Producers Lia Vollack Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions announced today that the most critically acclaimed new musical of 2024, Dead Outlaw by Itamar Moses, featuring music and lyrics from David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, will open on Broadway, following its smash-hit world premiere engagement at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre. Originally produced Off-Broadway by Audible Theater, and directed by David Cromer, Dead Outlaw dominated the 2024 awards season, taking home the prize for ‘Best Musical’ at the Drama Desk Awards, New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, Outer Critics Circle Awards, and Off-Broadway Alliance Awards. The production is set to begin preview performances at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre (220 W 48th St) on Saturday, April 12 with an opening set for Sunday, April 27.
Dead Outlaw is the darkly hilarious and wildly inventive musical about the bizarre true story of outlaw-turned-corpse-turned-celebrity Elmer McCurdy. As Elmer’s body finds even more outlandish adventures in death than it could have ever hoped for in life, the show explores fame, failure, and the meaning – or, utter meaninglessness – of legacy. Dying is no reason to stop living life to its fullest.
The New York Times and New York Magazine list Dead Outlaw among “The Best Theater of 2024,” with the former raving, “Brilliant and gorgeous!” and the latter calling it, “A raucous, rip-roaring, bourbon-and-arsenic-tinged musical!” Winner of four Best Musical Awards, including the Drama Desk, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Outer Critics Circle, and Off Broadway Alliance Awards, Dead Outlaw is “as much fun as any respectable grownup is likely to have in public” (New York Sun). The Wrap calls it, “An instant classic! You have to see it to believe it.”