BY MICHAEL MUSTO | Scads of major shows have descended upon Broadway all at once, but it’s nothing to be alarmed about; this happens at the end of every season, as the April 27th Tony awards deadline approaches. Fortunately, I’ve been there night after night to give you the buzz from the Rialto. Here’s my report on three of the most significant new attractions of all:

DEATH BECOMES HIM | If the musical Floyd Collins—currently being revived at Lincoln Center—could be retitled “Nice Guy in a Cave in 1925”, shouldn’t Dead Outlaw be nicknamed “Bad Guy in a Coffin in 1911”? Absolutely! And if the new British musical Operation Mincemeat is about how a manipulated corpse helped stave off Hitler’s military advances, isn’t Dead Outlaw about how a manipulated corpse helped attract paying customers while redefining the American dream? Uh-huh! Oh, and might Dead Outlaw just be a newfangled version of Weekend at Bernie’s? Well, this time I’d have to say no, since everyone knows that the outlaw is dead whereas they somehow think Bernie Lomax is still breathing.

But enough with the comparisons. Dead Outlaw—with a score by David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit) and Erik Della Penna (Natalie Merchant’s guitarist) and a book by Itamar Moses (The Band’s Visit)—is highly original, having won raves and awards off Broadway last year with the true tale of a dead Maine-born outlaw named Elmer McCurdy. He’s a small-time wannabe criminal who gets shot and killed by cops after a failed bank robbery attempt in Oklahoma. Elmer’s body remains unclaimed—that’s how small-time he is—and becomes mummified by a doctor, winding up as a side show attraction and not getting buried until turning up on a TV series set in 1977!

This is clearly not your everyday, obvious musical–it’s not just another show based on a so-so movie vaguely remembered by Generation X—and I’m grateful to death for that. The score–which fuses country, bluegrass and rock, as played by a six piece band—is terrific, and the bandleader (Jeb Brown) narrates the story, going from McCurdy’s hapless life in Act One to his far more fascinating after-life in the second half. That’s when we encounter the all-knowing presence of coroner Thomas Noguchi, played by Thom Sesma, who has a wonderful dry tone and stops the show with a giddy number about celebrity corpses called “Up to The Stars”. But the show’s sardonic tone keeps getting hammered by narrator Brown, who tauntingly sings, “Your mama’s dead/Your daddy’s dead/Your brother’s dead/And so are you.”

Andrew Durand—who was a standout in Head Over Heels and Shucked—is tops as McCurdy, a bad guy who seems to want to be worse than he really is. Durand effortlessly exudes angst, sings like an angel and also has to spend half the show standing up, eyes closed, in a coffin for onlookers—namely us—to stare at. 

Tourists expecting another mindless jukebox musical may well be confounded by the show’s unapologetic weirdness, as well as the unusual intimacy of its presentation, as directed by David Cromer. Perhaps sit back and let it wash over you as a meditation on mortality, as well as a refreshingly non sensationalized deconstruction of the Old West and the dark side of human nature.

‘Dead Outlaw’ plays at the Longacre Theatre (220 W. 48th St.). For more info–and to purchase tickets–visit deadoutlawmusical.com. 

TARANTARA! TARANTARA! | Moving on to more light hearted thieves and plunderers: The 1981 all-star revival of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Pirates of Penzance was a flawless work of showmanship, dazzle and pure merriment. Fortunately, I’m the only one old enough to remember it (or even the movie version), so Pirates! The Penzance Musical—Rupert Holmes’ adaptation of the show, set in New Orleans—can’t be readily compared to it. To be truthful, it would be impossible for anything to approach the giddy heights of that 1980s marvel, though this new Pirates is pretty delightful on its own terms.

The show starts with composers William S. Gilbert (David Hyde Pierce) and Arthur Sullivan (Preston Truman Boyd) greeting the audience to give rather convoluted explanations as to why they’ve set this musical in the French Quarter and why they’re premiering it there too. (We’re told we’re at New Orlean’s famed, welcoming Theatre de la Renaissance.) While indulging in their onstage patter, the gentlemen alert us that Gilbert will be playing the part of Major-General Stanley (the stodgy old coot who’s knowledgeable about everything except the military). That’s good news because Tony winner Hyde Pierce is the best thing about the whole enterprise, nailing the character’s tongue twister couplets with a wry deadpan that would have pleased the original authors to no end.  Giving him added lines like “Mi castle es su castle” is delicious icing.

