Hey, Wait … Is This Broadway Season Actually Great?
Dead Outlaw rounds out the biggest slate of actually original musicals in years.
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Not to count our chickens before they hatch (into feather boas), but the 2024–25 Broadway season is looking great. Need proof? Well, on the same day that the Audra McDonald–starring production of Gypsy opens, Itamar Moses’s Dead Outlaw, a new musical that we listed as the second-best theater production of 2024 for its off-Broadway incarnation, has been set for Broadway. When it rains! Dead Outlaw is based on a true story and follows the corpse of outlaw Elmer McCurdy through death. It’s written by Moses with music and lyrics by David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit) and Erik Della Penna. Director David Cromer comes over from Off-Broadway. The 2024 production, produced by Audible Theatre, won Best Musical at both the Drama Desk Awards and Outer Critics Circle Awards. On Broadway, it’s heading into the Longacre Theater, beginning previews on Saturday, April 12, and officially opening April 27.
Dead Outlaw’s entry into the Broadway season means we’ll have at least three separate and buzzy non-IP-based musicals on Broadway this season, as it joins robot love story Maybe Happy Ending and the upcoming Idina Menzel–starring Redwood. Last season, for reference, the only work nominated for Best Musical that wasn’t based on preexisting IP was Suffs. Plus March will bring the Broadway debut of the original and beloved Floyd Collins, which first debuted off-Broadway in 1996. That’s a lot of non-IP! And even the known quantities have their fans: There’s the shockingly hilarious Death Becomes Her adaptation, already playing, and the well-reviewed Boop, which is heading in from Chicago. The new musicals are bringing it. That’s to say nothing of the musical revivals (Sunset Blvd., Gypsy), which are leading us directly toward a photo-finish race for Best Actress. On the play front, new works like Oh, Mary! and Cult of Love have gotten rave reviews, while starry revivals like Kieran Culkin’s Glengarry Glen Ross and Denzel Washington’s Othello are waiting in the wings. It doesn’t seem rash to officially say: It’s a good season! (If you can afford it.) Maybe Happy Ending has some competition for that Best Musical Tony now — get to hand shaking, robots!
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