Conor Ryan and Lauren Molina in Desperate Measures at New World Stages, New York.
Picture: Carol Rosegg.
Desperate Measures continues at New World Stages, New York.
Star rating: four stars ★★★★✩
In Measure for Measure, one of Shakespeare’s so-called problem plays, the stern and moralistic Angelo, who’s been put in charge of ruling Vienna, has sentenced Claudio to death for adultery, for carrying on with, of all people, his own fiancée. When Claudio’s sister Isabella comes to plead for her brother’s life, Angelo is so taken with her that he proposes a bargain: if Isabella sleeps with him he’ll free Claudio.
A big problem is that Isabella is a novice nun and she’s very reluctant to damn her immortal soul to save her brother. After some not-so-fast thinking, however, a plot is hatched whereby Isabella agrees to bed down with Angelo but only in total darkness, and another woman, who’s actually Angelo’s jilted fiancée, is substituted. The trick really works, even if it might strike you as not terribly credible. It may be one of the reasons Measure for Measure is called a problem play.
Yes, it’s the old “bed trick” or “substitute-woman” ploy, as it’s known in classic literature circles. While it’s only part of Shakespeare’s thick plotting, the Off-Broadway musical Desperate Measures grabs hold of the comical possibilities of the idea and pretty much makes a full meal of it.
The show premiered last year at the not-for-profit York Theatre Company to welcoming reviews and saw three extensions. It now has reemerged as an open-end commercial run.
Along the way, it picked up a cluster of trophies, including wins for outstanding lyrics and music at the Drama Desk Awards, a venerable competition which has Broadway and Off-Broadway competing against each other as equal parts of the same theatre-making universe.
Thus, the score for Desperate Measures, by lyricist Peter Kellogg and composer David Friedman, triumphed over such big-brand and big-money spectacles as Mean Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants. (The Band’s Visit, the big winner at the Tony Awards this year was, for the most part, not eligible for the Drama Desk because it was part of the 2017 competition.)
Desperate Measures substitutes America’s Wild West in the late 1800s for Shakespeare’s Vienna. A fellow named Johnny Blood is sentenced to hanging after he kills a guy in a saloon brawl. Johnny claims it was self-defense in a fight that erupted over his sweetie, Bella Rose, the saloon’s entertainer.
Johnny’s case has the sympathy of the town’s sheriff, Martin Green, a good guy down to the very marrow of his handsome bones. But it’s the intractable governor, known for his strict way with justice, who demands Johnny pay with his life.
When Johnny’s sister, Susanna, shows up, Shakespeare’s plot kicks in. Susanna, soon to take her vows as Sister Mary Jo, is convinced by Sheriff Green to go before the governor and try to save her brother’s life. The governor, of course, falls for her, offers the bed bargain, and the sheriff and Susanna conspire to get Bella Rose, who’s pretty carefree anyway about sleeping around, to do the deed.
How all this works out makes for much of Act I’s frivolity, with the company joining together for the act’s sultry finale, singing: “Anything can happen/In the dark.”
And so it does. The governor is so smitten by the experience he reneges on his original bargain, now demanding that Susanna marry him. So, it’s back to the drawing boards for another round of “substitute-woman”, and a way is figured out for Bella Rose to again take Susanna’s place but this time under the guise of a wedding veil.
And never fear, everything works out swell, with our two couples happily together, Johnny with Bella Rose and Sheriff Green with Susanna, who has given up the nun’s life. The whole company again joins together for a snappy finale, assuring their partners and the audience as well – in a reprise of two of the score’s brighter numbers – that ‘It’s a Beautiful Day for a Lifelong Commitment’ and that they really love them and everything they do is ‘Just for You’.
By now you may have guessed that the show’s book by Kellogg, while not exactly a one-joke affair, is pretty close to one. Luckily, there’s no effort to take anything seriously, and the dialogue is filled with rhyming verse, heightening the larky flavour. With the aid of an appealing cast and Bill Castellino’s lively direction and choreography, it manages to work up its share of pleasant merriment.
Nick Wyman captures the essence of vaudeville-like Germanic officiousness as the governor, who bears the good-for-a-laugh moniker of Richterhenkenpflichtgetruber. (If that name tickles your funny bone in any way at all, Desperate Measures is definitely a show for you.)
As Susanna, Sarah Parnicky exudes the petite spunkiness of a Disney princess, and sings quite prettily in both her semi-patter songs and fairly melodic ballads. Peter Saide’s Sheriff Green provides the perfect persona to win her away from the veil with the lure of upright Western manliness and a baritone to match.
Conor Ryan imbues the hapless Johnny with a winning goofiness and a body that can twist amusingly into pretzel-like contortions under stress. However, the biggest laugh-getter, along with the governor’s pomposity, is the breezy vulgarity of Lauren Molina’s Bella Rose. From her unrestrained grimaces to her fanning of the nether parts during her striptease specialty, ‘It’s Hot in Here’, Molina gleefully tests the limits of taste.
Completing the cast is Gary Marachek, as a drunken priest who gets involved in the plotting and who also has an obsession with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Yes, that Friedrich Nietzsche.
The award-winning score has a jaunty Broadway 1940s sound, with an occasional High Noontwang seasoning the up-tempo company numbers and ballad solos. It’s given a sprightly reading by the four musicians, occasionally revealed on stage, when upstage scenery is opened. Musical direction and orchestrations are by David Hancock Turner. The scenery by James Morgan has an appropriate woodsy look and the costumes by Nicole Wee add to the Wild West feel.
All in all, Desperate Measures is a respectable addition to the canon of musicals that have found their inspiration in the Bard of Avon.
Ron Cohen
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