Dead Outlaw Lyrics: Song List
- Ballad
- Dead
- Normal
- Killed a Man in Maine
- Dead (reprise)
- Nobody Knows Your Name
- Jail Cell
- Blowin' It Up
- Indian Train
- Leave Me Be
- A Stranger
- Something From Nothing
- Our Dear Brother
- Somethin' 'Bout a Mummy
- Andy Payne
- Somethin' 'Bout a Mummy (reprise)
- Millicent's Song
- Nobody Knows Your Name (reprise)
- Up to the Stars
- Our Dear Brother (reprise)
- Crimson Thread
- Dead (Finale)
About the "Dead Outlaw" Stage Show
Album Overview.
"Dead Outlaw" is a musical inspired by the life of Elmer McCurdy, a failed outlaw whose embalmed body became a sideshow attraction for decades. The soundtrack captures the essence of this bizarre tale, blending dark humor with poignant reflections on mortality.
- Release Date: May 2, 2025
- Genre: Rockabilly, Folk, Musical Theater
- Length: 22 minutes (Part 1)
- Label: Yellow Sound Label / Audible
- Composers: David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna
- Book: Itamar Moses
- Director: David Cromer
- Orchestrations: Erik Della Penna, Dean Sharenow, David Yazbek
Production and Reception.
The musical premiered Off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theatre on March 10, 2024, and concluded its run on April 14, 2024. It received critical acclaim, winning three Drama Desk Awards: Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Book of a Musical, and Outstanding Lyrics.
Following its success, "Dead Outlaw" transferred to Broadway's Longacre Theatre, opening on April 27, 2025. The original Off-Broadway cast reprised their roles, bringing the macabre story to a wider audience.
Critic's reviews.
Critics have praised "Dead Outlaw" for its unique storytelling and musical composition. The Wall Street Journal described it as "a fascinatingly weird crime narrative" that offers "something new" to musical theater. The Washington Post highlighted its "lively rockabilly and folk-infused score" and its critical examination of America's commodification of death.
Track Highlights.
The Part 1 release of the soundtrack includes seven tracks:
- "Ballad" by Andrew Durand: Introduces Elmer's story with a haunting melody.
- "Dead" by Jeb Brown and Erik Della Penna: A boisterous declaration of mortality.
- "Normal" by Erik Della Penna, Andrew Durand, and Julia Knitel: Explores the concept of normalcy in a world of oddities.
- "Indian Train" by Andrew Durand: A rhythmic journey reflecting Elmer's travels.
- "A Stranger" by Julia Knitel: A poignant solo capturing isolation and longing.
- "Something From Nothing" by Eddie Cooper: Celebrates creation amidst chaos.
- "Up to the Stars" by Thom Sesma: A celestial finale pondering legacy and remembrance.
Musical Styles and Themes.
The soundtrack weaves together rockabilly, folk, and traditional musical theater elements to create a soundscape that mirrors Elmer McCurdy's tumultuous journey. Themes of death, fame, and the human desire for recognition permeate the music, inviting listeners to reflect on their legacies.
Musical Background.
"Dead Outlaw" delves into the life of Elmer McCurdy, a man whose posthumous fame overshadowed his living years. The musical portrays his transformation from a failed outlaw to a sideshow spectacle, examining the societal fascination with death and notoriety.
Creation History of "Dead Outlaw".
The seed of "Dead Outlaw" was first planted in the mind of composer David Yazbek, best known for his sharply observational scores in musicals like "The Band's Visit" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels". The concept fascinated him—a real-life outlaw turned mummified roadside attraction, a man more famous dead than alive. But this wasn’t just macabre curiosity; it was commentary. About fame. About America. About the spectacle of death.
Yazbek brought in his longtime collaborator, Erik Della Penna, a guitarist with roots in folk and experimental rock. Their goal wasn’t pastiche—it was raw Americana reimagined, filtered through dusty harmonicas and twisted guitars. You can hear it: in the shuffling percussion, in the haunting melodies, in lyrics that sound ripped from Depression-era newspapers.
They needed a story spine. That came in the form of Itamar Moses, who’d won a Tony for “The Band’s Visit.” Moses didn't just script Elmer's life; he fictionalized with surgical precision. He wove together archival reports, newspaper clippings, legend, and rumor. He imagined conversations that never happened but somehow felt truer than fact. He gave the dead man a voice.
The project had been gestating quietly for years. Yazbek first mentioned the idea in interviews as early as 2021, describing it as “weird” and “wonderfully dark.” Development started in readings and workshops in late 2022, with Audible Theater jumping on board. The company’s reputation for supporting experimental stage works helped solidify the show’s place Off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theatre.
