In less than a week, many of Julia Knitel’s theater dreams came true.
Five days after her Broadway musical, “Dead Outlaw,” opened, the show landed seven Tony nominations including one for Knitel’s performance.
“Leading up to opening a Broadway show is chaotic and hectic, even with the mildest of schedules,” she says. “But we were on a condensed timeline because we were opening on the last day of Tony cut-off. Everything was really, really intense. And then, to have your dreams come true, you just try to stay in the moment and absorb as much as possible.”
Before Sunday’s Tony Awards, that includes fittings, interviews, and, oh, yeah, that show that needs to be performed eight times a week.
Then, too, there’s the quirkiness of Knitel’s show. “Dead Outlaw” tells the true story of a corpse that was shuttled around the country before finding a final resting place, decades after dying. Knitel plays a series of women in Elmer McCurdy’s life, including a young girl who grew up with the body in her house.
“No one really knows what those conversations were like between Millicent, this real little girl, and Elmer,” Knitel says. “So, I get to imagine what it would be like and how she may have felt in those moments.”
Another character was merely a footnote in McCurdy’s story — “lost to history,” Knitel says — which gave her creative liberty to fill in the blanks.
“Millicent definitely took a minute to find,” she says. She and director David Cromer talked about the task at hand — “we didn’t know how to play an 8-year-old, a 13-year-old, a 19-year-old over the course of four minutes, as a 30-year-old.”
Luckily, the cast has a host of engaging songs by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna that propel them through Itamar Moses’ book. It’s a swift history lesson that brings plenty of laughs along with the tears. Meanwhile, Andrew Durand, who plays McCurdy, spends half the show in a coffin without moving.
“He does have the worst job on Broadway,” Knitel says. Luckily, there are moments when cast members stand in front of the coffin and he has a second to blink. There’s a brief moment offstage where the two get to enjoy a few minutes of peace. “I check in on him and see how his show is going.”
There’s also a dance they share. “We just live truthfully in that moment together each night, which feels like a little slice of cake.”
Leading up to Sunday’s Tonys, nominees are celebrated at a series of events, including a luncheon where they get to check in with one another. It’s a pinch-me moment, Knitel says.
“I’m standing there with Audra McDonald. I’m standing there with George Clooney. I’m standing there with these titans that I have admired for so long and to be in the same Tony class is just humbling, exciting and overwhelming. I think I’ll probably start to really absorb it once everything’s over and I have a little more time to breathe.”
In the business for 16 years, Knitel has starred in several Broadway shows, been up for — and lost — others and realizes how difficult the route is. “Dead Outlaw” is her first opportunity to originate a role in a new musical.
“I’m so grateful,” she says. “Especially at the luncheon, it feels like a senior class (celebration). It’s incredibly daunting, but it creates an aura of camaraderie, which I think is really beautiful.”
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