The indignities of the grave pale in comparison to the indignities of having your preserved corpse put on display as a sideshow attraction, wax museum exhibit, or amusement park horror ride prop. You could ask Elmer McCurdy all about that if he wasn’t, as one of the best songs in Dead Outlaw, an unmissable musical filled with excellent tunes, puts succinctly, dead. Had Elmer stayed dead in one last place a bit longer he might have added an appearance on The Six Million Dollar Man to his show biz resume.

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, is a very late entry in Broadway’s 2024-2025 season, and absolutely one of the best.