INTERVIEW: For one more weekend, ‘Dead Outlaw’ is alive on Broadway
Photo: Dead Outlaw features, from left, Andrew Durand, Trent Saunders and Eddie Cooper. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by DKC O&M with permission.
NEW YORK — Perhaps the saddest news of the Broadway season is the tragically short run that the original musical Dead Outlaw will ultimately have at the Longacre Theatre. The show, which features music and lyrics by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, will close for good Sunday, June 29. Perhaps someone can embalm this gem of a spectacle and tour it around the nation.
The musical, with a book by Itamar Moses and directed by David Cromer, is an unusual one for sure. It’s based on the real life and death of Elmer McCurdy, a man originally from Maine who makes his way west in the early part of the 20th century. He’s an unsuccessful train robber who hangs around some drifters and gangs, and then all of a sudden, he finds himself … dead.
Is that a spoiler alert? Well, the show is called Dead Outlaw.
What’s fascinating about Elmer’s story is that after his death, the tale keeps going. His body is preserved (true story!) and toured around circuses, sideshows and dark rides for decades.
Tony Award nominee Andrew Durand plays Elmer, and he’s joined on stage by Jeb Brown, Eddie Cooper, Dashiell Eaves, Julia Knitel, Ken Marks, Trent Saunders and Thom Sesma. Cooper, like some of his other castmates, plays multiple characters throughout the 100 minutes of the musical. He’s a press person, Grampa, conductor, judge, soldier, member of a posse, Coroner Johnson, huckster, Esper and delegate.
“It’s like a gift,” Cooper said in a recent phone interview. “It’s so much fun. I think I play 10 different characters throughout the show, and for me, I guess I kind of consider myself a character actor. And to really be able to lean into that is very exciting and fun. … This is such a singular show. There really isn’t anything like it, and to be able to be a part of something like this and to originate a role in a show like this, it’s been a dream. It’s a dream come true.”
Dead Outlaw first started off-Broadway in Downtown Manhattan, where it won over critics and audiences. When the musical transferred to Midtown, the creative team wanted to keep the soul of the show intact, Cooper said.
“We didn’t want it to change much; however, you do need to adapt it to a bigger space,” the actor said. “So, yeah, there are some staging things. There are a few little script things here and there, a few set pieces, but really the heart of the show is what we did downtown. It’s pretty much the same.”
One of the key numbers in the narrative comes halfway during the show; it’s called “Something From Nothing,” and Cooper owns the number each and every performance.
“It’s pretty special to me,” he said. “It’s kind of the turning point in the show that sets the show off in another direction, and it’s fun to have that moment in the show and to sing the song. I think the music is pretty incredible. I think it’s some of the best music I’ve ever gotten to sing in a show, and to have this big song in the middle of the show that really just sets everything off in another direction is so exciting and rewarding. And I can’t believe I get to do it every night.”
Cooper, who has appeared on stage in everything from Broadway’s Parade to Little Shop of Horrors, had high praise for his director, Cromer, a legend at this point in musical theater. Their relationship was one built on mutual trust.
“When you have someone like David Cromer in the room, you feel safe,” Cooper said. “What they’re asking you to do is going to be good. Trust him. He has a very clear vision. One of the things that he would always tell us is: ‘You are enough. You don’t need to add all the tricks that you have.’ We all have a bag of tricks, but really in the end what we’re trying to do here is try to strip all that away and just tell the story in the most straightforward way, no bells and whistles, and just lean on what he told us, which was we are enough, which was a really freeing thing to do.”
The show is a rollicking good time, even though the subject is a downer. The score is made up of rock, country and Americana tunes that are not normally heard on Broadway. Dead Outlaw also explores the theme of death and society’s strange fascination with trying to figure out this sad event that will happen to everyone.
“I think outside the theme of death, there are other kind of arcing themes throughout the show, like the commodification of this guy’s body,” Cooper said. “There are so many kind of strings that go throughout the show that in a weird way reflect on society today.”
Bringing those themes to life (or death) is a nonstop affair for the ensemble of actors. When the on-stage band hits its first notes, there’s no stopping the narrative for the next 100 minutes.
“It’s nonstop,” he said. “When we’re off-stage, we’re changing into another costume, so I know I’m pretty spent at the end of the show. I know for Andrew it’s a lot. It’s a physically demanding show, but it is nice that it’s under two hours. Once you start, the train has left the station. You start, and then all of a sudden, oh my God, the show’s over.”
Cooper added: “It’s wild. I feel very lucky to be where I am and to get to do the things that I love to do at this level. I grew up in the theater. My father is an actor, and it’s something that I have always wanted to do. And here I am really doing it in a way that I can be proud of, and I pinch myself every day. I can’t believe how lucky I am.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Dead Outlaw, featuring Eddie Cooper, continues at the Longacre Theatre through Sunday, June 29. Click here for more information and tickets.
