'Dead Outlaw,' a musical about a famous corpse discovered in Long Beach, makes its way to Broadway

NEW YORK — “Dead Outlaw,” the offbeat philharmonic from the squad down the Tony-winning philharmonic “The Band’s Visit,” isn’t mincing words with the title. The show, which had its authoritative opening Sunday astatine Broadway’s Longacre Theatre, tells the communicative of the unsuccessful vocation of a real-life bandit, who achieved much fame arsenic a corpse than arsenic a man.

Born successful 1880, Elmer McCurdy, a crook whose ambition exceeded his transgression skill, died successful a shoot-out with the constabulary aft different botched bid robbery successful 1911. But his communicative didn’t extremity there. His preserved assemblage had an eventful afterlife each its own.

“Dead Outlaw,” a critics’ darling erstwhile it premiered past twelvemonth astatine Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre, whitethorn beryllium the lone philharmonic to marque the disposition of a assemblage an juncture for singing and dancing.

David Yazbek, who conceived the thought of turning this stranger-than-fiction communicative into a musical, wrote the people with Erik Della Penna. Itamar Moses, nary alien to improbable melodramatic subjects, compressed the epic saga into a compact yet labyrinthine book. Director David Cromer, whose sensibility gravitates betwixt stark and dark, endows the staging with macabre elegance.

Yet Yazbek, Moses and Cromer aren’t repeating themselves. If anything, they’ve acceptable themselves a steeper challenge. “Dead Outlaw” is much unyielding arsenic a philharmonic taxable than “The Band’s Visit,” which is to accidental it’s little emotionally accessible.

Andrew Durand stars successful “Dead Outlaw.”

(Matthew Murphy)

It’s not casual to marque a philharmonic astir a crook with a volatile temper, an unslakable thirst for booze and a grounds of fumbled heists. It’s adjacent harder to marque 1 retired of a dormant assemblage that went connected accumulation astatine traveling carnivals and freak shows earlier ending up connected show successful a Long Beach amusive house, wherever the mummified remains were accidentally discovered by a prop antheral portion moving connected an occurrence of “The Six Million Dollar Man” successful 1976.

Stephen Sondheim mightiness person enjoyed the situation of creating a philharmonic from specified an outlandish premise. “Dead Outlaw” evokes astatine moments the droll perversity of “Sweeney Todd,” the cold-hearted glee of “Assassins” and the Brechtian skewering of “Road Show” — Sondheim musicals that alert successful the look of accepted philharmonic theatre wisdom.

As choky arsenic a good thought-out jam-session,”Dead Outlaw” besides recalls “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” the Michael Friedman-Alex Timbers philharmonic that created a satiric humanities stone amusement astir a astir problematic president. And the show’s unabashed quirkiness had my theatre companion drafting comparisons with “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

Andrew Durand, who plays Elmer, has conscionable the close bad-boy frontman vibe. The hard-driving beingness of bandleader and narrator Jeb Brown suffuses the accumulation with Americana authenticity, vibrantly maintained by euphony manager Rebekah Bruce and euphony supervisor Dean Sharenow.

Elmer moves done the satellite similar an unfastened razor, arsenic the rubric quality of Georg Büchner’s “Woyzeck” is aptly described successful that play. A précis of Elmer’s aboriginal beingness successful Maine is tally done by members of the eight-person formed successful the bouncy, no-nonsense mode of a graphic novel.

The character’s transgression way is tracked with akin briskness — a fateful bid of colorful encounters and escapades arsenic Elmer, a turbulent young antheral connected the move, looks for his large accidental successful Kansas and Oklahoma. Destined for trouble, helium finds it unfailingly wherever helium goes.

Elmer routinely overestimates himself. Having acquired immoderate grooming with nitroglycerin successful the Army, helium wrongly convinces himself that helium has the know-how to efficaciously stroke up a safe. He’s similar a broke gambler who believes his adjacent risky stake volition bring him that long-awaited jackpot. One vantage of dying young is that helium ne'er has to face his abject ineptitude.

Arnulfo Maldonado’s scenic plan turns the accumulation into a fun-house exhibit. The set is prominently arrayed connected the box-like set, pounding retired country-rock numbers that cognize a happening oregon 2 astir hard living. The euphony tin sneak up connected you, particularly erstwhile a quality gives dependable to feelings that they can’t rather get a grip on.

Thom Sesma successful “Dead Outlaw.”

(Matthew Murphy)

Durand can’t pass emotions that Elmer doesn’t possess, but he’s capable to sharply convey the disquiet rumbling done the character’s abbreviated life. There’s a gruff lyricism to the show that’s entrancing adjacent erstwhile Elmer is lasting up successful a coffin. But I privation determination were much intriguing extent to the character.

Elmer is simply a humanities curiosity, to beryllium sure. And helium reveals thing astir the American moneymaking ethos, which holds not adjacent a dormant assemblage sacred. But arsenic a antheral he’s level and a spot of a bore. And the creators are possibly excessively enthralled by the oddity of his tale. The amusement is an eccentric wallow done the morgue of history. It’s exhilarating stylistically, little truthful arsenic a critique of the acheronian broadside of the American dream.

Julia Knitel has a dependable that breaks up the monochromatic maleness of the score. As Maggie, Elmer’s emotion involvement for a little moment, she returns aboriginal successful the amusement to bespeak connected the alien with the “broken disposition” who near her beingness with the aforesaid defiant enigma that helium entered it. I privation Knitel had much accidental to interweave Maggie’s ruminations. The unassuming quality of her singing adds overmuch needed tonal variety.

The philharmonic takes an amusing leap into Vegas parody erstwhile coroner Thomas Noguchi (an electrical Thom Sesma) is allowed to strut his aesculapian examiner stuff. Ani Taj’s choreography, similar each constituent of the production, makes the astir of its minimalist means.

Wanderingly weird, “Dead Outlaw” retains its off-Broadway cred astatine the Longacre. It’s a tiny amusement that creeps up connected you, similar a bizarre imagination that’s hard to shake.