‘Dead Outlaw’ Finds Humor While Tracing a Most Unusual, Morose Story

The real-life outlaw, one Elmer McCurdy, spent roughly 60 years as a mummified attraction, displayed in carnivals, sideshows, and even theater lobbies. If you like your comedy black, this is likely one for you.

Matthew Murphy
Andrew Durand, center, with Jeb Brown and Ken Marks in 'Dead Outlaw.' Matthew Murphy

The last time composer/lyricist David Yazbek, playwright Itamar Moses, and director David Cromer collaborated on a musical, the Tony Award-winning “The Band’s Visit,” their focus was on a group of traveling Egyptian musicians who got lost. In their latest collaboration, “Dead Outlaw,” the protagonist is an itinerant American who loses everything, including his life — and that ultimate loss goes down long before the curtain does.

In fact, by my estimation, the character of Elmer McCurdy — lifted from the annals of history, albeit less well-known than, say, Alexander Hamilton or Fanny Brice — spends nearly half his time on stage as a corpse. That’s only fitting, as the real McCurdy, after being killed by Oklahoma police following a foiled train robbery in 1911, spent roughly 60 years, or twice the length of his lifetime, as a mummified attraction, displayed in carnivals, sideshows, and even theater lobbies.

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