Video: Inside DEAD OUTLAW's Show-Stopping 'Something From Nothing'
Dead Outlaw is now running on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre.
By: Michael Major Jun. 02, 2025
Go inside the creative process behind "Something From Nothing" from Dead Outlaw, which stops the show every night at the Longacre Theatre. This video features composers Erik Della Penna and David Yazbek, who break down how they constructed the song, before showing Eddie Cooper, Trent Saunders, and the cast of the hit musical performing the song.
Penna shares that the song is about "having a business epiphany. That's what America's about."
Erik Della Penna and David Yazbek are currently nominated for a Tony Award for the score of the new musical, which opened in April. Watch them unpack the musical's opening number, "Dead," here.
The cast, reprising their roles from Off-Broadway, includes Andrew Durand as Elmer McCurdy, Jeb Brown as Band Leader/Jarrett, Eddie Cooper as Coroner Johnson, Dashiell Eaves as Louis/Charles Patterson, Julia Knitel as Helen/Maggie, Ken Marks as George, Trent Saunders as Andy Payne, Thom Sesma as Coroner Noguchi, with Emily Fink, Justin Gregory Lopez, Noah Plomgren, Max Sangerman, Scott Stangland, and Graham Stevens as understudies.
Dead Outlaw is the darkly hilarious and wildly inventive musical about the bizarre true story of outlaw-turned-corpse-turned-celebrity Elmer McCurdy. As Elmer’s body finds even more outlandish adventures in death than it could have ever hoped for in life, the show explores fame, failure, and the meaning – or, utter meaninglessness – of legacy. Dying is no reason to stop living life to its fullest.
