Dead Outlaw

by David Yazbek, Andrew Durand (Narrator), Dashiell Eaves (Narrator)

Recipient of 7 Tony Award Nominations, Including Best Musical

“THE BEST MUSICAL OF THE DECADE! It will revive your faith in Broadway itself.” —USA Today

“This truly twisted yarn is THE SURPRISINGLY FEEL-GOOD MUSICAL OF THE SEASON! It should have a hell of an afterlife.” —The New York Times

Directed By David Cromer

Based on a “that can’t actually be true” story, Dead Outlaw is the darkly hilarious and wildly inventive new musical about Elmer McCurdy, an early 20th-century outlaw who became a traveling corpse and accidental celebrity. After a botched train robbery and an untimely death, Elmer’s body embarks on a decades-long postmortem adventure—through carnivals, roadside attractions, wax museums, and even a Hollywood film set. Dead Outlaw dives into the absurdity of fame, the inevitability of failure, and the meaning—or utter meaninglessness—of legacy.

With music and lyrics by Tony Award winner David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit) and Erik Della Penna, and a book by Tony Award winner Itamar Moses (The Band’s Visit), and directed by Tony Award winner David Cromer (The Band’s Visit)- Dead Outlaw marks Audible’s first-ever commissioned musical.

Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.

Genres: Audiobook, Historical Fiction, Theatre, Plays, Musicals

Audible Audio

Published July 17, 2025

Reviews

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's simply perfect, and all y'all who slept on it while alive on Broadway are fools.

[Andrew W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dead Outlaw is a fantastic show and I’m glad to say it transferred well to audiobook format. The musical performances are great, the lyrics and music evoke so many emotions, and the story is one for the ages.

[Solace Winter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This gained a star for being a musical, so that might tell you my feelings on it.

Often times, when a story tries to encompass a long span of time in an under 2 hour period, it loses something. In this case, it lost a lot. I was supposed to get the emotion from the music, or the "hilarity" and while the music wasn't bad, I wouldn't have said I felt any sort of emotion from it. I know the play is beloved, but besides the opening song, the rest of it just didn't do enough for me. And I adore musicals.

[Carol (bookish_notes) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not entirely sure how to rate this. This is the first for an Audible Original - recording an actual Broadway musical all the way through, including talking parts and music sung for an audiobook. I think the production of this audiobook is great. There’s sound effects added where needed but not in a distracting way I’ve heard full audiobook productions done before. It’s just the right amount.

I never got to see this show since I don’t live near NYC and I would be open to seeing it on tour or a regional production, but I don’t think I missed out on not seeing the Broadway production simply because this isn’t my type of musical.

This musical is about the real life story of Elmer McCurdy and it’s just a depressing story from start to finish really. Got into trouble with the law, died young, and his body was treated as a prop and sideshow attraction for decades before he was finally laid to rest. The music is very folksy but I did appreciate the music a lot more listening to it WITH the dialog and narration here than the way the musical decided to release their cast recording as a Part I with zero context and the music at random (which, but the time of this review, we don’t have the full album yet).

There is a narrator in this musical which gives context to what’s going on in the story. There’s a lot of speaking parts too, so it’s not a sungthrough musical. The audiobook is split into a prologue and a part 1 and part 2 almost unnecessarily in my opinion because the musical didn’t have an intermission and it’s like it tries to introduce one into the story for the audiobook. I would have liked this to have been labeled into chapters so speaking dialogue and songs so you could skip around the story and listen to the music of you wished but maybe the cast recording alone will come later.

The cast was great in this audio recording. It does seem like it was done separately in studio rather than a live recording with an audience.

And for context, the musical was staged at an Audible Theatre off-Broadway, which is probably how this came to be. They’ve done a lot of plays before as audiobooks but not musicals. Hopefully, this is the start of more musicals made available as audiobooks to help preserve shows!

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this was not it. And yet, it was entertaining. It was a book, but it was also a musical and it was about an outlaw who can't seem to help himself and dies young but then has a second life as a corpse. I'm not sure if it was inspired by a true historical figure, but it was one of those stories that you could imagine being in one of those crazy case files. There is some language in there that makes it NSFW/K, but the music is good, the performance is great, and at just under 2 hours, it is great for a short road trip. I would recommend it if you're looking for something just a little bit different, but still well done. The best part of this WAS the performance and for that, I rounded up.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story ends up getting spun on its head pretty well.

I wasn't familiar with the Broadway show or the true story behind this, so this was an adventure all around.

Now, I'm not much of a musical person but I was able to work through that to enjoy this story.

Now I would like to find an actual book on this because talk about weird.

