DEAD OUTLAW Reviews

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 1:37pm

Unusual 5pm embargo lift for this one.

[Kad]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 1:45pm

Well, they’re opening with a matinee performance and Real Women Have Curves is opening later, so it makes sense they’d want reviews out early.

[bear88]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 2:46pm

I’m very curious if the production gets the same raves as the off-Broadway version.

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 3:22pm

It’s essentially the same show as downtown, just upscaled for a larger house. I don’t think we are going to get any new takes on the material, but rather how it’s staged.

If the reviews are as rapturous as last year, these could be salvation reviews like the ones MHE had.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 3:51pm

Very curious about the reviews for BOTH Real Women and Dead Outlaw. I think both need to be rapturously received to make a dent in the Tony race (which has seemed kind of set for a while) and more importantly to turn their ticket sales around. 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:00pm

NYT Critic's Pick from Green

CRITIC’S PICK

‘Dead Outlaw’ Review: This Bandit Has Mummy Issues

A truly twisted yarn about a long-lived corpse makes a surprisingly feel-good Broadway musical.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/theater/dead-outlaw-review.html

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:01pm

NY Stage Review

Dead Outlaw: Macabre, Morbid, and Wickedly Smart

By Michael Sommers

★★★★☆ David Yazbek and Itamar Moses craft a rowdy tuner about a surprisingly lively corpse

https://nystagereview.com/2025/04/27/dead-outlaw-macabre-morbid-and-wickedly-smart/

 

Dead Outlaw: Rip-Roarin’ Musical Hits the Bull’s-Eye

By Steven Suskin

★★★★★ David Yazbek’s brashly macabre tuner features Andrew Durand as a real-life desperado, wanted dead and alive

https://nystagereview.com/2025/04/27/dead-outlaw-rip-roarin-musical-hits-the-bulls-eye/

[Musigamist]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:01pm

Critic's Pick from Jesse Green:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/theater/dead-outlaw-review.html?unlocked_article_code=1.C08.jU3M.lach8B9-yU1G&smid=url-share

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:02pm

Variety

‘Dead Outlaw’ Review: Rambunctious Mummy Musical is Weird But Wildly Entertaining

 

https://variety.com/2025/legit/reviews/dead-outlaw-review-broadway-musical-1236379557/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:03pm

Deadline

‘Dead Outlaw’ Review: A Corpse Walks Off With A Glorious Broadway Season Send-Off

https://deadline.com/2025/04/dead-outlaw-broadway-review-1236377371/

"In one of the quirkiest, most morbid and somehow loveliest musicals to hit Broadway this season – even Floyd Collins‘ dying spelunker plot seems conventional by comparison – Dead Outlaw, directed by David Cromer (whose work here surpasses his accomplishments on Good Night, And Good Luck), is a very late entry in Broadway’s 2024-2025 season, and absolutely one of the best."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:05pm

NY Daily News starts off with a very strange opening in the season of Operation Mincemeat

BROADWAY REVIEW: ‘Dead Outlaw’ is lively, quirky musical about real-life sideshow attraction

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/04/27/broadway-review-dead-outlaw-is-lively-quirky-musical-about-real-life-sideshow-attraction/

"Most great Broadway musicals are about mortality. From “Les Misérables” to “The Lion King,” they preach that we don’t die but live on in another form.

But very few Broadway musicals are about corpses.

Actually, I’d venture that’s a genre of precisely one musical (well, arguably two if you include “Fun Home”). Now landing in the dog days of the 2024-25 Broadway season, “Dead Outlaw” is a deliciously sardonic little tuner from the cheerfully nihilistic, ever anti-sentimental, ever macabre team of David Yazbek (music, here alongside Erik Della Penna), Itamar Moses (book) and David Cromer (direction)."

 

(I mean...there's literally another musical about a corpse this season....)

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:05pm

B from Entertainment Weekly

Dead Outlaw review: A real-life bumbling bandit becomes a Broadway star in rocking new musical

The musical is based on the true story of outlaw-turned-haunted-house-mummy Elmer McCurdy.

https://ew.com/dead-outlaw-review-musical-broadway-11722764

 

As adaptations of popular, already-established franchises continue to pop up on Broadway, it’s thrilling to see original, truly one-of-a-kind productions like Dead Outlaw rise up to meet them. Eccentric, silly, and moving, the tale of Elmer McCurdy is one that truly needs to be seen to be believed. Grade: B