The Minetta Lane run was the laboratory. That’s where it became clear this wasn’t just another offbeat bio-musical. Critics and audiences alike responded with stunned admiration. People laughed, gasped, even wept—at a mummy musical. The design team elevated the grimy mystique: Arnulfo Maldonado’s wood-and-steel set felt like a forgotten vaudeville stage; Heather Gilbert’s lighting turned death into neon poetry; Sarah Laux’s costumes leaned into period weirdness without kitsch.
By April 2024, it was obvious. "Dead Outlaw" couldn’t stay off Broadway. Audible and the producers announced its transfer to Broadway in December. Not a recast, not a reinvention. The original cast, the original vision—just a bigger stage and a louder echo.
The album’s first part dropped in May 2025, matching the show’s Broadway momentum. Instead of waiting to release the full soundtrack, the creators released it in parts, like acts of a strange, sepia-toned operetta. It gave fans a taste. Just enough to obsess over.
Main Cast of the Musical.
Andrew Durand as Elmer McCurdy.
Andrew Durand embodies the titular character, portraying his life and afterlife with depth and nuance.
Julia Knitel as Millicent Esper.
Julia Knitel brings warmth and complexity to Millicent, (character) who interacts with Elmer's legacy.
Thom Sesma as Dr. Thomas Noguchi.
Thom Sesma portrays the famed coroner, adding a layer of dark humor and reflection.
Jeb Brown as Walter Jarrett.
Jeb Brown serves as the bandleader and narrator, guiding the audience through Elmer's story.
Quotes.
"This rollicking, darkly hilarious, thoroughly original musical will knock you dead."
TimeOut NY
"It needs to be seen to be believed!"
Entertainment Weekly
"A glorious musical. DEAD OUTLAW IS UNMISSABLE."
USA Today
Release date of the musical: 2025
"Dead Outlaw" – The Musical Guide & Song Meanings
Review
Can a show about a dead body stay alive for 100 minutes without turning into a novelty act? Dead Outlaw answers with a score that treats history like a jam session and grief like a punchline you regret laughing at. It is built around Elmer McCurdy, a real outlaw whose afterlife became a traveling attraction, and the musical refuses to let the audience hide behind the premise.
The lyric engine is folk-rock with a side of vaudeville bite. David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna write with the snap of a band that knows exactly when to rush the beat and when to hold the room still. The band is not decoration. It is the show’s conscience. The Bandleader narrates, heckles, and keeps time as America keeps profiting. When the story shifts from Elmer’s failures in life to the corpse’s “career,” the language changes too. The lyrics get more transactional. Names become brands. Death becomes an asset.
Itamar Moses’ book loves a hard cut. One minute you are in the dirt and bad decisions, the next you are in a carnival hustle, then an exploitation-film lobby, then a coroner’s office with celebrity gossip as patter. That pace can feel like a dare, but it is also the theme: the body never rests. David Cromer’s staging leans into the show’s central contradiction. Elmer is reduced to an object, yet the production keeps insisting he is a person. AP’s reporting on Andrew Durand’s performance underscores the physical concept: the actor is dynamic early on, then spends a long stretch in absolute stillness, forcing you to watch what everyone else does to him.
How It Was Made
The show’s origin story reads like a modern commissioning tale. Audible Theater, which commissioned the piece, describes first encountering Yazbek and Della Penna’s songs-in-progress at a 54 Below night in 2023, and deciding they were watching the start of something. That anecdote matters because it explains the musical’s structure. It behaves like a concept album that grew a spine and walked onto Broadway.
By the time it reached Broadway, the creative identity was sharp: Moses on book, Yazbek and Della Penna on music and lyrics, Cromer directing, with Dean Sharenow as music supervisor and co-orchestrator. Playbill notes the Broadway production as a one-act running about 1 hour 40 minutes, no intermission, and also frames it as Audible Theater’s first commissioned musical, with producers including Lia Vollack and Sonia Friedman.
There is also a practical production reason the lyrics land as cleanly as they do. The band is written into the storytelling, and that gives the writers permission to make exposition musical without making it polite. You can explain a decade with a riff, then turn around and make a heartbreak feel like a private confession.
Key Tracks & Scenes
"Opening" (Elmer / Company)
- The Scene:
- A campfire memory. Sparse light, guitar warmth, a life that wants to be quiet. Then the impulse hits, and the room shifts into motion.
