By Matthew Wexler
Elmer McCurdy lived a tough life. And it didn’t get much better after he was killed in a shootout after a 1911 bungled robbery, in which he and his accomplices targeted the wrong train. It was one of many missteps endured in the outlaw’s 31 years, but it’s what happened after McCurdy’s death that turns the new Broadway musical Dead Outlaw on its head.
With nobody to claim the body, coroner Joseph Johnson embalmed him. Seeing an opportunity to make a few bucks, he propped up the corpse with a rifle in hand and put it on display in his Oklahoma funeral home. For a nickel, you could view “The Bandit Who Wouldn’t Give Up.”
Through a series of schemes and sales, McCurdy’s body appeared in a traveling carnival and wax museum (among other locations) and eventually landed at a dilapidated Long Beach amusement park. It wouldn’t be until 1976 when a crew member from the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man discovered it hanging from the ceiling.
Composer David Yazbek heard the story over 30 years ago, and mesmerized by the unfortunate turn of events and intersecting themes of American capitalism and our more intimate ponderings of mortality, dabbled with a stage treatment. The work finally came to fruition Off-Broadway last year with contributions from collaborators Erik Della Penna (music and lyrics) and Itamar Moses (book).
Director David Cromer deftly maneuvers the tight-knit company as they shepherd McCurdy (a captivating Andrew Durand, who masters the art of atrophied stillness through the musical’s second half) through his untimely demise and beyond. The score, rooted in Americana (think Mumford & Sons), provides the perfect storytelling vehicle, as does the theatrical conceit, which places the band onstage and ushers characters into a concert-like environment to catapult McCurdy’s tale into a kind of rhythm and blues festival gone awry.
As the best new musical of the season, Dead Outlaw proves that producers don’t need a well-known IP or $31 million to make an impact. Just gather some talented artists, and let them figure out where the good stories are buried.
‘Dead Outlaw’ Takeaway
Want to learn more about the real Elmer McCurdy? The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum produced a short film about the outlaw’s troubled life and even more troubling afterlife.
Dead Outlaw plays at the Longacre Theatre.
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