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:06pm

Daily Beast

‘Dead Outlaw’ Is Stunning—and Broadway’s Most Insane Musical

DEAD MAN WALKING

For 65 years, the mummified body of outlaw Elmer McCurdy was bought and sold for private and public consumption. “Dead Outlaw” brings this crazy story to vivid Broadway life.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/review-dead-outlaw-is-stunningand-broadways-most-insane-musical/

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:06pm

i found this a bit muted at the 2nd preview, a disappointment after its downtown glory, but these are bona fide raves. good for them.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:06pm

Theatermania

Review: Dead Outlaw, a Thrillingly Macabre New Broadway Musical

The new show from the team behind The Band’s Visit opens at the Longacre Theatre.

https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-dead-outlaw-a-thrillingly-macabre-new-broadway-musical_1774011/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:08pm

2 1/2 stars from NY Post

‘Dead Outlaw’ review: Wild corpse musical is too tame on Broadway

https://nypost.com/2025/04/27/entertainment/dead-outlaw-review-wild-corpse-musical-is-too-tame-on-broadway/

"The musical has many​ diamonds in the rough. They’re just not ​p​olished properly by Cromer’s staging, which is awfully haphazard and diffuse for a typically sure-thing director. Scenes far off to the side feel quickly cobbled together, even though the show premiered more than a year ago.

“Outlaw” reminds me of the rebel rock musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” crossed with a bone-dry Coen Brothers film. There’s room for something ​s​o subversive on Broadway. But not when the production’s energy level is that of a funeral parlor at 8 a.m."

 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:09pm

Washington Post

Morbid true stories make for invigorating musicals

Broadway’s “Dead Outlaw” and “Floyd Collins” spin contrasting takes on the meaning of life (and cadavers).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2025/04/27/dead-outlaw-floyd-collins-broadway/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:10pm

USA Today

‘Dead Outlaw’ review: Transcendent mummy musical brings bizarre true story to life

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2025/04/27/dead-outlaw-broadway-review/83216308007/

"David Yazbek’s latest curio, which opened April 27 at the Longacre Theatre, is a waggish, walloping, what-in-tarnation musical; the sort of coup that is so sublimely strange and strangely profound, it will revive your faith in Broadway itself."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:11pm

LA Times

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

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-04-27/review-dead-outlaw-musical-famous-corpse-discovered-long-beach-broadway

"Wanderingly weird, “Dead Outlaw” retains its off-Broadway cred at the Longacre. It’s a small show that creeps up on you, like a bizarre dream that’s hard to shake."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:12pm

Time Out

Dead Outlaw

5 out of 5 stars

This rollicking musical tale of a corpse is going to knock you dead.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/dead-outlaw-broadway-musical-review-corpse-elmer-mccurdy-andrew-durand

 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:14pm

Theatrely

Capitalism Comes For the Wild, Wild West in DEAD OUTLAW — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/capitalism-comes-for-the-wild-wild-west-in-dead-outlaw-review

"With its cast fully intact, Dead Outlaw comes to Broadway just as pointed and playful as it was during its acclaimed off-Broadway run last year. While so much has already been said about this smart, rare gem of a musical—it bears repeating."

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:16pm

Musigamist said: "Critic's Pick from Jesse Green:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/theater/dead-outlaw-review.html?unlocked_article_code=1.C08.jU3M.lach8B9-yU1G&smid=url-share"


Is a Critic’s Pick from the New York Times now considered a warning?

[ACL2006]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:32pm

If there was any doubt about this not getting a Best Musical Tony nomination, these raves definitely cement it as a lock. Curious what other nominations this might get?

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:37pm

ACL2006 said: "If there was any doubt about this not getting a Best Musical Tony nomination, these raves definitely cement itas a lock. Curious what other nominations this might get?"

Definitely Durand (Lead), Book, Lighting Design and Original Score.

Likely Direction

Possibly a Supporting Role nod for either Brown, Sesma or (surprisingly) Knitel, who appears to have gotten a lot of notice in these reviews.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/27/25 at 5:39pm

ACL2006 said: "If there was any doubt about this not getting a Best Musical Tony nomination, these raves definitely cement itas a lock. Curious what other nominations this might get?"

I wonder if they are running Jeb Brown in Lead or Featured? He's really a lead of the show (it's a two-lead show).

I think on its worst day it still gets nominated for four biggies (Musical, Book, Score, Director). Possibly also Orchestrations, 1-2 acting awards, and 1-2 Design awards. It's not a craft-heavy show and there's no world where this ends up leading the nom tally.

Updated On: 4/27/25 at 05:39 PM