Before that character enters, I was a little worried that this version of Pirates wouldn’t work because it starts with a so-so song from G&S’s Iolanthe (numbers from the duo’s other shows are interpolated throughout) and also, some tempos seem to have been slowed so that musically, things don’t always benefit from the jazz setting. But the design elements are tops—David Rockwell’s sets are grand and Linda Cho’s costumes are colorfully filled with overlapping patterns—and after a while, Pirates!–directed by Scott Ellis (Take Me Out), with choreography by Warren Carlyle—kicks in like a maiden breast, becoming a muffaletta sandwich of old and new nuttiness.

Plotwise, all you need to know is that young stud Frederic (Nicholas Barasch) is apprenticed to a band of seafarers led by the cocksure Pirate King (a chesty Ramin Karimloo) for 63 more years. But he falls for the Major General’s daughter Mabel (Samantha Williams), a situation that’s further complicated by the fact that a mature pirate nursemaid named Ruth (Jinkx Monsoon from RuPaul’s Drag Race) wants him for herself. Let the entanglements begin!  

Interestingly, when this production sticks closest to the original material is usually when it’s at its best; the music soars, the comedy roars. Group numbers are a breeze (including one where the entire cast ends up melodically scratching metal washing boards) and Jinx finds her footing in Act Two with “Alone, And Yet Alive,” a musical plaint transplanted from The Mikado. The production may be a mixed bag, but all in all, it’s a merry smile-inducer and I do recommend that you darlings try to get a ticket. Pour, oh pour the pirate sherry!

‘Pirates! The Penzance Musical’ plays through July 27 at the Todd Haimes Theatre. For info & tickets, visit roundabouttheatre.org.

LOUDER THINGS | Meanwhile, I’m far from the world’s greatest expert on Stranger Things, nor am I a big fan of prequels (I mean, I liked Wicked, but I swear I don’t own any merch from it). So perhaps I’m the wrong person to review Broadway’s Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the lavish prequel to the Netflix series, written by Kate Trefry from a story by the Duffer brothers, Jack Thorne and herself. So, instead, I’ll just offer my impressions.

As with George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck, the visuals are the real stars here. Miriam Buether’s stunning sets move in and out, up and down, abetted by fiery projections and videos that suddenly appear, buoyed by elaborate sound effects, all making for a high-class theme park ride that lasts for two and a half hours, plus intermission.

You probably know that the 1980s-set TV series takes place in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, where a nearby human experimentation facility has opened the door to an alternate dimension known as the Upside Down. The show’s mixture of government shenanigans, supernatural happenings, and murder mysteries seems to have made it irresistible to modern day goths. 

This prequel—directed by Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billy Elliot) and codirected by Justin Martin (Prima Face)—is set in 1959 and dabbles in small town paranoia, with occasional psychological insights that plant the seed for the streaming show’s narratives, though most of it is just plain loud and explosive, to the point where you occasionally fantasize hosing down everyone on the stage, lol. The acting is mostly emphatic and over the top, though Louis McCartney scores as the lead tortured baddie, Henry Creel, making the guy a fascinating piece of work.  Henry is basically #1 in this town, but when you see the show, you’ll realize that’s nothing to be proud of.

The night I saw Things, the younger-than-usual  audience seemed to love every moment, so I feel it’s totally critic-proof—and maybe even impression-proof. So let me just hush up and head back to the Upside Down. Stranger things have happened.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ plays at the Marquis Theatre (210 W. 46th St.). For tickets & info, visit strangerthingsonstage.com.

Michael Musto is a columnist, pop cultural and political pundit, NYC nightlife chronicler, author, and the go-to gossip responsible for the long-running (1984-2013) Village Voice column, “La Dolce Musto.” His work appears on this website as well as Queerty.com and thedailybeast.com, and he is writing for the new Village Voice, which made its debut in April of 2021. Follow Musto on Instagram, via @michaelmusto.

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