| DEAD OUTLAW - tonight | |
| Last Edit: singleticket 12:50 am EDT 03/23/24 | |
| Posted by: singleticket 12:32 am EDT 03/23/24 | |
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| Very entertaining for most of its intermission-less 80 minutes. The David Yazbeck conceived show reminded me of a 1970's concept album on the lines of Lee Hazelwood's "Trouble is a Lonesome Town". The songs, a pleasurable mix of alt-country and other pop genres, are strung along a narrative thread supplied by an Itamar Moses text. And David Cromer as director is at his peerless best here, using the small stage in incisive ways that carry a faint after sense of poetry. And a poetry that doesn't insist on making its presence known but is quietly imbedded in the performances and the direction. The cast which plays multiple characters is remarkably good. The show started to wear out its welcome a little under an hour for me. Out of all the excellent elements of the show, including an exquisite design by Arnulfo Maldonado and costumes by Sarah Laux (both all the more beautiful because they are scaled for the smaller theater and their details can be enjoyed at closer range) the only element that disappoints is Itamar Moses' script. But that is because this is largely an evening of David Yazbeck's songs, the story seems an afterthought. But the tone of the first part which feels like Wild West myth making and myth breaking (a breeze still blowing from the 1980's and Sam Shepard's world) and the second half which is a simultaneous critique and celebration of the world as show business don't quite dovetail. They feel like two different shows. But this is a rewarding show and the kind of theatrical experience one longs to see on Broadway but so rarely gets. Dead Outlaw is good value. | |
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