{"id":386672,"date":"2026-10-29T15:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T15:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/386672\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T15:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T15:24:13","slug":"dead-outlaw-joins-music-theatre-international-catalogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/386672\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead Outlaw Joins Music Theatre International Catalogue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Music Theatre International has acquired licensing rights for\u00a0Dead Outlaw<\/a>. The musical, which bowed on Broadway after premiering Off-Broadway via Audible Theater,\u00a0features a book by Itamar Moses<\/a> (The Band’s Visit<\/a>) and music and lyrics by David Yazbek<\/a> (The Band’s Visit) and Erik Della Penna<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Based on a bizarre but somehow completely true story, the musical follows Elmer McCurdy\u2014an ambitious, turn-of-the-20th-century outlaw, whose death ended a life of failed crime and alcoholism and began a brilliant career as a mummified side-show attraction that traveled the USA for decades. The project was the brainchild of Yazbek, who reportedly has been fascinated with the story for three decades.<\/p>\n

In 2024, its original Off-Broadway bow, Dead Outlaw was one of the most award-winning musicals of the season. The production won the Drama Desk, Off Broadway Alliance, and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best New Musical. Though its Broadway staging struggled at the box office, it was critically acclaimed, and well-received by audiences.<\/p>\n

“Dead Outlaw began as David Yazbek’s 30-year obsession with one of the most outlandish stories in the history of the American West, became the joint obsession of the entire creative team, and then expanded to the show’s very loyal fans in New York. We’re so excited that now MTI is going to spread it around the country and the globe, so that everyone can become obsessed with the almost-impossible-to-believe story of what happened to Elmer and the question of what it all means,” shared Moses, Yazbek, and Della Penna in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

“Dead Outlaw is exactly the kind of show that reminds you why musical theatre matters,” adds MTI President and CEO Drew Cohen. “It is bold, original, and unlike anything else. David, Erik, and Itamar have created something genuinely unique: a darkly funny, deeply moving American story told through an extraordinary score that audiences won’t be able to get out of their heads. We are proud to welcome Dead Outlaw into the MTI catalogue and cannot wait to see theatres around the world experience the strange, wonderful life (and afterlife) of Elmer McCurdy.”<\/p>\n

READ: To Andrew Durand and Thom Sesma, Dead Outlaw Is an ‘Original Little Show With an Oversized Heart’<\/a><\/p>\n

Licensed productions can create a Broadway-quality Playbill program with the iconic yellow-and-black Playbill header via Playbillder. As with most MTI-licensed shows, users can automatically import licensor-approved character and song lists, and billing pages into their program using Playbillder Express. Learn more at Playbillder.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Visit MTIShows.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Music Theatre International has acquired licensing rights for\u00a0Dead Outlaw. The musical, which bowed on Broadway after premiering Off-Broadway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-386672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}