Following its Fall 2017 run at the York Theatre Company, Desperate Measures - a Wild, Wild West musical comedy inspired by Shakespeare's Measure for Measure - transfers to New World Stages.
Performances are staged at Stage 4 within the New World Stages complex.
(Photos by Carol Rosegg)
This show has now closed. See our list of theatre tickets for shows currently on sale.
14 images In 1890, in a territory out West, Johnny Blood, a hot-tempered young cowboy is sentenced to hang for killing a man in a bar fight. His sister, a novice nun in a nearby mission, is persuaded to plead with a corrupt governor to spare her brother's life. The governor promises to pardon Johnny if his sister, the Sister, will 'do his bidding' for the night. Adding to the humorous complications are a hard-bitten sheriff, a voluptuous saloon girl and a priest who reads Nietzsche. Desperate Measures is a foot-stompin', knee-slappin' new musical with a nod to Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.
Desperate Measures relies on cliche and spoof to carry the evening. That said, this show has enough feel-good reserve that, by the time it wraps up, the audience is clapping to the band’s hoedown rhythms as the cast takes curtain calls. Everyone exits feeling good and wondering just where those great “broke-in” cowboy boots are stored.
