Dead times never seemed so good for audiences lucky enough to catch Dead Outlaw, a new off-Broadway yarn with masterful storytelling and a darn fine score. This marks the first musical produced by Amazon’s Audible Theater at Minetta Lane Theatre. Given how great it is and how good the reception has been to this pint-sized, bad-ass show, let’s hope they continue producing such fine quality. Heaven knows it’s better than much of the schlock currently being passed off as musicals further uptown.
Life was never that kind to Elmer McCurdy (Andrew Durand). As a young New Englander, he somehow lost his way from his conventional family and jumped on a train to Oklahoma. There, he would spend most of his young days drinking and learning about explosives. He wasn’t a good student. Nearly every attempt he made to hijack trains and break into safes failed. His incompetency and poor judgment ultimately led to his premature death.
With no family to identify him, his body was essentially soaked in arsenic and embalming fluid and passed around for decades. Upon his passing in 1911, he was propped up outside a general store to serve as a cautionary warning to would-be robbers. Years later, it would hang in a fun house/amusement park in Long Beach, California where it would be disclosed as a human remain.
David Yazbek’s store is melodic, memorable, and simply down-home, great western music—blended with traditional Broadway and lounge music flourishings.
David Cromer directs this exceptional cast which effortlessly tells this tale written by Itamar Moses. Macabre though it is, Dead Outlaw will force you to think about the importance of a human life, what you’re doing with your own, and the legacy you want to leave behind.
Shows like this come along all too rarely. When they do, we’re reminded of the power of stories and the ability of theater to distill them into something magical and endlessly entertaining.
Dead Outlaw is now running Off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theater (18 Minetta Lane) through April 14th. For tickets and information, click here
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