[Steven Kaht · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t have the chance to see this play and happy I didn’t spend money to see it. The story was fine but not something I would have loved made for a great audiobook tho

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

met andrew durand this week so obviously had to download audible and listen to this

[Natalie]

Amazon should continue spending its money to commission and archive musicals and nothing else :’)

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the worst book of the year for me. It was just awful. Maybe my top ten least favorite.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a play that started with them finding a mummy, I sure was surprised when they also found the mummy at the end. Truly could not have guessed a single lyrical choice that was made, from “Anne Frank is dead” to him “dead at 30, with fingernails long and dirty.”

Truly an unforgettable experience.

[Red · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a performed piece “with music”. Each chapter starts with a song, sung by different characters. For me , wouldn’t recommend the music.

[Cheyenne Thornton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a weird one! Like another reviewer said, I don’t know how to rate this. I’m always one to say that audiobooks are real books, and that they should count as reading. But this isn’t a book, it’s a musical!

I’m really fascinated by this new step in theatre accessibility. However, I’m not sure how many other musicals this format would work for.

I bought tickets to Dead Outlaw in June but I forgot that I wanted to see Boop so I made the switch and honestly I’m glad I did. Boop was more me. But I didn’t love Boop that much more than Dead Outlaw! (I gave Boop a 3 1/2 star rating.)

This was honestly giving concept album! I just listened to Warriors recently (probably would also rate that three stars) and listening to this gave me Warriors vibes.

The songs didn’t really do it for me. They felt kind of same-y and the ones that didn’t were so repetitive I hated. (A Stranger comes to mind.) I had an interesting time imagining how everything was staged lol it was like a little musical in my head. I was annoyed by the narrator but apparently there was a narrator in the stage show lol 😅 I can’t say much about the acting but I felt like they were acting like they were in an audiobook. I wonder if that’s how the actual performances were?

Anyways, I’m glad I got to experience Dead Outlaw in some form! Here’s hoping this isn’t a one off and this becomes a new frontier for theatre!

[Sky P · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a surprise from audible! As a musical theatre nerd, this made my heart super happy! The music and the story translated perfectly to audiobook! I enjoyed this so much and it went by fast, I didn’t even realize the hour and 45 mins had passed. I was super in this story! Super enjoyable and entertaining! Will be listening to it again for sure.

[KylieAtkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was a hoot. I wasn't sure how a musical play would adapt to an audible book but it worked. The songs were catchy, the narrator was on point and the story was unbelievably true. What a wild and somewhat gruesome afterlife Elmer McCurdy had. What an absolutely amazing tale.
This is currently free on Audible and I thoroughly recommend it.

[Sam Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the concept, the idea of a true death being just the beginning and adapting into a musical, and love the comedic feel of the whole production. Thought the narrator was great. The issue for me was that I was not a huge fan of the music in the production, and this is a musical so it is a decent percentage of the total reading/listening time!

[Casey Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t usually write reviews, but I feel I need to for this one. This is coming from a Broadway lover :)

This is a full recording of a Broadway musical. I wish more shows did this in conjunction with an OBC cast album. Sometimes the story gets lost with an album and it was nice to be reminded what was happening. I love that I can revisit this any time I want. This cast was amazing live!

[Amanda Bria · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most original musicals in years with a phenomenal score and unbelievably true story. All the performances are amazing. Highly recommended if you're interested in a musical with a dry, dark sense of humor that explores the themes of life, death, and capitalism. Perfection.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent adaptation of a play I wished I'd seen on Broadway. I hope there will be regional productions. Still, short of a pro-shot, this made for an entertaining substitute. BTW, there is a non-fiction account of the story (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...)

[D.G. Driver · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a hoot! I was interested in this musical when it was on Broadway earlier in the year, but it was really hard to tell from the ads and the excerpt on the Tonys what it was about. I enjoyed the heck out of this recording and will listen to it many more times.

[Diane Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter and I had thought about going to see this while it was on Broadway. We were a little sorry we missed it, so I was glad I found it on Audible. We listened to it while traveling on Thanksgiving. Performance was excellent...but the actual story was truly bizarre!!!

[David Cassady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes me want to see a recorded performance of this considering it was only in theatres for a few months

[Emily Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the music lol

[Tango · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a musical, the recording quality left a lot to be desired.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarrely Cute

[Brian Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great way to pass a couple hours in the car. Great mix of outlaw and humour and I’m still humming the tunes. Got some blue language so as fun as it is maybe not for the little kids.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

My fondness for this musical will live on like Elmer. Who died at 30 with fingernails long and dirty.

[Yinglan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never thought I'd enjoy a musical but this had me hooked.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

was curious when saw Broadway commicals in spring

[Peter Adamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this on Broadway, where it was too cool for a commercial run. I hope it has a long life in regional and college theater. Reminded me a bit of BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON.