Take a classic Shakespeare plot, chop out all the boring and confusing parts, and transform it into a song-packed Wild West musical romcom and what you’ve got is the off-Broadway hit Desperate Measures, now cheering audiences at International City Theatre.

The Shakespeare play in question is Measure For Measure, and for those out there who may have forgotten who’s who and what’s what, here’s its plot in a nutshell, or at least the parts that book writer Peter Kellogg didn’t leave on the cutting-room floor.

There’s this nun whose brother is in prison and about to be put to death, and the only way she can save his life is to have passionate late-night sex with the one man in possession of the power to set him free, chastity vow be damned, that is unless she can come up with a solution, like maybe finding a sex surrogate to take her place in bed under cover of night?

In the Desperate Measures universe, the nun is Susanna, aka Sister Mary Jo, (Gabbie Adner), soon to take her final vows; her brother is cowpoke Johnny Blood (Aaron Gibbs), sentenced to death for a bar fight murder he insists he committed in self-defense; and corrupt, pardon-power Governor Otto Von Richterhenkenpflichtgetruber (Christopher Karbo), without whose signature on the dotted line poor Johnny is scheduled be hanged at dawn.

 Or at least that’s what’s going to happen unless good-guy Sheriff Martin Green (Daniel A. Stevens) can come up with a plan similar to the one Shakespeare concocted several hundred years earlier, one that this time round involves the participation of saloon hostess Bella Rose (Madison Miyuki Sprague) and the Shakespearean conceit that all women look and feel the same in the dark.

 All of this adds up to the ideal off-Broadway musical (small cast + small combo + single set = maximum entertainment at minimized cost), one that ended up winning both the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Musical of 2017 along with two Drama Desk Awards, one for lyricist Kellogg and one for composer David Friedman.

And what better way could there possibly be to forget the events of the past half-dozen weeks than to spend a couple of feel-good hours at ICT where despite the machinations of an evil despot, good is guaranteed to triumph over evil and romantic happily-ever-afters are sure to reign supreme.

 Kellogg has written the sparklingest of books (listen carefully and you’ll notice it’s composed almost entirely of rhyming couplets), he and Friedman have confectioned the cleverest and most tuneful of scores, and with Todd Nielsen directing at his frothy-romp best and choreographing with foot-stomping glee, there’s not a dull moment or less than stellar performance on the ICT stage.

Newcomer Gibbs is a lanky, power-piped charmer as the spunky, hot-headed Johnny; the silver-throated Adner makes for the most enchanting of ingénue nuns; a big-voiced, big-mustached Stevens gives Gunsmoke’s James Arness some tough competition in the good-guy sheriff department; Sprague is a saucy, sexy sizzler as power-belting saloon hot patootie Bella, and Jason Whitton scores laughs galore as jailed Irish lush Father Morse (and more).

 Scene-stealingest of all is Karbo’s deliciously scenery-chewing Governor, milking every moment out of the most dastardly villainous baddie not currently making national headlines.

Music director Daniel Gary Busby brings out the vocal best from his entire cast (and never more so than when Adler’s exquisite soprano soars in the cabaret showcase-ready “What Is This Feeling”) in addition to conducting and playing keyboard alongside fellow band members Michael Higgins (guitar, banjo, mandolin) and Joe Buzzelli (violin, fiddle).

Destiny Manewal’s set evokes every Main Street exterior you’ve seen in western after western in addition to morphing effortlessly from jail cell to sheriff’s office to boudoir; Kim DeShazo’s costumes range from novice nun pure to saloon gal sultry to weathered cowboy comfy to robber baron chic; and Donna Ruzika’s lighting, Patty and Gordon Briles’ properties, Anthony Gagliardi’s hair and wig designs, and Dave Mickey’s sound design are every bit as topnotch.

Desperate Measures is produced by caryn desai. Harold Kast is technical director. Donna R. Parsons is production stage manager and Evin Salak is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA, and Richie Ferris, CSA. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

If there’s ever been a time to “forget your troubles and just get happy,” that time is most definitely now, which is why L.A. theatergoers are hereby advised to hop upon their nearest horse and gallop on down to Long Beach for International City Theatre’s Desperate Measures. I can’t think of a better way to chase all your blues away.

International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Through March 9. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30. Sundays at 2:00.
www.InternationalCityTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
February 21, 2025
Photos: Jordan Gohara

Tags: David Friedman, International City Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Peter Kellogg