Mixing it Up! For Final Week, DEAD OUTLAW Swapped Corpses With OPERATION MINCEMEAT, Just for Funsies
- Broadway Beat
- Jun 10, 2025
- 2 min read
by Ben Schrager. Instagram: @ben.schrager. Bluesky: @benschrager.bsky.social.
NEW YORK, NY. – This summer on Broadway is getting pretty wacky, y’all! It was reported today that for Dead Outlaw’s final week of performances, they decided to swap corpses with Operation Mincemeat, just for funsies.
“I know what you’re thinking: while Operation Mincemeat is about a corpse, the actual body never appears on stage, so how could this swap have possibly worked?” said stage manager Lissa Trunchell while playing with the spinny part of Jak Malone's Tony. “That’s where the fun part comes in: we’ve actually had a real corpse that we labeled Glyndwr Michael backstage at the Golden Theatre every night of the run. We touch his forehead to get in character before going onstage, and so that’s the corpse that we swapped with Dead Outlaw. If you have any further questions about how this worked, no you don’t.”
We had further questions about how this worked, so we decided to reach out to the Dead Outlaw cast.
“I know what you’re thinking: while the corpse backstage at Operation Mincemeat is a real dead corpse, the role of Elmer McCurdy in Dead Outlaw is played by the very-much-alive Andrew Durand, so how could this swap have possibly worked?” said producer Kip Kyell while updating the Wikipedia page for the movie Weekend at Bernie’s. “The answer is simple for anyone who is a fan of the seminal classic Weekend at Bernie’s: we pulled a Weekend at Bernie’s. No further questions.”
We still had further–
“I know what you’re thinking: was I, Andrew Durand, still expected to remain completely still while playing the backstage role of the corpse at Operation Mincemeat? And also how could this have possibly worked?” questioned Durand, who somehow managed to interrupt an article that was not written live.
“I was hoping that the backstage role would allow me a break from the physical rigors of playing an upright corpse every night, but if anything, the Operation Mincemeat track was even harder. Anytime they’d hear me breathe, they’d smack me and say ‘No! Bad corpse! Be dead!’ I will be taking no further questions at this time.”
We wanted to ask the directors about this wacky switcheroo. Unfortunately, when we went to do so, Robert Hastie and David Cromer chased us out of the Times Square Marriott lobby with axes, screaming “NO FURTHER QUESTIONS. STOP ASKING QUESTIONS. LET FUN THINGS BE FUN.” We had no further questions after that.
The funniest part to me is how everyone in the quotes is treating the swap like it’s just another normal Tuesday backstage. Theater people really will commit to the bit with total confidence. It reminds me of the oddly specific “prep rituals” you see people talk about on this page — different topic, same earnest intensity. Now I’m stuck wondering what the ushers thought was going on.
The “we had further questions… no you don’t” rhythm is perfect, like it’s daring you to challenge the bit. The whole thing feels like absurd backstage fanfic written by someone who actually knows the job — which is why it works. It even made me think of how people remix stuff into totally different vibes, like ghibli ai does with photos, except here it’s corpses and Broadway chaos. I’d read a whole series of these.
There’s something weirdly satisfying about how the story keeps “explaining” the swap while making it more impossible each paragraph. It’s like a running cipher where each step adds another layer of misdirection — I ended up thinking of vigenere cipher even though the subject matter is… definitely not cryptography. Now I want to know how many takes it took to keep a straight face in rehearsal.
The fake-official quotes and the random prop business (the “spinny part of Jak Malone’s Tony”) is such a specific kind of theater-brain humor. It’s the same energy as browsing a tool directory and realizing half the listings are written like they’re in on an inside joke. Honestly, the escalation is what sells it.
The way this keeps insisting “no further questions” just makes it funnier, because of course I immediately have more questions. It reads like the kind of escalating backstage rumor that somehow becomes canon — I saw the same vibe on this site where the whole point is just leaning into the silliness and going one step further. Also, labeling the corpse is an absurdly specific touch.