When the Broadway musical Dead Outlaw posted its closing notice, I knew I'd have to rush to see the show before it was... dead.
This musical about the incompetent robber turned sideshow attraction Elmer McCurdy was the brainchild of David Yazbek, the songwriter also known for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels among other musicals. For Dead Outlaw, he teamed up with Erik Della Penna (who has some serious rock cred) and book writer Itamar Moses, who previously collaborated with Yazbek on The Band's Visit.
McCurdy is brought to life on stage by Andrew Durand, who previously appeared in Shucked. Durand makes us feel a surprising amount of sympathy for McCurdy, who bungled his burglaries just as he'd bungled pretty much everything else in his life. In the song "Killed a Man in Maine" he even brags about murder, though as the story's narrator (an energetic Jeb Brown) tells us, there's no evidence McCurdy ever killed anyone.
Brown's narrator (billed as "Bandleader" since he also leads the show's on-stage rock band) constantly reminds the audience that what they're watching is true. That's because if anybody made McCurdy's story up, no one would believe it. The tale involves not just the outlaw's sad life, but what happened to his body afterward. As the audience learns in the opening number, it ended up being discovered in a spooky dark ride in California when it was stumbled upon by crew members making an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man.
Oh, come on! Really? Isn't that a little too on the nose? Do you really expect us to believe that... wait, I forgot that all of this is real. McCurdy's fame as an outlaw was followed by a string of posthumous performances in carnivals, a wax museum, sideshows, movie theater lobbies, and finally an amusement park. As the audience watches this transfer from place to place, we are reminded of the rapacious spirit of American capitalism that seeks to exploit anyone and everyone, even after we're dead.
The other stand-out performance in Dead Outlaw comes from Julia Knitel, who plays an array of characters, from McCurdy's sweetheart to a young girl who grew up with the outlaw's corpse being stored in her house. Her touching performance of the song "A Stranger" is far more emotionally affecting than you would expect in a play this wild.
Ultimately, it's the show's heart rather than just its humor that is captivating to audiences. If you haven't seen it yet, hurry before it closes on June 29.
