Desperate Measures

Desperate Measures is an American musical comedy with music by David Friedman and book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg. The show won acclaim with Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics, and Outer Critics Circle and Off-Broadway Alliance Awards for Best Musical from its run at the York Theatre in New York City in 2017. History The show is based on William Shakespeare's comedy Measure for Measure. The plot and casting is streamlined with equivalents only for Angelo (Governor Otto Von Richterhenkenpflichtgetruber), Isabella (Susanna/Sister Mary Jo), Claudio (Johnny Blood), Duke Vincentio (Sheriff), a composite of Juliet and Mariana (Bella Rose), and a drunken priest (Friar Peter is the clergyman with the most lines in Shakespeare's play, at seven), and is set in Arizona Territory at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. "Desperate Measures" marks the fifth collaboration between Peter Kellogg and David Friedman. Kellogg penned the rhyming couplets in order that they may be more accessible to the audience as well as humorous. Kellogg stated; "It’s Jewish country music" and "It’s my brand of that [style of music], which makes it accessible." Synopsis Act I