NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 One of Broadway’s more impressive performances this season is by Andrew Durand, who is a kinetic force in the first half of 鈥淒ead Outlaw鈥 and absolutely motionless in the second. For some 40 minutes, he’s a corpse, standing in a coffin.
鈥淪ome nights I want to scream. Some nights I want to rip my skin off 鈥 that pressure that you can鈥檛 move starts to get to me. And so there are nights that it is very challenging,鈥 says the actor.
Durand stars in the musical as Elmer McCurdy, a real-life alcoholic drifter-turned-failed bandit who was shot dead in 1911 but whose afterlife proved to be stranger than fiction.
His embalmed body becomes a prized possession for half a century, transported across the country to take part in carnival sideshows, wax museums, Hollywood horror movies, roadside attractions and, finally, a prop at an amusement-park ride in the 1970s.
鈥淵ou watch him have this successful career as a corpse,鈥 says Durand. 鈥淚 think it just makes people really think about their own humanity: What鈥檚 important while we are alive? What do we do with the time that we have while we鈥檙e alive?鈥
鈥楳y toes are falling asleep鈥
The musical 鈥 conceived by David Yazbek, who wrote the 鈥淒ead Outlaw鈥 music and lyrics with Erik Della Penna 鈥 reunites Yazbek with book writer Itamar Moses and the director David Cromer, who collaborated so winningly on
It’s Durand’s first time as the lead on Broadway, following roles in 鈥淪hucked,鈥 鈥淚nk,鈥 Head Over Heels鈥 and 鈥淲ar Horse.鈥 He spent many years with the Kneehigh Theatre Company, a troupe where the ensemble was highlighted.
鈥淢y favorite thing about theater is the collaborative nature,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a big moment for me, and I鈥檓 excited about it. But, yes, I鈥檓 trying to remain grounded.鈥
Durand, who hails from Rossville, Georgia, has been with 鈥淒ead Outlaw鈥 from the beginning when he was cast in last year’s off-Broadway premiere. That’s a lot of standing and not moving.
鈥淚t鈥檚 different every night in terms of how easy it is on my body. Some nights I just sail through and I鈥檓 like, 鈥極h, I didn鈥檛 have to blink once and it was fine.鈥 And then other nights my toes are falling asleep and there鈥檚 tears running down my face.鈥
While in the first half he’s a hard-drinking, hard-fighting, table-jumping restless soul, he says he sets small goals during his time as a corpse, like waiting for the exact moment when a co-star walks in front of him so he can blink or swallow. He also plays word games in his head.
鈥淚鈥檒l think of a word like 鈥榩encil.鈥 And then I鈥檒l try to think of a bunch of other words that start with the letter 鈥楶.鈥 And then if I find myself saying 鈥榩ickle,鈥 then I start to think about foods,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just like stream-of-consciousness things to keep me distracted from what鈥檚 going on.鈥
He’s no dummy
His nights would be easier if the show just replaced him with a dummy, but Cromer, at the first workshop, approached Durand and nixed that notion.
鈥淗e said, 鈥楯ust so you know, if this show happens, I鈥檓 not going to make a dummy version of you to put in that coffin. I think it鈥檚 very important to have the actual performer in that coffin so that we are constantly reminded of his humanity.鈥欌
Cromer has been amazed at how Durand has created a character of straightforwardness and truthfulness simply from studying a photograph of McCurdy.
鈥淎ndrew Durand as a performer is a guy who you give him whatever the prompt is and he goes away and brings you 10 times more than you asked for and has completely created, well-thought-out version of things,鈥 says the director.
鈥淒ead Outlaw鈥 is not Durand’s first time playing a corpse onstage. He portrayed a dead man as a teenager in a community playhouse production of 鈥淎rsenic and Old Lace.鈥 Years later, he’s just trying to serve his new work.
鈥淚 look at it as just another challenge of the performance that I鈥檓 trying to give, you know? And so I take it just as seriously as any of the songs I sing.鈥
Plenty of corpses
Durand finds himself in a Broadway season with plenty of corpses, albeit none as taxing as his own work. There’s 鈥淥peration Mincemeat,鈥 about a real World War II mission in which Allied soldiers dressed up a corpse to divert their German foes, and there’s 鈥淔loyd Collins,鈥 a musical about a cave explorer who slowly dies underground. Then there are all the dead people at the end of 鈥淥thello.鈥
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 just an odd coincidence,鈥 says Durand.
One of his nightly rituals is to get on the empty stage at the Longacre Theatre about an hour before the curtain goes up to celebrate living 鈥 not death.
鈥淚 like to take a little moment of peace and a breath for myself to look out into the empty seats and have a little bit of reverence and respect for what theater is and that in just a half-hour, there鈥檚 going to be a thousand people out there who have agreed to buy in on this story that we鈥檙e about to tell them.鈥
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