New Musical ‘Dead Outlaw’ Announces Broadway Run

New musical Dead Outlaw is set to open on Broadway this spring. 

The show, which tells the outlandish true story of an outlaw’s corpse that becomes a celebrity, is set to play the Longacre Theatre starting April 12, with an opening night April 27. 

The musical comes to Broadway after an Off-Broadway run produced by Audible at Minetta Lane Theatre earlier this year. This is the first show developed by Audible to come to Broadway. 

Dead Outlaw features a book by Itamar Moses, songs by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, and direction by David Cromer, with Moses, Yazbek and Cromer all previously working together on the Tony Award-winning musical The Band’s Visit. 

The musical follows Elmer McCurdy, an outlaw who was killed in a shootout with police in 1911 and then had his mummified corpse put on display and later made the rounds on the carnival and sideshow circuit. His body later turned up at a house-of-horrors ride at an amusement park in Southern California and discovered by members of a television crew in the 1970s.

Dead Outlaw won several awards for its Off-Broadway run including best musical at the Drama Desk Awards, New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, Outer Critics Circle Awards, and Off-Broadway Alliance Awards. 

Lia Vollack Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions are producing the Broadway run. Casting has not yet been announced. 

The musical takes over the Longacre after Swept Away ends its run Dec. 29.