Celebrity Doppelgängers Matthew Gray Gubler and Andrew Durand Come Face-to-Face at Broadway’s Dead Outlaw

Matthew Gray Gubler and Andrew Durand have long had fans online talking about their lookalike appearance — and now there’s the perfect photo to compare the two side-by-side!

On Thursday, May 1, the Criminal Minds actor, 45, stopped by to see Broadway’s Dead Outlaw, the darkly comedic and inventive new musical starring Durand. And afterwards, the two met for the first time in a backstage chat at New York City’s Longacre Theatre captured by photographers.

“They were cracking jokes the whole time about how they can’t believe they’re not related,” a source on the scene tells PEOPLE, noting that Gray Gubler kept repeating, “It’s like looking in a mirror!”

“Both of them said they had heard separately how much they look like the other person for years; they get the comparisons all the time,” the source adds. “So it was a real treat for them to have finally met.”

Turns out, neither were expecting to meet. Gray Gubler had come to the musical — which tells the story of real-life American outlaw Elmer McCurdy, whose posthumous journey became one of the most bizarre tales in U.S. history — unaware of the fact that Durand was playing the lead role.

“Matthew said he had heard Elmer’s story before, so he was excited to see the show as well as to support JR Atkins, his friend and one of the guitarists in the band,” the insider recalls. “It wasn’t until the performance began that he realized it was Andrew.”

It’s actually funnier than that. “A few years ago, Andrew was on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade performing with the cast of Shucked and Matthew received a bunch of text messages being like, ‘Man, I didn’t know you were on Broadway!’ And he had to be like, ‘That’s not me…’ ” the source says. “So when the show started, he was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade guy!”

Of course, May 1 was a big day for Durand and the cast of Dead Outlaw, aside from Gray Gubler’s visit. Earlier in the day, the musical — directed by David Cromer and featuring a rockabilly score by David Yazbek and Erik Della Pena, and a book by Itamar Moses — earned seven 2025 Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical.

Durand is nominated for his leading actor performance, as are his costars Jeb Brown and Julia Knitel for their featured performances.

The musical also stars Eddie Cooper, Dashiell Eaves, Ken Marks, Trent Saunders, and Thom Sesma. Understudies include Emily Fink, Justin Gregory Lopez, Noah Plomgren, Max Sangerman, Scott Stangland and Graham Stevens.

Conceived by Yazbek, the show tells the bizarre true story of McCurdy, a failed train robber who was killed in a 1911 shootout. After his death, his unclaimed body was embalmed with arsenic and displayed by an undertaker for a fee. Eventually, the corpse became a traveling attraction, appearing in carnivals, museums, and even as a prop in films, until it was discovered hanging in a California amusement park in 1976.

It’s a wild tale in and of itself, but one that has captivated stage audiences since Dead Outlaw kicked off its six-week Off-Broadway run last year at Audible Theater’s Minetta Lane Theatre. That production earned ‘best musical’ prizes at the Drama Desk Awards, New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, Outer Critics Circle Awards and Off-Broadway Alliance Awards.

The Broadway run began on April 12 and officially opened on April 27. Tickets for Dead Outlaw are currently on sale through October.

“It’s incredible. You sort of can’t believe it, you know?” Durand previously told PEOPLE of the new musical. “A lot of times when you do a show, you sort of know the journey is to get it to Broadway. But this one is special to me because it was a group of people who came together and really cared about putting the art first and saying, ‘Let’s make this great show and then see what happens.’ So to be here, it’s exciting.”

As for Gray Gubler, he’s set to return to CBS in the 2026-2027 season with his new series Einstein. The procedural will see the actor once again in the shoes of a genius, like his Dr. Spencer Reid — his beloved Criminal Minds character.