- Lyrical Meaning:
- The lyric sets up Elmer as a dreamer who makes one bad decision too quickly. The show tells you early: this is a character who reaches for myth, then faceplants into consequence.
"Dead" (Bandleader and Band)
- The Scene:
- The band steps forward like a roadside revival. Bright stage light, stomp and swagger, a welcome that feels like a warning sign.
- Lyrical Meaning:
- It is a thesis statement: death is democratic, and the joke is on all of us. The lyric weaponizes cheerfulness so you cannot pretend mortality is someone else’s problem.
"Normal" (Elmer and Maggie)
- The Scene:
- Iola, Kansas. A small-town pocket of possibility. The lighting softens, the tempo relaxes, and Elmer tries on domestic calm like it might fit.
- Lyrical Meaning:
- This duet sells stability as a romance, which is why it hurts when it slips away. The lyric is about longing for an ordinary life while suspecting you are not built for it.
"Indian Train" (Elmer / Company)
- The Scene:
- A barn-burner rally before a robbery. The staging leans into forward drive, bodies angled like they are already running, excitement taking over the room.
- Lyrical Meaning:
- The lyric is bravado as self-invention. Elmer tries to become the legend he will never be in life, and the music makes the lie sound thrilling anyway.
"Something From Nothing" (Joseph L. Johnson)
- The Scene:
- A morgue becomes a storefront. A preserved body is posed, dressed, and sold. The lighting feels clinical at first, then turns show-biz bright as the hustle begins.
- Lyrical Meaning:
- This is capitalism in lyric form. The song charts the moment the corpse stops being a person and becomes a product, and it does it with a grin you want to slap.
"Millicent's Song" (Millicent)
- The Scene:
- A family home where the body is stashed like contraband. A lonely child approaches the corpse as if it can listen. The space feels smaller, more intimate, and suddenly sad.
- Lyrical Meaning:
- The lyric flips the show’s cruelty into tenderness. Millicent does what adults refuse to do: she grants Elmer attention that is not transactional, even if it is also strange.
"Up to the Stars" (Dr. Thomas Noguchi)
- The Scene:
- Los Angeles. A coroner’s room with hard light and paperwork. Then the number blossoms into a sleek showpiece as Noguchi sings his own legend.
- Lyrical Meaning:
- Celebrity becomes another kind of spectacle, just with better suits. The lyric connects Elmer’s carnival exploitation to a modern media machine that sells death with a smile.
"Crimson Thread" (Pawhuska Delegates / Company)
- The Scene:
- A burial that finally acts like closure. Cement, ritual, and a stillness the show has withheld until the end. The mood is hymn-like, with the stage dimmed to something human.
- Lyrical Meaning:
- The lyric asks what dignity costs, and who gets to buy it back. After decades of borrowed identities, the song tries to restore one simple truth: a body is not a prop.
Live Updates
Broadway run and afterlife: Dead Outlaw opened at the Longacre Theatre on April 27, 2025 and played its final Broadway performance on June 29, 2025, with Playbill tracking grosses and an average ticket price in its closing-week stats. The show’s post-Broadway footprint has been heavily recording-led. An Audible Original release of the full Off-Broadway engagement arrived July 17, 2025, and a separate Original Broadway Cast Recording followed on August 22, 2025, released by Audible under exclusive license to Yellow Sound Label.
Awards and visibility: TonyAwards.com lists seven 2025 nominations, including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score, acting nods for Andrew Durand, Jeb Brown, Julia Knitel, and a directing nomination for David Cromer. That nomination set, paired with the late-summer cast album timing, kept the show in the conversation well past closing.
2026 and beyond: There is no officially announced national tour calendar on the major listing pages as of January 2026, but the title is already appearing in touring-presenter ecosystem listings for the 2026-2027 season as “coming soon.” Treat that as market heat, not confirmation, until a producer-backed itinerary is published.
Notes & Trivia
- TonyAwards.com credits Dead Outlaw with seven 2025 Tony nominations, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.
- Playbill lists the running time at 1 hour 40 minutes with no intermission.
- New York Theatre Guide frames the score as country-rock and maps songs to specific historical episodes, from Iola courtship to carnival acquisition to Los Angeles coroner culture.
- Playbill notes the show as Audible Theater’s first-ever commissioned musical, with a producing lineup that includes Lia Vollack Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions.
- The Yellow Sound Label album page credits Dean Sharenow for music supervision and lists orchestrations by Della Penna, Yazbek, and Sharenow.
- Apple Music lists the Original Broadway Cast Recording release date as August 22, 2025 and credits Audible under exclusive license to Yellow Sound Label.
