New Musical, DEAD OUTLAW, from Penna/Yazbek/Moses- Page 2

[yyys]

Posted: 3/2/24 at 5:22am

Sorry it's been sold!

[Owen22]

Posted: 3/3/24 at 5:14pm

Wow. That was terrific! Wonderful, unique storytelling, but exactly what you expect from Yazbek and Cromer. You don't realize until show after show of our newest batches of supposed musical theatre writing, how you long for actual songs! Great, funny book that creeps up and eventually, surprisingly moves you. And A+ performances all around. Bravo, Dead Outlaw. Bravo!

[scripps]

Posted: 3/3/24 at 6:08pm

I saw Dead Outlaw this weekend and I'm going to echo the previous praise in this thread. My humor normally trends dark and this show definitely played to those sensibilities while also becoming quite moving. Thank heavens this is being recorded by Audible because this score is one rollicking song after another that I need to hear again. Great ensemble work here with each member getting their time to shine. This is a pretty short run at the Minetta Lane, don't miss out.

Updated On: 3/3/24 at 06:08 PM

[SisterGeorge]

Posted: 3/3/24 at 6:27pm

Owen22 said: "Wow. That was terrific! Wonderful, unique storytelling, but exactly what you expect from Yazbek and Cromer. You don't realize until show after show of our newest batches of supposed musical theatre writing, how you long for actual songs! Great, funny book that creeps up and eventually, surprisingly moves you. And A+ performances all around. Bravo, Dead Outlaw. Bravo!"

Glad to hear that! The proliferation of introspective folk-rock-emo scores have to stop. With the rare exception, they're just not that theatrical.

Updated On: 3/3/24 at 06:27 PM

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 3/4/24 at 9:50am

Saw this on Saturday and LOVED it! It was delightfully weird. Definitely very downtown feeling. I'm also super curious to know when Audible came on board because it does feel like a musical written to be recorded for them. There is a lot of narration and explanation. It definitely works artistically for the show. But, I was sitting there thinking "this will make for a great audio recording."

[dexter3]

Posted: 3/9/24 at 1:26pm

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I found this to be pretty dreadful. The show is divided into two parts, and the first is part completely fine and Andrew Durand is charming as ever, but the second half is deadening. I won't give any spoilers away, but the show becomes about something else entirely. Because of the nature of the second half, it's vignette after vignette, with each new character having a fairly long song and then onto the next one. Again and again. Once you're aware of this fact, the show becomes absolutely slow as wood and about as interesting too. I came because of David Yazbeck, but the songs are surprisingly bland, and the orchestrations do nothing to help. They're lucky to have 5 great instrumentalists up there (6 if you count Jeb) but somehow the songs start to blur together and by the time you realize this, you just don't care. There's no main character driving the story and it's just a bunch of stuff happening. I wanted to like this SO much. David Cromer's work is the most interesting part, with some truly unique approaches to scenes. The set is actually kind of cool...they end up moving the band around to make some interesting stage pictures. I'd save your money though. I'm not sure what part of this story the writers actually cared about or even what I'm supposed to care about as an audience member. It seems like an truly interesting real-life story that would work better as a New Yorker article than any type of dramatization. 

Updated On: 3/9/24 at 01:26 PM

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 3/9/24 at 9:50pm

jkcohen626 said: "Saw this on Saturday and LOVED it! It was delightfully weird. Definitely very downtown feeling. I'm also super curious to know when Audible came on board because it does feel like a musical written to be recorded for them. There is a lot of narration and explanation.It definitely works artistically for the show. But, I was sitting there thinking "this will make for a great audio recording.""

Well put. This was a blast. What incredible music, and what a GENUINELY FUNNY book. I cannot ask for anything more. 

I could quibble with the pacing--sometimes a little sluggish--and the story veers off course to give the incredible Trent Saunders a great but extraneous song towards the end. But those are quibbles, and I really hope this gets a longer life so more people can see it. It strikes me as a relatively inexpensive production that would be perfect in the Booth, fwiw. 

The whole cast is fantastic and hilarious, but particular kudos to Jeb Brown for keeping things moving, and to Andrew Durand who does double duty, for lack of a better way of putting it, really impressively. 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 3/9/24 at 9:57pm

what's Max Sangerman's role in the show? Love his voice and was curious to know how big or small of an ensemble role he has? Does he cover anyone?

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 3/9/24 at 10:37pm

Hes an understudy, and its not specified which of the three male understudies cover which roles.

[mlledir]

Posted: 3/10/24 at 9:35pm

NYT Critic's Pick!

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/theater/dead-outlaw-review.html

[lopside]

Posted: 3/11/24 at 6:23am

https://www.vulture.com/article/theater-review-dead-outlaw-moses-yazbek-della-penna-elmer-mccurdy.html

 

[Jmuep2]

Posted: 3/11/24 at 7:43am

ditto
 

dexter3 said: "I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I found this to be pretty dreadful. The show is divided into two parts, and the first is partcompletely fine and Andrew Durand is charming as ever, but the second half is deadening. I won't give any spoilers away, but the show becomes about something else entirely. Because of the natureof the second half, it's vignette after vignette, with each new character having a fairly long song and then onto the next one. Again and again. Once you're awareof this fact, the show becomes absolutely slow as wood and about as interesting too. I came because of David Yazbeck, but the songs are surprisinglybland, and the orchestrations do nothingto help. They're lucky to have 5 great instrumentalists up there (6 if you count Jeb) but somehow the songs start to blur together and by the time you realize this, you just don't care. There's no main character driving the story and it's just a bunch of stuff happening. I wanted to like this SO much. David Cromer's work is the most interesting part, with some truly uniqueapproaches to scenes. The set is actually kind of cool...they end up moving the band around to make some interesting stage pictures. I'd save your money though. I'm not sure what part of this story the writers actually cared about or even whatI'm supposed to care about as an audiencemember. It seems like an truly interesting real-life story that would work better as a New Yorker article than any type of dramatization."

