Musical 'Dead Outlaw,' about Oklahoma robber-turned-mummy Elmer McCurdy now playing in NYC

Given his strange life and even stranger postmortem existence, it's hard to say whether Elmer McCurdy ever spent time in New York City.

But the early 20th-century outlaw-turned-mummy who robbed, died and eventually was buried in Oklahoma is certainly making New York one of his many haunts now.

Based on McCurdy's twisty life-and-death tale, the new musical "Dead Outlaw" is stealing the spotlight with its world-premiere limited engagement, playing Off Broadway through April 7 at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre.

"It's amazing that we pulled it off. ... I'm fortunate to be with super pros, who have done this many times — and to great effect and accolades," said New York City songwriter Erik Della Penna, who penned the music and lyrics for "Dead Outlaw" with Tony Award winner David Yazbek.

Who was 'Dead Outlaw' Elmer McCurdy?

The new true-crime musical "Dead Outlaw" chronicles the strange life and even stranger afterlife of McCurdy, a Maine native who made his way to Oklahoma at the turn of the 20th century as he was carving out an ill-fated career as a bank and train robber.

"I think he actually was like a lot of kids at that time. He was born in 1880 ... and we had gone out of the real legend of the Old West, quick-draw kind of stuff. But he read about it. He read about Jesse James," said Yazbek, who is credited with conceiving "Dead Outlaw."

"It was his idea to rob a train — the hardest possible thing to rob, but also the most romantic."

McCurdy's illegal activities finally caught up with him 1911, when he was shot and killed by a posse in the Osage Hills of Oklahoma. The outlaw's body was embalmed by a Pawhuska undertaker but went unclaimed, eventually drying up and mummifying.

McCurdy's corpse spent six decades traveling the country as a macabre attraction in sideshows, wax museums and low-budget movies. The "Dead Outlaw" eventually wound up covered in phosphorescent paint and hung from a rope in the Laff in the Dark funhouse at The Pike amusement park in Long Beach, California.

The cast and crew of the television show "The Six Million Dollar Man" were filming there in 1976 when a grip grabbed the arm of a hanging "mannequin" and accidentally broke it off, revealing a real human bone and starting a search for the origins of his grisly find.

"The story was so affecting to me when I first heard it — and I couldn't figure out why exactly. Yeah, it's interesting, and it's quirky. But there's something underneath," Yazbek told The Oklahoman in a recent phone interview during a break in rehearsals for "Dead Outlaw."

"It's a reminder of impermanence and death, not in a dark way, in a celebratory way to some extent. Really, clearly thinking about death, without it being an anxiety-provoking thing or a Gothic, gloomy thing or a horror thing, is very valuable. It's what religion is based on ... and the deeper you dig, the more interesting it becomes."

Andrew Durand, who recently performed with the Broadway hit "Shucked," stars as McCurdy. Jeb Brown, Eddie Cooper, Dashiell Eaves, Julia Knitel, Ken Marks, Trent Saunders and Thom Sesma round out the cast of "Dead Outlaw."

Who is telling the fact-based story of the 'Dead Outlaw' with the new musical?

For 30 years, Yazbek has been haunted by McCurdy's bizarre saga. In the early 2000s, he shared it with his friend and bandmate Penna, who was just as captivated. They eventually started writing songs based on the story, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic cleared their calendars.

"That's when I realized, 'Oh, you know what's missing? It's the conversation about what this is about and why it's so interesting to not just me and Erik but to everyone you tell the story to,'" Yazbek said. "If it puts its hooks into us and to people we tell the story to, then we can do the same to a theater audience. But we have to do it in the right way — in an entertaining, artful, exciting, affecting way."

To ensure McCurdy's tale was told in the right way, Yazbek tapped Tony-winning playwright Itamar Moses and Tony-winning director David Cromer, his collaborators on the 10-time Tony-winning musical "The Band's Visit."

"The Band’s Visit" in 2018 became one of just four musicals in Broadway history to win the unofficial “Big Six” Tonys, including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical. Based on a 2007 Israeli film, the musical follows a band made up of members of an Egyptian police force who travel to Israel to perform at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to get lost in the wrong town.