- ToursToYou includes the title under its 2026-2027 season listings as “coming soon,” a sign of touring-house interest even without a published routing.
Reception
Reviews tend to circle the same idea from different angles: the show is funnier than it “should” be, then it gets mean, then it gets quiet enough to scare you. When it works best, the lyrics do not beg for sympathy. They show how quickly a life can become a story, and how quickly a story can become merchandise.
“Dead Outlaw … feels like an autopsy.”
“A rowdy and darkly hilarious picaresque.”
“Less emotionally accessible.”
Even dissenting takes often praise the band-driven concept and the central performance. The show’s real provocation is structural: it makes you watch a body travel through American appetites, and it refuses to let the audience pretend they are not part of the audience inside the story.
Quick Facts
- Title: Dead Outlaw
- Year (your tag): 2025 (Broadway opening)
- Type: One-act musical; folk-rock / country-rock storytelling with onstage band
- Book: Itamar Moses
- Music & lyrics: David Yazbek, Erik Della Penna
- Director: David Cromer
- Music supervision: Dean Sharenow
- Broadway theatre: Longacre Theatre
- Broadway dates: Opened April 27, 2025; closed June 29, 2025
- Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes; no intermission
- Selected notable placements: campfire origin (“Opening”); death manifesto (“Dead”); Iola courtship (“Normal”); Katy train scheme (“Indian Train”); undertaker monetization (“Something From Nothing”); exploitation-film household (“Millicent’s Song”); Los Angeles coroner showpiece (“Up to the Stars”); burial hymn (“Crimson Thread”)
- Cast album status: Original Broadway Cast Recording released August 22, 2025
- Label / rights note: ? 2025 Audible, Inc. under exclusive license to Yellow Sound Label
- Awards snapshot: 7 Tony nominations (2025); Drama League nods listed on Playbill
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Dead Outlaw based on a true story?
- Yes. The show is inspired by Elmer McCurdy, whose preserved body became a traveling attraction for decades, and the musical dramatizes that history with some theatrical invention.
- Who wrote the lyrics?
- David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna share music-and-lyrics credit, with Itamar Moses writing the book.
- Is there a cast recording?
- Yes. The Original Broadway Cast Recording was released August 22, 2025, and an Audible Original release of the full Off-Broadway engagement arrived July 17, 2025.
- How long is the show, and does it have an intermission?
- Playbill lists it at about 1 hour 40 minutes, with no intermission.
- Did it win any Tonys?
- TonyAwards.com lists the show’s seven 2025 nominations. For winners by category, use the Tony Awards “Winners” pages for that season.
- Is there a 2026 tour?
- There is no official national tour routing published on major producer-backed pages as of January 2026. The title is appearing in touring-presenter listings for 2026-2027 as “coming soon,” which suggests interest, not confirmed dates.
Key Contributors
| Name | Role | Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Itamar Moses | Book | Built a fast, time-hopping narrative that frames exploitation as an American habit. |
| David Yazbek | Music & Lyrics; Conception; Orchestrations/Arrangements | Co-wrote the folk-rock score and shaped the show’s band-forward storytelling voice. |
| Erik Della Penna | Music & Lyrics; Orchestrations/Arrangements | Co-wrote the songs and helped define the grit-and-groove guitar language of the piece. |
| David Cromer | Director | Staged the musical as a live gig that keeps a human heartbeat inside a macabre premise. |
| Dean Sharenow | Music Supervisor; Orchestrations/Arrangements | Oversaw musical cohesion and recording lineage across stage and album releases. |
| Ani Taj | Choreographer; Associate Director | Created movement that reads as Americana performance rather than dance-for-dance’s sake. |
| Arnulfo Maldonado | Scenic Design | Supported the show’s concert-like grammar while allowing rapid time and location shifts. |
| Andrew Durand | Original Broadway cast (Elmer McCurdy) | Plays Elmer alive, then plays Elmer as an object, without letting him stop feeling human. |
| Jeb Brown | Original Broadway cast (Bandleader / Jarrett) | Anchors the show’s narrating voice and its moral sarcasm. |
| Julia Knitel | Original Broadway cast (Helen / Maggie / Millicent, others) | Provides the show’s most direct emotional counterweight to the commerce of spectacle. |
Sources: TonyAwards.com, Playbill, New York Theatre Guide, TheaterMania, Time Out New York, Los Angeles Times, Audible Newsroom, Yellow Sound Label, Apple Music, Theatrical presenter listings (ToursToYou), AP News, Entertainment Weekly.