‘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.
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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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