 

[Miss10036]

Posted: 3/14/24 at 12:37am

I went tonight and absolutely loved this.  Yazbeck and Della Penna's score is unquestionably one of my favorites of the season and I genuinely cannot wait to hear it again.  Rollicking really is the best way to describe it, and that tone fit the tall tale-esque story perfectly.  I'm sure the band will sound great on the recording, but hearing them play live was a treat.  I was tapping my foot for a lot of the show, and I equally enjoyed the quieter and more wistful songs.  Yeah, my one quibble is that Trent Saunders' number felt diversionary.  While I get that it touches on themes of fame, they could have made its purpose clearer.  But it's rousingly performed and enjoyable.  This show, post-Elmer putting the "dead" in "Dead Outlaw," could have very easily gotten unfocused and scattered, but (my quibble with that one number aside), I didn't feel like it strayed into that territory.  I was thinking during Thom Sensa's number that it could have felt out-of-place or extraneous in a lesser show, yet it felt like it had its place and a point being in this one.  The narration kept the show on track and clipping along, and I appreciated that they stayed consistent with the narration/storytelling framing.

Andrew Durand's fantastic, alive or dead.  It's quite a feat that he's that compelling and worth watching when playing a corpse.  Frankly, the whole cast and band shines and has their moments.  I liked that the show kept surprising me.  Not just with the wild-yet-true turns of events, but the staging too.  I was initially skeptical of the set, but then they used it in clever ways that got me on board with it.  I expected macabre humor and general weirdness, but I didn't expect the show to be as moving, haunting, and sad as it was.  Leave it to The Band's Visit team to spin such a rich show out of an offbeat premise.

[Melissa25]

Posted: 3/15/24 at 10:21pm

Dead Outlaw is my favorite show so far this season.  I haven’t felt this uplifted since Kimberly Akimbo.  Andrew Durand leads the show with Opening Ballad which was very pretty. Julia Knitel sings A Stranger which I found to be quite haunting.  Jeb Brown was perfect as the narrator.  It is worth the price of admission just to hear Dr. Noguchi (a brilliant Thom Sesma), coroner to the stars, sing his big Vegas style number. So witty, but also touching and then there’s the deadpan.  Superb direction by Cromer. Can’t wait for the cast recording. Just delicious. Highly recommended.

Updated On: 3/15/24 at 10:21 PM

[quizking101]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 5:12pm

I went in today hearing mostly positive things and, aside from one number I felt like should be cut, it was a darkly comic, rollicking, f*ed up good time that was better than it had any right to be. I also wish there was an intermission since it did start to feel long at times. 

The cast was just on fire at all times playing dozens of different characters and I was just in heaven with how serious and unserious this group of people could be and the band was absolutely on FIRE. The whole aesthetic gave me a Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson vibe aside from a cow hanging from the ceiling.

Camryn Manheim was also there, as was the cast of Shucked - I saw them after 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 3/21/24 at 7:08pm

Dead Outlaw has been extended to 4/14/24 and code PBDOUT works for extension.

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 3/22/24 at 2:31am

This sounds right up my alley.  Love the title!

[RumTumJM]

Posted: 3/23/24 at 3:46pm

Since this show has been well received (or so it seems), I wanna see someone write "Weekend At Bernie's The Musical" next! HAHAHA!

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 3/26/24 at 9:46pm

Saw it tonight.  I don’t really see the point of this musical.  You barely get to know any of the characters, you don’t feel anything.  It’s a nice score but there’s a hollowness to this musical.  It’s also not particularly funny.  Simple short 100 minutes it all flew by, they keep it chugging along.  I’m not the biggest fan of the folksy country rock sound.  

[Miss10036]

Posted: 4/13/24 at 11:08pm

Are there rumors of any kind of future life for this show beyond the Audible recording, like a transfer elsewhere off-Broadway?  I'm psyched we'll get the recording, but I wish more people could see this.

Went back tonight to see it a second time before it closes tomorrow and again thought it was fantastic.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/13/24 at 11:13pm

God, I hope so....I've been wasting my visits on middle-of-the-road Broadway shows and haven't been able to squeeze this one in!

[willep]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 12:05am

Been trying the rush for this the entire run and have never managed to get them after passing on one for the first performance. Bummer. I always find digital rush so frustrating and prefer in person. Hopefully this show lives on somewhere.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 12:15am

I had such a great time at this last week, definitely one of the better musicals I’ve seen this year. I haven’t heard anything at all about a further life for it now which is a shame, it absolutely deserves to be seen by more people. 

[Skip23]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 12:22am

just a big snore - literally - I fought to stay awake. 
 

monotonous music - no real plot - nothing really funny -  not even that odd - just a waste of $90

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 7:10pm

Saw this two weeks ago, on the final Thursday. Got the last two tix at TKTS, second row of mezz.  Rest of mezz was screened off, not sure why they didn’t sell the whole space.

 

this was our first trip to NYC in 13 months. We moved to the west coast in late 2022, so our former Every Other Month visits are done for good.  We took a red eye on Wednesday and part of why we chose this show was we were staying downtown and it was close and started at 7 instead of 8 and was short.  We should pick more shows for reasons like this, the thing blew us away. Best new show we’ve seen on stage in years, and so unexpected. Great songs, great staging, great acting.  Hope to hell it gets another chance in front of a bigger audience.