"Before you knew it, we had our team making this show, and with that kind of lineup, you expect it to happen," Yazbek said. "'The Band's Visit' was so good. I think this is just as good and completely different."

With Moses penning the book and Cromer directing the world-premiere production, the "Dead Outlaw" creative team also includes movement director Ani Taj, music supervisor Dean Sharenow, scenic designer Arnulfo Maldonado, costume designer Sarah Laux, lighting designer Heather Gilbert, sound designer Kai Harada and Josh Millican and soundscape composer Isabella Curry.

How do the songs in the new musical 'Dead Outlaw' sound?

Orchestrations for "Dead Outlaw" are by Yazbek, Penn and Dean Sharenow. The show's band is small, but it's loud, Yazbek said.

"(It's) two guitars, bass, piano and drums. But sometimes it sounds like Hank Williams; sometimes it sounds like AC/DC. Sometimes it sounds like Gilbert and Sullivan; sometimes it sounds like Iggy Pop. There's definitely a punkish feeling to it," he said.

"This is a show for people that don't like musicals: It doesn't have the cringy jazz hands elements of a musical."

Although several key plot points take place in Oklahoma, Yazbek said the storytelling, like the score, is eclectic.

"Elmer was born in in Maine, so it starts in the northeast, in New England. He rode the rails all over the country when he was alive. He ends up first in Iowa and Kansas, so that's right smack in the middle. He ends up in a Western — it's almost like he ends up in a dime novel Western. And he's shot like a Western outlaw, even though it's a little late for ... that kind of stuff," he said.

"He's buried, and then we're all over the place. Though it might come off sometimes as a Western, it's just American, coast to coast. They find him in Southern California in an amusement park. He did a stint in Hollywood. He traveled with the Transcontinental Footrace (of 1928). So, that was right across the country."

The musical's creative team includes an Oklahoman in music director Rebekah Bruce, an Edmond native based in New York City.

"So, I defer to her for authentic stuff for Oklahoma. ... I think it's been done the right way. There's a lot of pitfalls that can happen in telling a story that's only kind of scanty facts — interesting and odd facts, but there's not really too much documentation," Penna said.

"It's a heightened reality ... because I think that's what theater does best. I think this production plays to theater's strengths and adds a dimension to the Elmer story that you don't get in very cold, factual information."

How will 'Dead Outlaw' continue to tell Elmer McCurdy's story after it closes Off Broadway?

Although the musical's limited engagement will only run through April 7, "Dead Outlaw" will be recorded and released on Audible at a later date, extending its reach to millions of listeners around the world.

Plus, Yazbek and Penna are planning a documentary.

"We're still making it. We sort of got sidetracked by having to make a whole, full-blown musical. ... We came to Oklahoma to research, but we also brought cameras with us. When we started ... making this song cycle, and all of a sudden we were in COVID, my thought was, 'Well, we're not going to do this on stage anytime soon. Let's make a movie,'" Yazbek said.

"So, we got some friends together and got some money together and started shooting us making the songs and writing the songs. ... Part of it was going to Oklahoma to see where all this stuff had happened, to see where Elmer came from, to see where he was buried."

One of their vital Sooner State stops was Guthrie's Oklahoma Territorial Museum, where registrar Michael D. Williams is the definitive expert on McCurdy's misadventures. After being interviewed in 2022 for the planned documentary, Williams traveled to New York to attend the March 10 opening-night performance of "Dead Outlaw."

"It's a wild show. But you know the story, and it's a wild story. It's fun. They really take a hold of that comedy of errors type of thing that goes with the Elmer story. It was really good. You were never not entertained. ... It's like a play in a rock concert," Williams told The Oklahoman.

"It was surreal, because it's like, 'Here I am in New York City for the opening of a musical. Who would have ever thought that was going to happen, and all because of a guy that dies in a gunfight and turns into a mummy.' So, it is wild."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Musical 'Dead Outlaw,' about Oklahoma mummy playing Off Broadway in NYC