Dead Outlaw – 30 April 2025

I applaud Dead Outlaw for being one of the few Broadway shows with genuinely original content, a fully original score, and no need for a television/movie star to prop it up. This season, I have felt starved for this kind of story. Dead Outlaw delivers a memorable experience with several other unique qualities. The way the band is integrated into the show as characters is seamless, and particularly haunting at times when a band member supplies the harmony line when an actor is singing to create fully fleshed out chords without leaning on putting extra actors on stage who have no plot-related purpose for being there. This production delivers music that you can feel pulse through your body from anywhere in the audience. Elmer McCurdy (Andrew Durand)’s show stopping number where he drunkenly becomes part of the band, then grabs a cymbal and plays it with his boot is the pinnacle of how this show crosses genre—it’s funny yet tragic. As frequently happens with director David Cromer’s projects, I found myself laughing and then wondering how I could laugh at something so profoundly unfunny. In the end, the show shows us how a man whose life amounted to nothing ends up also amounting to nothing in death, despite the prolonged amount of time between his passing and his burial.

The show itself kept me engaged all the way through. Though low on plot, the score does most of the heavy lifting and is dynamic enough to sustain the suspense. Everyone gave wonderfully unique vocal performances, and seeing the score (David Yazbek, Erik Della Penna) cross musical genres the same way that the book (Itamar Moses) crosses traditional media genres was really delightful. In particular, the show held space for Andrew Durand’s musical theatre style, Jeb Brown’s folk/alternative edge, Trent Saunders’s rock and roll energy, and Thom Sesma’s crooning, all used in both dramatic and comedic moments. This show is a little bit of everything, yet it never crosses the bridge into chaotic. Actors played characters of different ages (most notably, Julia Knitel) and genders (most notably Trent Saunders), and moved through the show as an admirably well oiled machine. While it didn’t make me feel anything emotionally, this quasi concert, quasi theatre experience kept me moving in my seat and eager for the show to continue. At no point did I feel like Dead Outlaw didn’t deliver high quality entertainment.

Staging wise, while the integration of the band had moments of being incredibly meaningful, the design elements felt too small for a theater this large. I was not impressed with Arnulfo Maldonado’s scenic design; there were a couple of mountains and a ladder—thoroughly underwhelming for what having this much fly space could have done to transport us to each place on Elmer’s journey. Cromer’s commitment to minimalism is an important element of the show, but I did feel that there were missed opportunities scenically to lose Elmer in surroundings that would have increased the starkness of Heather Gilbert’s lighting, which did an incredible job as a storytelling device, utilizing everything from the fairy lights over the band to tiny spotlights specific to people’s faces. Sarah Laux did her part as costume designer in keeping everyone unique but within the world of the show, and Kai Harada’s sound pulsated through the house, making everyone wonder when the cast album will be released. For a show that started out in a smaller space, Dead Outlaw could have dreamed bigger visually. Writing wise, Dead Outlaw’s most brilliant element was the subtle reinsertion of previous parts of songs with reprises that took on totally different meanings as time went on.

Dead Outlaw is funny, wacky, offbeat, and an engaging theatre experience for those seeking something more adventurous than the classics with the capacity to keep you guessing the whole way through. The score shines with brilliant use of the lap steel (Hank Heaven), banjo (Jr Atkins), organ (Rebekah Bruce), bass (Brian Killeen) and syncopated percussion (Spencer Cohen), and lots of other instruments along the journey that change the vibe and the rhythm, keeping the auditory world as mysterious as the story itself. The show is a daring addition to this year’s Broadway scene, utterly unlike anything that’s currently running. Rounded out by the indisputable acting talent, it is wildly creative, wickedly funny, and definitely worth the ride.

I attended this performance on a press pass from DKC/O&M.