It premiered earlier this year as a production of Audible at the Minetta Lane Theatre and took home Best Musical honors at the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards.

Dead Outlaw is based on the true story of Elmer McCurdy, an ambitious, turn-of-the-20th-century outlaw whose death at the hands of a Western posse ended a life of failed crime and alcoholism and began a career as a mummified side-show attraction that traveled the USA for decades. His desiccated body was hanging in a house-of-horrors ride at an amusement park in Southern California, spray-painted a day-glo orange, when a grip for the Six-Million Dollar Man TV show jostled what he thought was “just a dummy” and an arm fell off, revealing a human bone and beginning a hunt for the origins of this enigma.

Update, January 21: The Broadway company will feature Andrew Durand and Thom Sesma reprising their award-winning performances as Elmer McCurdy and Coroner Noguchi, alongside fellow original cast members Jeb Brown as Band Leader/Jarrett, Eddie Cooper as Coroner Johnson, Dashiell Eaves as Louis/Charles Patterson, Julia Knitel as Helen/Maggie, Ken Marks as George, and Trent Saunders as Andy Payne. Emily Fink and Max Sangerman are understudies.

The creative team for Dead Outlaw includes Ani Taj (choreography), Arnulfo Maldonado (scenic design), Sarah Laux (costume design), Heather Gilbert (lighting design), Kai Harada (sound design), Dean Sharenow (music supervision), Rebekah Bruce (music direction), and David Yazbek, Erik Della Penna, and Dean Sharenow (orchestrations).

Of the off-Broadway production, our critic said, “They have taken a huge risk with Dead Outlaw, both in form and content, and it pays off spectacularly.” TheaterMania named it one of the best off-Broadway shows of 2024.

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