A documentary by Miky Wolf & Jen Small

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Decades ago, Tony Award winning composer David Yazbek became obsessed with the true story of Elmer McCurdy, a spectacularly unsuccessful outlaw who found his only success--as a mummified sideshow attraction–after his death. Elmer’s body toured the country for sixty years before he was finally laid to rest in Oklahoma. 

When the world shut down in 2020, David and his long-time collaborator,  Erik Della Penna, got to work on telling Elmer’s bizarre and haunting story through a song cycle. David believed they had the makings of an extraordinary musical–despite the fact that the main character was dead for most of the action. 

Recognizing this collaboration provided a unique opportunity to explore the creative process of two master musicians, director Miky Wolf stepped in to document their work. What began as a collaboration between the two developed into a song cycle, a stage piece with David, Erik and a band, and a fully staged production with a book by Itamar Moses and direction by David Cromer at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theater in the spring of 2024. Dead Outlaw is set to open on Broadway in April 2025, with an Audible Podcast to follow.

Our film explores this extraordinary creative journey as well as  Elmer’s complicated legacy through interviews with the creatives behind the musical and others–including the teamster who discovered Elmer’s body hanging in a fun house, the Oklahoma Territorial Museum curator who has worked tirelessly to restore Elmer’s humanity to his macabre story, and Mark Svenvold, a poet and author who followed Elmer’s journey across the country.